You find analogy, metaphor, and symbolism rather challenging, don't you?

Pointing out that Olbermann is speaking into a camera is not exactly the powerful rebuttal you seem to think it is. Imagine for a minute that you're George W. Bush (should be easy for you), and you turn on the TV and watch Countdown. You will find yourself being personally addressed by Keith Olbermann, and if that isn't about as close to face-to-face as you can get without being shot by the Secret Service, I'd like to hear about it.

That Bush is afraid to hear Olbermann's words, or the words of anyone who might dare to disagree, doesn't mean that they aren't intended for Bush's ears.

Then you try to construct an analogy, and what you come up with is the story of a photo of a Southern racist beating up a black man a half-century ago. The connection exists in your mind only. If you really think that that scene is generally applicable, then you need to factor in every possible in scene in which somebody is doing something and somebody else is watching. The Pope pronouncing the Mass, Neil Armstrong stepping out on the Moon, a football player running into the end zone, a kid blowing out the candles on a birthday cake...they too are instances of the same scenario, and there are so many such possible that your analogy dissipates into sheer irrelevance.

That was quite a theory you spun there about NBC/MSNBC going down the tubes financially for what you perceive as a "leftist bias". There's a lot less there than you'd like to believe, and what you quoted is a rumor going back to October, from a site called MediaPost (subscription required; here's the Google cache version). It was widely parroted, and amusingly enough, the latest squawk on Google is titled "OK, Let's Get Serious"--your post.

The truth is much more likely to be found in a report Friday on MSNBC.com...straight from the horse's mouth. To make a long tedious story short,

The moves are a major part of a larger restructuring to save money at NBC Universal, whose entertainment programming has fallen in the ratings after ruling the TV world for several years. The highly profitable news division had been widely speculated as a target for cost-cutting, but the network will also revamp its prime-time entertainment schedule as part of the initiative, dubbed “NBCU 2.0,” which aims to save $750 million by the end of 2008.

(emphasis added)

It's the NBC entertainment division dragging 'em down, and no doubt the writer's strike delivered the coup de grace. The news division, which includes MSNBC, whose fortunes you amusingly claim are in the toilet for insufficient Wingerism, is in fact "highly profitable".

A little accurate information goes a long ways. All is just as rosy as it appears.