David Axelrod Joins NBC, Proving the Networks Have Abandoned Nonpartisan News Coverage

David Axelrod, former White House senior advisor and senior strategist for President Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns, has officially been hired by NBC News and MSNBC.  While this news in itself is not likely to cause a major political earthquake, it does cement the idea that the mainstream media has completely abandoned the idea of being nonpartisan.

If anything, NBC is positioning itself as the completely, nakedly liberal counterpart to Fox News, and with Axelrod as an Obama talking head, there leaves little room for balanced coverage on NBC News. There will be little criticism of the administration or nonpartisan coverage of any kind from now on out.

A network hiring a former political advisor is nothing new. Fox News hired Karl Rove, George W. Bush's senior advisor, in February 2008 and gave him a contract extension through 2016. Right now he is one of Fox's political analysts, along with newly hired liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich.

However, hiring Axelrod at this juncture as a full time political analyst is highly suspect. Axelrod has not once waivered in his support of Obama, from his stance on guns and immigration reform to the recent skeet shooting controversy. Axelrod is one of Obama's biggest cheerleaders. Hiring him during the beginning of Obama's second term is more inappropriate than Fox's hiring of Rove; Rove was not hired by Fox until after Bush left office.

This all proves that NBC is on a mission to be the anti-Fox news, the network where no view is present except the liberal viewpoint. 

 I am not defending one news organization over another. But this isn't even the first time this has happened; they also recently hired Robert Gibbs, former Obama press secretary and the senior advisor to President Obama's 2012 campaign. NBC is losing its credibility in having anything but complete liberal coverage. Where is the balance in this equation?

There is none. NBC is going to make no attempt to put out counterpoints to Obama's rhetoric, and in fact, they will be the chief propagators of his message. We are getting ever closer to having state-run media outlets.

One fear is that every network will be forced to pick a side. Obviously, Fox is a conservative outlet. But they do have contributors such as Juan Williams, Kirsten Powers, and now Kucinich, who are all staunch Democrats. Who will hold Obama accountable at NBC? Even before the hiring of Axelrod and Gibbs, the idea of holding Obama accountable at NBC was a joke. But now, the reality is that any conservative contributor at NBC will be muted by Obama's puppets. NBC does have S.E. Cupp and Joe Scarborough, but they are moderates at best. Anything they may contribute will get lost in the shuffle.

What happened to nonpartisan journalism? It is scary to think that we have entered a day when journalism is completely biased. The sad reality is that everyone is biased and no one has to hide it anymore. News today is nothing more than partisan spin.