Four More Years of Keith Olbermann

Maybe this means MSNBC will finally buy some ads on the blogs to show support for their base.

MSNBC has voted for four more years of Keith Olbermann and the top-rated "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," it was announced today by Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC. The new four-year agreement calls for Olbermann to continue as host of "Countdown;" additionally, Olbermann will play a prominent role in MSNBC's coverage of all major news events. He will also continue to co-host NBC's "Football Night in America" studio show.

I don't have a link to the press release, and even if there were one, I wouldn't link to it. MSNBC of late, like lots of other companies and non-profits, has gotten on a major kick of having their high-paid PR people contact the blogs asking for free favors. And while I'll report real news even if it comes from the devil himself (hell, we even quote the cult newspaper Washington Times when they have real news), I only do favors for friends. And friends don't come knocking only when they want something.

Far too many PR firms, non-profit advocacy groups, and businesses fail to understand that there are two major components to the liberal blogosphere: news and advocacy. News we report no matter who sends it (and PR firms, non-profits and businesses rarely send real news). Advocacy we do for causes we believe in, and for friends. SEIU, for example, has been a big supporter of the blogs. I'll help SEIU get its message out, its action alerts disseminated, from time to time because I usually believe in their cause (health care, for example), but I'll also do it as a favor to them - as a favor to a friend who has shown support for the Netroots. But the other six high-paid PR firms who contact me every day asking for free publicity for what is almost always some inane press release you really wouldn't care about, why would we publish their non-news? First, it's not news. And second, they're not our friends and they don't support us. So, why would we publish their stuff?