Furor over Stewart-Colbert rally

All things being equal (which of course, they're not), if I was a sports writer ordered by my editor to take off my bumper sticker, I'd tell him I'd do it when he gave up his season tickets to the local D-I basketball team.

If management actually sat down with their staffers (Hah!) and came up with an ethics policy together, then I would have no problem toeing that line.

But I find it hypocritical that management is concerned about the appearance of impropriety while at the same time posting political endorsement editorials and having their own conflicts of interest.

 

Because you don't agree with something they do, you have a right to do it, too?

Not how it works.

 

That's exactly what it was, and thanks to them, O'Reilly will have even better ratings and sell more books this week.

Idiots.

 

It was mentioned by Stewart a few nights ago that O'Reilly has become the subdued commentator for Fox News.

 

Well, in reality, of course, it's not how it works, especially in this economic environment.

But if enough workers put pressure on management, then it behooves management to listen to their employees.

Look at what just happened with Tribune. Abrams resigned after embarrassing himself and the company, in spite of numerous complaints by employees over the culture of the place.

 

If I attended I definately would have opted for the Keep Fear Alive march, complete with a picture of Stewart as a witch doctor, a sign stating "Sanety is Ehlistist!" and a shirt that says "Let Feardom Ring!"

 

If you watch Stewart and O'Reilly together, you can tell they really respect and I would go as far as to say like each other. It's definitely great TV when they do each other's shows.

 

I think people like Barbara Walters and Stewart realize that O'Reilly might be the last link left between moderate/centrist/liberal America and the right. They understand that he is a lot smarter than he sometimes lets on and why he was using The View to goose his righty book-selling cred. I can't believe Whoopi and Behar don't understand it.

 

O'Reilly is a lot of things, but stupid is definitely not one of them. He was enjoying every minute of what happened yesterday because he knew how great the publicity was and for once, he didn't look like the bad guy.

 

I don't know what papers you people work for but everywhere I've been, they have let us know up front that we are not allowed to actively campaign for any candidate or party. We are encouraged to vote, but that's as far as it goes. And yes, I've always worked in sports.

Frankly, I always assumed that was standard procedure for journalists.

 

It always strikes me as funny that a newspaper won't allow employees to participate in campaigns, put bumper stickers on their cars, etc. But has no problem editorializing who the community should vote for or, allowing campaigns to resuse and quote their stories (frequently out of context) in paid for negative ads.
I understand why, it just strikes me as funny that a person is going to think the paper is biased if they see a bumper sticker in a newspaper parking lot, but think everything is kosher when the editor/publisher tells people to vote for Joe Blow.

 

There is nothing in the least bit inconsistent about that.

The newspaper is endorsing a candidate without having a horse in the race.

When people have bumper stickers or put signs in their yard, they then have a horse in the race.

That's a huge distinction.