Category Archives: Keith Olbermann
O’Donnell tells us what KO did for eight years every night.
I never thought of it this way and I bet most of us didn’t. Thank you Lawrence for putting into powerful words how hard Keith Olbermann worked every day at his craft. KO earned every single, fucking penny he made off the warlords at GE/MSNBC.
A message to the left – We are Media Orphans
Robert Parry, who can put his finger on the pulse of the right so very succinctly and eloquently, does it in this Consortium writeup about the left and our shrinking options in the media with the departure of Keith Olbermann. That he calls us media orphans…well, it just friggin nails it. From his article:
The troubling message to progressives is that they remain essentially orphans when it comes to having their political interests addressed by any corporate news outlet. While the Right has built its own vast media infrastructure – reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet – the Left generally has treated media as a low priority.
Though some on the Left saw hope in the MSNBC evening line-up, the larger reality was that even inside the world of NBC News, the other content ranged from the pro-Establishment centrism of anchor Brian Williams to the center-right views of MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to CNBC’s mix of free-market extremism and corporate boosterism.
While gratified to be given a few hours each night on MSNBC, the Left surely had nothing to compare with Murdoch’s News Corporation and its longstanding commitment to a right-wing perspective on Fox News and News Corp.’s many other print and electronic outlets.
As I wrote in an article last November, “Olbermann and the other liberal hosts are essentially on borrowed time, much the way Phil Donahue was before getting axed in the run-up to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, when MSNBC wanted to position itself as a ‘patriotic’ war booster.
The man ain’t lying is he? Does it not all make sense now? We have a mere 14 hours a week whilst the right has tens of hours a week? If you count the scum in talk radio then it bounces the numbers even higher.
Yet, the president who was elected by the voters in 2008, not a panel of leftwing nutters, is father from the right than the left in a vast majority of issues. If you listen to the screaming nutters on the right on Faux, or Limbaugh, Palin,Savage etc he is no where near their beliefs. He wants to bring our nation to it’s knees they tell us daily. He wants to kill your granny! He wants to bankrupt Amerika!
But his ratings are higher than Reagan’s were at this stage in his presidency, more people trust him to fix things than trust the Republicans.
So why is it that you can not find more talking heads disseminating information with that “famous liberal bias” the right constantly screams about on tv? Why is it that MSNBC has not shown a scintilla of loyalty to the hosts on the left similar to what Faux shows to it’s stable of rightwing hosts? Again from Parry’s article:
“Unlike News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who stands solidly behind the right-wing propaganda on Fox News, the corporate owners of MSNBC have no similar commitment to the work of Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.
*snip*
The ongoing significance of America’s media imbalance is that it gives the Right enormous capabilities to control the national debate, not only during election campaigns but year-round. Republicans can deploy what intelligence operatives call “agit-propaganda,” stirring controversies that rile up the public and redound to the GOP’s advantage.
These techniques have proved so effective that not even gifted political speakers, whether the savvy Bill Clinton or the eloquent Barack Obama, have had any consistent success in countering the angry cacophony that the Right can orchestrate.
One week, the Right’s theme is “Obamacare’s death panels”; another week, it’s “the “Ground Zero Mosque.” The Democrats are left scrambling to respond – and their responses, in turn, become fodder for critical commentary, as too wimpy or too defensive or too something.
The mainstream media and progressives often join in this criticism, wondering why Obama let himself get blind-sided or why he wasn’t tougher or why he can’t control the message. For the Right and the Republicans, it’s a win-win-win, as the right-wing base is energized, more public doubts are raised about the President, and the Left is further demoralized.
All questions and no answers. It’s disheartening ain’t it? Don’t it piss you the hell off?
Well, its a mute point now as the era of Comcast starts now….and we will see how that shit unfolds…but one thing is for certain, it will be about ratings..bet the farm on that kids..bet the farm.
So keep watching the few shows we still got on the telly. It’s all we got, along with Maher of course. And hopefully KO will return, eventually, on another channel stronger and more eloquently than ever, ripping the right with everything he has.
Keith Olbermann and Countdown are no more.
