Maddow: Keith Olbermann Suspension Proves Difference Between MSNBC & Fox News (VIDEO)

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow closed her program Friday night with a segment about the suspension of her "colleague and friend Keith Olbermann," arguing that the suspension underscores the difference between MSNBC and Fox News.

Maddow ran down a list of Fox News hosts' and contributors' political donations and fundraising activities, ranging from Sean Hannity's political donations to Glenn Beck's on-air fundraising to Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin's political careers.

Maddow argued that MSNBC's suspension of Olbermann in light of his political donations (without prior network approval) showed that it is a real news organization, as opposed to Fox News, which allows its hosts to engage in political activity without consequence.

"Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never-true-anyway, bull-pucky, lazy conflation of Fox News and what the rest of us do for a living," she said. "I know everybody likes to say, 'Oh, that's cable news, it's all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.' Let this lay that to rest forever. Hosts on Fox News raise money for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly, they use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates....They can do that because there's no rule against that as Fox. They run as a political operation; we're not."



Maddow continued by saying, though she and Olbermann are avowed liberals and others at MSNBC make their political beliefs known, MSNBC is "not a political operation," while Fox News is.

"We are a news operation and the rules around here are part of how you know that," she said.