Keith Olbermann didn’t take his suspension last week lying down as he held a debate on the issue of whether or not journalists should be allowed to make political donations.

From TV Newser

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann held a debate about political donations by employees of media companies. Olbermann hosted Greg Mitchell, the “Media Fix” blogger for The Nation magazine, and The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz, who of course also hosts “Reliable Sources” on CNN.

Kurtz argued that journalists and commentators should not donate money, nor raise money, for politicians. Mitchell argued that it is a matter of perception, but that the road to outrage was paved years ago, when straight journalists were encouraged to appear on cable news and go online to give their take on the day’s news.

Kurtz also criticized Olbermann for his actions and said that there is a line between journalists and political players and by making donations, raising money, advising candidates etc… they cross that line and become one of  them.

Even though journalism has largely devolved into a partisan political fight on many issues journalists on the right and the left still have the obligation to report the news and not editorialize and inject the news with their own biases.

Journalists need a standard code of ethics on this issue not the mish mash that the networks and other media companies have devised on their own which has led to confusion and inconsistency on the matter of political donations and other equally vexing issues.

But even with the brouhaha the erupted over Olbermann’s donations don’t expect that the networks or other members of the mainstream media to come to any agreement as to what the policy should be.

Twenty five years ago when General Electric bought NBC, Bob Wright who was then the president of NBC took a different tack by proposing the formation of an employee PAC that would make political contributions.  That idea was immediately shot down as many employees feared that Wright would steer their money to conservative candidates.

The PAC would have allowed employees to give politicians monetary support without making a direct personal contribution thereby skirting any ethics rules then in effect.  It wouldn’t have however removed journalists and the network as a whole as a potential influence in the political process.

If the mainstream media is looking for a culprit in all of this they only need to look in the mirror.  They created this problem by not having a clear concise set of rules and not conveying them effectively to their employees but more than that it has been the huge explosion in salaries to “star” journalists or hosts that has made them richer than they could have ever imagined and desirous of wanting to participate and influence the political process.

Twenty or thirty years ago the money that Olbermann donated would have represented a week’s or a month’s salary to many journalists instead of the 15 minutes or so it was to the MSNBC host which makes it easy for someone like him being so willing to donate.

Journalists of all stripes should just follow Kurtz’ advice and abstain from any political activity that crosses the line and reduces their credibility.

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