Rachel Maddow's big day overshadowed by convention fallout; no more Statler and Waldorf; Fox looking smart

Updated: I take issue with Glenn Greenwald's reckless, pugilistic advice for NBC. Below.

Brian Stelter is reporting this morning that MSNBC has abruptly backpedaled on its plan to have Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann co-anchor its political coverage, which going forward means the coverage of three debates and election night. David Gregory will handle those duties, which I guess answers the question of whether Gregory was "NBC's lame duck."

It's too bad that this had to happen on the eve of Rachel Maddow's new TV show on MSNBC, which replaces Dan Abrams' "Verdict" at 8 CT tonight. On the other hand, who was shocked? While Matthews and Olbermann were an entertaining train wreck -- at least The Daily Show and I were entertained -- I will concede that it's probably not a good thing to be making headlines because your talent are giving each other eyerolls on the air.

But I think the focus on the blooper-reel video is misdirected. This one's on Phil Griffin and the people who signed off on his plan to give the anchor desk over to Keith and Chris. This morning, as I read the news, I had to give credit to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, who once again is looking like a genius. Ailes figured out long ago that you can have Hannity and Colmes and Neil Cavuto and John Kasich and Steve Doocy and every other red-meater out there on your airwaves, but if you know where to place the fig leaf, your opponents can only pillory you so much.

MSNBC forgot about the fig leaf. And so, no matter how much Olbermann goes on about Brit Hume's biases, Fox News has seized the moral high ground from NBC. (And with its usual modesty.) I'm not saying NBC deserves the kind of unapologetic hostility that the Republicans showcased for NBC in St. Paul. And I'm not saying Fox News doesn't pat itself on the back for goading the GOP true believers into making GE the enemy. But by avoiding the simple mistake of having one of its polarizing personalities in the neutral news anchor's chair, it's smelling better than MSNBC is this morning.

Olbermann pointed out in his interview Sunday with Stelter that he was doing exactly the same thing at the political anchor desk that he does every night on "Countdown." But. There's a reason they don't call it "a special edition of Countdown" or "a Hardball-Countdown crossover episode." They call it "special political coverage" because they expect you to bring the big guns and to do it in a certain way. And the minute you don't, people start to come up with all kinds of reasons why you suck.

Thus, it really doesn't matter how "great" Olbermann thought Sarah Palin's speech was. If he didn't match the soaring rhetoric he heaped on Barack Obama's speech the week before, then people were going to call him on it. (Indeed, here it is 11 days later, and KOGO's Chip Franklin had KO's reac sound bite ready to go for our radio segment this morning.)

I've been of at least two minds on the Olbermann phenomenon, so if the KO haters want to call me on my flip-flop, they can. I've always loved "Countdown," but back in 2006, I did ask (along with other critics) if KO was the future face of news, and if we were all good with that. As it turns out, we are NOT all good with that. I thought the big jobs should go to the big men (and women). But the people have spoken, loudly and angrily, and so the big job will now go to MSNBC's least MSNBC-like talent.

It's unfortunate, however, that the news couldn't have waited a week or so, until "The Rachel Maddow Show" had gotten through its first week on MSNBC. Maddow, for her part, went to Denver and St. Paul and did what she was asked to do, in a setting almost exactly like the one she has been in since joining Gregory's MSNBC show as a panelist. You expect a certain point of view from the Air America radio host and she delivers it. Tonight, she will try her hand at a "Countdown"-like TV show, interviewing one guest at a time and inserting her take on the news, what's the word ... liberally.

I'm looking forward to that. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to MSNBC returning to plain vanilla special political coverage with Gregory at the helm. C'mon: Weren't you ready for Olbermann and Matthews to resume their grudge match? Well, at least we'll still have Joe and David.

Previously on TV Barn: I profiled Rachel Maddow, which led to her getting a TV show, and then I talked to her about my getting her a TV show. Also, I discussed MSNBC and its demographic appeal, was fair and balanced toward Fox, and profiled Olbermann once or twice.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald is arguing in Salon that MSNBC's decision reflects an ideological double standard. That when pressed by the supporters of Hillary Clinton, when they were pained by Olbermann's pro-Obama coverage, MSNBC refused to budge -- but when the Republican convention went ballistic on NBC and everyone noticed, whoosh, that was the end of Keith-as-anchor.

"[MSNBC] just implicitly chided and overtly demoted their most popular and valuable news personality because the White House, the McCain campaign and the Right demanded that they do so," writes Greenwald. "It's fine for Brit Hume to host a 'news program' and for hard-core right-wing ideologues to dominate cable news. ... But MSNBC's ratings-based decision to feature Keith Olbermann is a grave threat to modern journalism and must be stopped. So decrees the White House and the McCain campaign, and so the GE-owned MSNBC complies."

I love when someone is so sure of himself that it makes any attempt to argue with his faultless logic seem futile and silly. But. We don't really know yet how this is going to work out. And for Greenwald to breathlessly assume that Olbermann will be vanished off the airwaves is just nuts. Obviously what's going to happen is that Gregory will sit in the center of the desk, and he will be flanked by Keith and Chris, and possibly Rachel and Joe and maybe even Pat and Gene if they've got room for that many people. Just as many people will see MSNBC's show as before. But this time it will have someone in the middle seat who can fall back on his journalistic fairness in a way that none of the prime-time talent can.

So let's concede Greenwald's point. It's not a fair fight. Salon's legal eagle has done a very good job summarizing all of the forces aligned against the handful of MSNBC talent who are left-leaning, including their own corporate parent of GE. But if that is the case, Glenn, then what good is it to take your advice and just keep barrelling ahead? If this is not a fair fight, then the stupidest thing to do is to stand in there and just keep swinging away. If MSNBC is outmatched, why would you just stand right in the middle of the ring like a Rock Em Sock Em robot, swinging and swinging? The head has popped up!

As I noted above, MSNBC forgot about the fig leaf. So now, the fig leaf is now back. MSNBC is redeploying its talent in a way that gets it out of the line of fire of the right wing. And, not incidentally, in a way that gives Olbermann complete freedom once more to say whatever he wants about McCain and Palin and Fox News and whatever because he's no longer captain of the ship. Just as many viewers will be able to see him on Election Night as they would if he were the anchor. But now he is moved off into the Mort Kondracke position. Glenn Greenwald sees this as unforgivably hypocritical. I see it as yet another sign that the longtime lead-footed contender in cable news with the glass jaw is finally learning to get out of the way of the Right's roundhouse.

I'm sure what was happening behind the scenes was that Ed Gillespie and the other Republican goons were threatening to cut off access for NBC if the status quo at MSNBC persisted. So now there has been a public adjustment, and all the predicted reactions have happened, and that's that. But when you tune in MSNBC's coverage on debate night and election night, who are you going to see? That's right: You're going to see David Gregory, and Chris Matthews, and Keith Olbermann, and Rachel Maddow. Yes, it's a shame Griffin doesn't have the power to tell the GOP where to stuff it, the way he did the Clintonites. On the other hand, this won't hurt Olbermann's exposure, it will only fire up the base, and in the long run, MSNBC lives to fight another day. If the plans for Keith are more draconian, we can talk about that -- but for now, it sounds like a lot of hoohah, suffused with symbolism, about what is essentially a shuffling of chairs.