Glenn Greenwald on G.E., Olbermann and O'Reilly

I had Glenn Greenwald on the show again today to discuss the story about Keith Olbermann and G.E. which he has covered all week (and which I had covered as well, particularly since much of the media has not), after the New York Times revealed that G.E. had confirmed cutting a deal with News Corp to silence both Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly in their ongoing feud. Glenn wrote about this here and here, and he came on the show earlier in the week.

Today he came back on the show today to follow-up on details that came out later in the week, and talk about his own correspondence with Olbermann in which Olbermann said that everything Glenn wrote was accurate. This was in complete contradiction to what Olbermann told his viewers -- and the Times -- when he said there was "no deal," attacking the Times reporter in the process, which was a low blow. Several other liberal bloggers have weighed in, including Jason Linkins on Huffington Post, who wrote a hard-hitting piece.

Glenn and I discussed the Linkins piece, as well as the criticism coming from some readers and fans of Olbermann who think Olbermann is being attacked unfairly and also believe this story gives fodder to the right and shouldn't be discussed. One reason why I have spent so much time on it is that few media organizations and commentators covered it, because most have their own interests to protect (such as anyone else at MSNBC) or perhaps have similar conflicts regarding corporate ownership. Below is an audio clip of my full interview with Glenn Greenwald from today.

"Exactly" the Same Position

Not good. The Obama administration cites the "state secrets" privilege in calling for a rendition case to be thrown out:

Justice Department attorney, Douglas Letter, told the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Obama administration was taking "exactly" the same position as the previous White House in calling for dismissal of a lawsuit by five terrorism suspects snatched by U.S. agents in foreign countries and delivered to secret detention sites in other countries.

Glenn Greenwald has a lot more on Obama's 180 degree reversal.

Kudos to Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow did an excellent job tonight in talking about Barack Obama's huge mistake: having Rick Warren give the invocation at the inauguration. It was her opening story, and it was passionate, personal and so on-the-money regarding the politics. It was a thorough report which included an interview with Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, the first time Rachel has spoken with a Prop 8 player since its passage, and the tone was pitch perfect. Rachel at her best, as she is with all the important issues.

As many of you know, I had a sometimes difficult discussion with Rachel when she came on the show just last week about what I and others have seen as poor coverage of gay issues. (I also interviewed Pam Spaulding who'd criticized Rachel for her Huckabee interview.) But I hoped that that discussion -- always respectful if uncomfortable at times, since we've know each other for several years -- was something we would both think about. I know I did, a lot, and perhaps Rachel did as well.

Only last night she was seeming to trivialize this Rick Warren story and I noted it on the show today, comparing her mention of it to Anderson Cooper's thorough coverage and his interview with Hilary Rosen, who was very powerful in articulating the problem with Obama's choice. Pam noted Rachel's "lame toss off" last night as well (though also has now heaped praise on her in an update.) But today, the story blew up bigger, running in heavy rotation on cable news, and it heated up on the liberal blogs, Rachel got the magnitude of it, and I'm glad. I'll post the video once it's up.

UPDATE: Here is the video.