Enough, already, with the Olbermann cheering and adulation ......

[Stinky The Clown]

Yes, it was a remarkable show tonight. Yes, the closing commentary was beyond remarkable. It caused me to alternately cheer and to tear.

But there's something here that is even more important than this one show. More than that great closing speech.

Keith Olbermann - consistently, day in and day out - IS that good.

Quite some time ago, I posted here that I thought Olbermann was the prototype of the absolutely perfect network television news anchor for the current flavor of America's culture. As perfect for his time as was Murrow, he is little more, today, than a nostalgic look back in a modern black and white movie. A man right for his time, but not for ours.

Walter Cronkite was the right man for his time. Aptly hailed as 'The Most Trusted Man in America' he was all of that and more. Today ... a beloved grandfather figure to some of us and the answer to a crossword puzzle clue for others.

We had the Jennings and the Brokaws and the Rathers. All were of their time, but not necessarily perfect for the times, each being always in the shadows of their predecessors - Chancellor and Huntley and Brinkley and Smith and others.

Today we have fill-ins and Williams. Soon to be Couric. Lightweights.

Olbermann is exactly what the smartest news organization on the planet needs to have in order to, in fact, *be* the smartest news organization on the planet.

We have a nation of uninvolved and uninformed citizens. Olbermann could penetrate that crowd with his perfect soupcon of hard news, humor, self deprecation, righteous anger, and derisiveness. His show both informs completely and entertains gently. He not only gets an audience, he holds them. He draws them in. He *compels* you to watch. To pay attention. And, in the process, to be well and truly informed.

If a network wanted to bring their nightly news show to preeminence in the ratings, to make tons of money, and to be informative to boot, they need only hire Olbermann.

There was Murrow.

There was Cronkite.

And now there's Olbermann. Perfectly perfect for *this* time in America's culture.

No. I do not think that's over the top.

We now return you to your cheering and adulation already in progress!

May I join you?

(edit to spell the poor man's name right.)

[Redstone]

1. Well-said. Well-said, indeed.

Redstone

[Contrary1]

23. Ok, Husb2Sparkly , I've had enough already...

Divorce Sparkly and marry me! :+

[annabanana]

2. True that....

Although I fear that the heat he would bring down on a Network would make his tenure there fleeting...

(sniveling cowards in expensive suits)

[AX10]

3. Too bad he can't anchor an evening news broadcast...

on broadcast television.

[babylonsister]

7. But he wouldn't be able to speak much of his mind then. He's more

potent where he is imo, though I realize if he had free reign on the evening news, more people would see him.

[waiting for hope]

4. Part of my email message to him...

Hopefully your commentary will wake up the thousands of sheeple still grazing at the well of stupidity and complacency.

He is the man....

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

5. Made Greatest Page With His Name Spelled Wrong nt

[patrice]

6. One can only hope.

But - The People also need to get up and go out into the streets and DO something to change things.

[Divine Discontent]

8. yes, he is that good

but apparently isn't well known enough to have his name spelled correctly on DU. That's the sad part. I noticed another thread about him had many people spelling his name in different manners.

I guess when he becomes President in 2016 we'll all get it right. ;)

[NYCGirl]

9. Beautifully stated. K&R. NT

[Hosnon]

10. Bravo...this man has my ear for the rest of my life. nt

[IndianaGreen]

11. Keith Olbermann is basically a sportscaster

As a sportscaster, Olbermann deals with facts and stats. If a ball player commits an error in the field, there is no spinning it. The man screwed up!

When we put someone as Olbermann on a news shows, he is going to stick to facts, and he won't spin the news or massage the story. Perhaps that is what is wrong with most of our news shows, they are produced by entertainers not reporters.

Let's stick to the facts and stats!

[SaveElmer]

12. And an entertaining one...

He is on the Dan Patrick show every day on ESPN...he is very funny!

[ComerPerro]

22. oh, you can spin errors and hits and walks and strikeouts

but, yeah, I get your point. Just wanted to interject that some sportscasters can, especially if they are biased towards one team.

Its interesting, isn't it, that the three people I consider to the be most straightforward, most honest, and most trustworthy journalists out there aren't even journalists?

Jon Stewart (and the Daily Show team) was a comedian, who went to university to study biology or something like that.

Stephen Colbert is a commedian whose only claim to journalistic credibility is his prior job at the Daily Show, and his entire show is based on a character that is an ironic opposite of himself.

And Keith Olberman, while a jornalist, wasn't a newsman or political commentator. He was a Sports Anchor, and got fame on Sportscenter.



Yet I trust these three men more than I trust all the other media whores, combined.

[Singular73]

13. Heh, way over the top - He's no EaM or WK

I like Olbermann a lot, and watch him most every night, but I realize that he is extremely partisan, and sometimes even a bit too cynical for my taste.

He is a great voice of protest in todays MSM, but he is no EaM or WK.

I would think if you asked him about that comparison, he would laugh in your face.

He takes himself about as seriously as Jon Stewart does.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. He is neither Murrow nor Cronkite ... that's true.

He is who he is.

For those who are now willing to accept that network news is what it has become, he proves there is another way. Not the way of Murrow with probing commentary. Not with the comforting gravitas of Cronkite. He is a man for *this* time.

[Sparkly]

16. It's not about their styles being similar...

...it's about telling the truth -- even when others aren't -- and telling the news fully, truthfully, and clearly. (For today's viewers, KO's show also makes use of "production value," and it works beautifully.)

[lala_rawraw]

14. perhaps worth repeating...

"American journalism is not represented by the media establishment, which has essentially been co-opted into an extension of government-sponsored propaganda, or else has demeaned itself into a Vanna White-style superficiality, spinning content in order to sell another product.

But in a media era where propagandists and shills are ascendant, there remain a number of journalists who sustain the principles on which our free press was founded: to protect the governed from their elected officials and from the unelected corporate elite, always determined to skirt the law and undermine the social contract."

<snip>

"Keith Olbermann -- the anchor for MSNBC's Countdown: If we had today a moral equivalent of Edward R. Murrow, Olbermann would be it. Olbermann respects his audience and speaks to them as peers about complex issues and events. He is eloquent, passionate and probing. He is also someone who takes the time to connect the dots and provide historical context in order to help make sense of the information he is tasked with delivering. There is sarcasm and silliness too, which nicely lightens the load after what are sometimes very emotionally draining reports. Above all else, he is my hero because he stands in front of the schoolyard bully and defends those who cannot defend themselves. A good example of all these traits can be found in his look at the Nexus of Politics and Terror"

http://www.alternet.org/story/40803/

[Berry Cool]

18. Everything you guys said...

He takes everything from the best of the past journalists, synthesizes it, and does it HIS way. A way that resonates with the way the world is now.

What he did tonight is but one example of why this is the only man I trust to give me the news.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

17. The man is the MOST RELEVANT newsperson of our times!

[ms liberty]

19. Very true H2P -

I grew up watching all the greats you note, except Murrow; my earliest memory outside my family is of Cronkite breaking in on As The World Turns, to announce the murder of JFK. I was 3.

KO is THE premier news anchor in America.

On a lighter note, he's also a very snappy dresser and no slouch in the looks department, either!

[Patsy Stone]

20. You may indeed join us!

Follow the link in my signature. We watch him and laud him with accolades (and some floaty hearts) every night at 8 p.m.

Peace out, yo! :hi:

[Kurovski]

21. About the thread title...

:spank:

You are seriously messed up, and I LOVE it!

[grasswire]

24. I feel very proud regarding Olbermann

Some years ago I wrote directly to the management at MSNBC and begged them to give Olbermann a permanent spot again. I advised them to offer him a penthouse, a fortune, whatever he wanted. A couple of weeks later he wrote back an e-mail to me thanking me deeply for the advocacy. He said he didn't get the penthouse in the contract, but that editorial control would be his if the ratings were there. I still have the email. He's an authentic American hero.