Updates at the bottom of the post
About 15 minutes before the end of tonight’s show, KO pronounced the end of the run of Countdown in a teaser prior to a commercial break. A very-fucking-short statement released by MSNBC on this development:
MSNBC announced Friday night that its marquee “Countdown” anchor and talk show host Keith Olbermann was out. The network did not provide a reason for his abrupt departure. “MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” NBC Universal said in a statement.
Olbermann and his bosses have clashed in recent months. He was suspended in November for two days after revelations that he gave donations to a Democratic political candidate, which was a violation of the company’s ethics policies for news employees.
The Comcast/MSNBC merger was completed this week. Coincidence? I think not… Sources indicate Lawrence ODonnell will take over his slot. Rachel Maddow has Chris Hayes subbing for her tonite on her show.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
Update2: From HuffPo – MSNBC released the following statement on their new programming order:
Starting Monday, January 24, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” will move to 8 p.m. ET/PT and “The Ed Show,” hosted by Ed Schultz, will move to 10 p.m. ET/PT on MSNBC. The announcement was made today by Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC. “The Rachel Maddow Show” will continue to air live at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Also starting Monday, Cenk Uygur, MSNBC contributor and host of the popular web show “The Young Turks,” will be filling in as host of the 6 p.m ET hour.
Let the games begin!!!
The flowers and trees are blooming, the weather is slowly getting warmer and for me that means only one thing..Let the games begin, it’s Baseball Season! Although there will only be one game today, BoSox vs Yank$, it is the beginning of my favorite time of the year.. Baseball is possibly the only thing that keeps me from going postal and/or stroking out with regard to politics and how the Congress critters and the Obama administration are running our country.
My favorite talking head, Keith Olbermann, is also a lover of all things baseball as well. He even has a blog on MLB.com that he calls Baseball Nerd. It warms the cockles of my little black heart to know that the man who epitomizes leftwing values loves the sport of baseball as much, if not more, than I do.
The sport of baseball has a wonderful way of crossing political party lines. Even the asshat George Will worships baseball. I am fairly certain that the only thing Will and I have in common is our love of the sport. Will is fond of saying he only writes about politics to support his baseball habit.
Today George has an article up at WaPo that isn’t about politics..it’s about baseball. I know for a fact that I could sit and talk for hours and hours with George Will as long as the subject was baseball. The sport is a great equalizer and when I was a young hothead, the only time my father and I could stand each other was when we were watching, listening or talking about baseball. My fathers favorite word to describe me back then was…Commie. We had screaming matches about politics that would drive everyone else from the room. Our discussion’s would end with my father screaming that I was a commie-pinko and I would respond in kind.
But when the subject was baseball, we would be good to each other. Even when we loved different teams, we never got ugly or foul-mouthed towards each other. The best memories of my childhood are of my father and I listening to his beloved Dodgers on the radio and talking baseball.
As an adult I hate the Dodgers, being a Padres fan and all. The Ball n’ Chain is a lifelong Dodger fan as well. Both of us have waited for this day all winter. We both participate in Fantasy Baseball leagues and I love that my spouse comes to me for advice on players to draft…it means I know more than he does about our national pastime.
Keith and George however, know far more than I regarding the history of baseball. So that means I read their baseball columns religiously.
Speakiing of religion..Yes, I do worship at the Church of MLB. It’s the only church I know where people who vehemently disagree can still be friends and lovers. And that is a wonderful thing indeed.
So I gotta cut this short as it’s time for church. 😉
Its my Right to be Left of the Center 
Gut wrenching.
Feb 24
Posted by Dusty, hells most vocal bitch
It was simply gut wrenching to watch. KO makes tonight’s Special Comment about tomorrows ‘healthcare summit’ very personal. His father is going downhill fast, and I send both of them my love and prayers. He lost his mother last year. ;(
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
Leave your egos at the door, like KO says, gentlemen. Do NOT bring that political horseshit in w/you either. Healthcare for all Americans is a moral obligation, you sons of bitches.
Posted in healthcare reform, healthcare summit, Keith Olbermann, Special Comment
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