Keith Olbermann Leaves MSNBC
Well this sucks. At least we know what every rightwing blogger will be raving and cheering about today. If you’re a Far Right knuckledragger, Keith Olbermann is a bigger villain than Osama bin Laden and Karl Marx put together.
I hardly ever watch MSNBC or any other political station. After a day of ranting and spewing at the computer, I just want mind candy when I turn on the TV. When I’ve seen Keith Olbermann, it’s usually on a YouTube video at somebody else’s blog. He gives a powerful, very moving speech.
Anyone who can piss off so many conservatives has to be doing something right.
R.I.P. (Figuratively!)
Labels: Keith Olbermann, MSNBC
posted by Tom Harper @ 11:13 AM
12 Comments:
I'm on Rabbit ears so I don't get much of a chance to see many of these commentators unless I'm at Friends. I think there are way too many of them and make me miss the ways when Icons like Murrow and Cronkite gave it to you straight without all the theatrics.
That being said I liked Keith, he was in-your-face when it came to the fox guys and all the other right winders and neither insulted your intelligence nor assumed he was speaking to the choir.
I will miss him
Erik
Whatever the reason, any way you slice it, this isn't good news.
Erik, you can get that straight-news approach from PBS News Hour and next most closely, IMO, from Brian Williams on NBC Nigthly News. Olbermann would be the first to tell you he wasn't competing with them at all.
That said, what set Olberman apart from the Fox noisemakers was intellectual honesty. He presented fact as fact and opinion as opinion. And on the rare occasion he got his facts wrong, he did a prompt, on-air correction. The same is true of Maddow, O'Donnell and Schultz.
Olberman did plenty of straight news stuff and can hold his own with anyone on TV today doing interviews.
Whatever caused this, no matter if Olbermann could be a bit feisty behind the scenes at times, I hope the network powers that be appreciate the loss they've taken and the what it means to so many viewers.
I'm with you on rarely ever watching Keith on tv. In fact, it has been approximately a year and a half since I've purposefully turned to any talking head show, left or right. I figure I'm able enough to come to my own conclusions.
I would catch him on the occasional blog post, though.
However, i agree with SW that this is not good news, not good at all. There are very few (in fact, i count 2 total) who can smack back at the republican bullshit-machine, and Keith was one of them.
Yes, this is not good news, but you can be sure he is not down and out. He'll be back. No way is he going to shut up, which is what the "knuckledraggers" are hoping (btw-I covet that clever term, tom).
Why do you people allow yourselves to be divided along partisan lines based on some multi- millionaire talking head? There's only one party. Don't let yourselves be played for chumps
Fatboy is a troll.
Even though both parties have Dim members - almost all of the Rethugs now (how could it be otherwise as we're talking about greedy money grabbers).
KO is now a cultural loss to US until some other group hires him and uses his abilities to inform US about the facts.
We need to have people with his courage who are available to those who don't have internet connections or cable.
S
I am with you Tom. This was the worst news I have heard in a long time. Keith was gutsy, extremely intelligent, and well grounded in his facts. Frankly, I am surprised he lasted as long as he did. I hope he comes back in some fashion. There aren't many at all that can come close to filling his shoes.
I have to kind of agree with Fatboy.
If you bothered to read the actual bills passed over the last year and a half:
No public option even though promised.
Insurance companies get 30 million new cash givers many of whom are healthy and young. And rates are still going up.
Wall Street reform was a joke. They're still doing the same things that got us into this mess. CDSs, naked shorts and the like just had their names changed and are being sold just as they once were.
Credit card and bank reform? Notice how banks are now charging just to have an account and the same with credit cards.
And if you look at just those two sectors you'll note that they've made record profits during a recession.
Obama talks about jobs but who does he put in charge of that? The GE CEO who dumped a whole lot of American workers and shipped the jobs overseas.
Yes I'd say we're being played for suckers.
You got a point SW I most of my news from the paper or News Stations and MPR.
PBS is actually good news
McNeil is still there right?
Erik
Beekeerper's apprentice wrote: "There are very few (in fact, i count 2 total) who can smack back at the republican bullshit-machine, and Keith was one of them."
Please take a look at MSNBC's other troupers: Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell (especially) and Ed Schultz. O'Donnell did what amounted to a smackdown of Rep. Trent Franks last week over limiting gun clips that had Franks obviously PO'd.
O'Donnell asked a straight question and called Franks out when Franks sang, danced and tried to do magic tricks instead of answering the question. At the end of the interview, when O'Donnell thanked Franks for being a guest, even if he wouldn't answer the question, Franks just scowled angrily.
Olbermann tried to advocate for the average American. Corporate media gets nervous with that kind of talk.
Sure, we have two corporatist parties, a right wing and a radical right wing. That doesn't mean there are no differences.
Interesting, the various takes on Olbermann. He really did not do much for me. I did admire his no back down attitude that is a rare thing to see from the Left in recent years.
I tend to fall in with Fatboy and Demeur here. The two party leadership are nothing but two sides of the same coin in my opinion. I would love to see good governing from either. But I won't hold my breath.
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