Keith at dKos --

[Patsy Stone]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/14/16949/046/995/661066

HuffPo: Hillary Offered Job
by Keith Olbermann
Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 04:15:57 PM EST

Yeah, I could almost hear the doubts coming through my studio windows when Andrea Mitchell quoted her two sources last night as saying Senator Clinton was under consideration for Secretary of State.

I even read her earlier today that I wasn't very smart, or something, for reporting it.

Well if it was a misleading leak, it just became a misleading dam break.

President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.

Keith Olbermann's diary :: ::

Nico Pitney's story is here.

For now, I want to stay out of the fray here, but in what I'm sure may read in some places as an arcane defense of mainstream media, honest to God even if you're Andrea Mitchell you just can't waltz on to the set of Nightly News and report what she reported last night without convincing your bosses that you (and more importantly your sources) know what they're talking about.

And here's HuffPo -- not exactly "old" media -- going still further.

Please fray when ready.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Also, contained within the thread, Keith discusses not voting:

Keep up the good work, Keith, BUT (13+ / 0-)

what is this I hear about not voting?

Would you ever reconsider this? Your vote is private & confidential. I don't feel that voting compromises your neutrality at all.

Charlie Brown, an American hero who lives in CA-04. This ain't over!

by LaughingPlanet on Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 04:19:05 PM EST

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I Constantly Reconsider It (40+ / 0-)

But I've analogized it here many times to my days in sports.

When I found myself personally invested in the athletes I covered - had a meal with some, professionally friendly, that sort of stuff - there was actually a drag on my willingness to criticize them on the air.

Not good.

And I felt it again last spring (ironically enough) about criticizing Senator Clinton (yes, I know her supporters will spit soup over this). But you may recall I was accused, as late as January, of being "in the tank for Hillary," and even that slightest personal connection provided by the Clintons' support of The Special Comments made me hesitate or delay my criticism.

I think that voting for a candidate would create the same investment for me. I doubt anybody else would feel that way, but that's my standard.

And yes, if circumstances demanded that I had to walk on the edge of the cliff, and vote, I would do so.

"If you're going through hell - keep going!" -- Winston Churchill

by Keith Olbermann on Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 04:24:39 PM EST

[Berry Cool]

1. Looks like he's feeling obligated as a colleague to defend Andrea Mitchell

now that so many people are referring to the Hillary story as a "mere rumor" and implying that spreading it is irresponsible.

And I still don't buy the excuses Keith makes for not voting. I mean, he's not dead to me because of it or anything (nothing would be more idiotic than that). I just don't get it.

CORRECTION: Reading this more closely, I see...Keith isn't defending Andrea. He's defending HIMSELF. Looks like he's none too happy that his fellow Kossacks are calling him "not smart" for reporting this. In fact, I imagine he's bristling. Bristling enough for a diary, at least.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh boy, there is more to this than I thought. Essentially this is going to be a knock-down drag-out fight between Keith and a Kossack called "The Field," who is essentially saying that the whole Hillary-as-SoS story was ginned up by the Clintons and deliberately planted by George Snuffleufagus as part of the evil Clinton psyops plan to sabotage Obama...and that Keith is both an idiot and a piss-poor journalist for having fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

I suspect Keith is not taking this well.

Look out, folks. We're about to see the dark side of The Force.

[Patsy Stone]

2. And who is this Al Giordano?

Never heard of him. How good are his ratings?

I believe it was the Clinton people who leaked it. I just feel it in my bones; it smells like the VP thing.

That having been said, I think it's true that they met, I think it's true that SoS was offered (maybe other things as well), and as far as I can see, that makes Andrea's report, and Keith's report of Andrea's report, true, no?

[bleever]

3. My good friend Keith,

(were we, in fact, good friends above and beyond my charter membership in the KOEB) is smart enough not to (in a modern update of the well-know aphorism) get into fights with people who don't even have to buy ink in order to broadcast their objections to what he might say.

Right, Keef?

:hi:

[RevCheesehead]

4. *ahem* - - about that charter membership....

I think the bathrooms need attending to. ;) Arrr!

[bleever]

5. I guess the fame has gone to my head.

(Grabbing cleaning supplies and fresh potpourri.)

[Berry Cool]

6. I only hope that is so.

But something tells me it's hard for Keith to take when people not fit to unlace his shoes tell him he doesn't know what-the-what he's doing as a journalist.

Others might tell him "Consider the source, Keith, consider the source." But that doesn't mean he doesn't get pissed off.