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NYT Can't Forgive Donahue for Being Right on Iraq Jon Schwarz ([link removed])


NYT: Phil Donahue, Talk Host Who Made Audiences Part of the Show, Dies at 88

The New York Times (8/19/24 ([link removed]) ) insinuated that Phil Donahue attributed to politics a cancellation that was really cause by low ratings.

If I were teaching a class called “How to Slime People in a Subtle, Scuzzy Way in the New York Times,” this paragraph from the Times' obituary (8/19/24 ([link removed]) ) of Phil Donahue—written by Clyde Haberman, Maggie’s father—would be part of the curriculum:

In 2002, Mr. Donahue tried a comeback with a nightly talk show on MSNBC. Barely six months in, the program was canceled. He said later that network executives were unhappy with his fervent liberalism and his opposition to the looming war in Iraq. (In 2007, he co-produced and co-directed an antiwar documentary, Body of War.) It hardly helped that his ratings lagged far behind those of competitors on Fox News and CNN.

Even now—more than 20 years after the New York Times was catastrophically wrong ([link removed]) on the Iraq War—the paper cannot forgive anyone who was right.

1. Yes, Donahue "said later that network executives were unhappy with his fervent liberalism and his opposition to the looming war in Iraq.” Do you know who else said this? MSNBC's network executives, in a leaked memo ([link removed]) . Get the fuck out of here with the “he said” bullshit.

MSNBC executives said, in a leaked memo, that Donahue was “a difficult public face for NBC at a time of war... because of guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush.” This was reported by CNN (3/5/03 ([link removed]) ), among other outlets, at the time. Unfortunately, these outlets are so obscure that the Times cannot access them.

2. Yes, Donahue’s “ratings lagged far behind those of competitors on Fox News and CNN.” It was also the top-rated show on MSNBC. Sadly, the Times does not know this, because the only place it was reported at the time was in such little-known publications as the New York Times (2/26/03 ([link removed]) ).
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