MSNBC: Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews Out as Political Anchors

MSNBC has removed its two on air personalities Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, from covering live political events on the troubled TV news network after months of complaints of open, liberal bias, on air bickering, and low ratings.

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will be replaced with David Gregory, an experienced member of the White House Press corps, with the hope that he will provide a less biased and a more professional commentary on political news events, such as the upcoming Presidential debates and election night. Gregory has been famous, though, for his conflicts with White House Press Secretaries, such as Scott McClellan and the late Tony Snow, for aggressive questioning during press conferences.

The flap that led to the shakeup illustrates the problem of some news outlets not being able to distinguish between straight news and commentary and not being able to provide a balance to the commentary. MSNBC, which has been actually trying to brand itself as the "liberal alternative" to Fox News has been especially prone to these problems.

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have been especially blatant in their bias during coverage of political events, leading up to and during the political conventions. Both Olbermann and Matthews have made no secret of their support for Barack Obama. Chris Matthews even compared Obama to both John and Robert Kennedy and spoke of a "warm feeling" up his leg when hearing Obama speak.

MSNBC has also featured on air squabbling between Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and between Olbermann and conservative leaning analysts such as Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough.