MSNBC has responded to the claims that Richard Wolffe, who works as a strategist for Washington public affairs firm Public Strategies Inc. and who guest-hosted "Countdown" while Keith Olbermann was away, has a conflict of interest and shouldn't appear on air as a host or an analyst.

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald wrote of Wolffe's dual role:

This is a conflict so severe that it's incurable by disclosure: who wouldn't realize that you can't present paid corporate hacks as objective political commentators? But the fact that they don't even bother to disclose that just serves to illustrate how non-existent is the line between corporate interests and "news reporting" in the United States.

Under the cloak of corporate responsibility, General Electric seeks to benefit to the tune of billions from the passage of Mr. Obama's health care reform. On its corporate Web site, Healthymagination admits it will use every tool at its disposal to achieve its goals, including NBC Universal, the parent company of MSNBC which offers nearly uncritical coverage of Mr. Obama and his policies.

In effect, NBC Universal would become the propaganda arm of the administrations drive for the nationalization of health care, pushing its passage in its print and television properties.

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