Silence of the Hams

Have you noticed the feud between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann has ended? At least they aren’t talking about it anymore. Interestingly, O’Reilly stopped going after GE and MSNBC for their relationship with the federal government and President Obama. Now we know why. The big-wigs at MSNBC and Fox News have struck a deal. It’s the Silence of the Hams.

For years Keith Olbermann of MSNBC had savaged his prime-time nemesis Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel and accused Fox of journalistic malpractice almost nightly. Mr. O’Reilly in turn criticized Mr. Olbermann’s bosses and led an exceptional campaign against General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC.

It was perhaps the fiercest media feud of the decade and by this year, their bosses had had enough. But it took a fellow television personality with a neutral perspective to help bring it to at least a temporary end.

At an off-the-record summit meeting for chief executives sponsored by Microsoft in mid-May, the PBS interviewer Charlie Rose asked Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of G.E., and his counterpart at the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, about the feud.

Both moguls expressed regret over the venomous culture between the networks and the increasingly personal nature of the barbs. Days later, even though the feud had increased the audience of both programs, their lieutenants arranged a cease-fire, according to four people who work at the companies and have direct knowledge of the deal.

In early June, the combat stopped, and MSNBC and Fox, for the most part, found other targets for their verbal missiles (Hello, CNN).

While the personal feud between Olbermann and O’Reilly may have been entertaining to some viewers, whether it continues is inconsequential. What concerns me is the stifling of any investigation of GE, the parent company of MSNBC, and how GE benefits from MSNBC acting as an advocate of the Obama administration. GE is positioned to make huge profits if ObummerCare and cap and trade are passed. That’s information that should be passed along to Fox’s viewers, regardless of whether or not the hams have called a cease fire.

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