Keith Olberman's great -- But something about his show is bothersome

[Armstead]

I like Keith Olberman. He's great and tells it like it is.

But often his own show seems to undercut him.

I've often seen set-ups for stories that would lkead you to believe they'll be really critical and honest. But then, the actual story -- or interview -- turns out to be the same old MSM shit.

He'll ask a provocative question, but then have a guest on who is straight out of the Beltway usual Suspects crowd. soime moronic reporter or pundit oir "analyst" who just spouts off the usual crap. And Keith seldom challenges them.

Or he'll promise a news report that says something like "Did the Administration hype the latest terror threat?"....But then the story turns out to be repackaged reports from the nightly news, HGardball, etc. by stenographers like Lisa Meyers or the other crak parrots of the nbc Washington Bureau.

Keith needs to get some REAL alternative viewpoints on there. Talk to some real progressives and otehgrs who are outside of the usual crowd....Hell, even Tweety has peopel like Amy Goodman on.

[babylonsister]

1. I'm all for him getting rid of Mike Allen and the boob from the WaPo,

(Dana Milbank) and putting on Amy, Katrina, even Craig Crawford was more balanced.

[shooga]

4. time

Keith is pretty good .... he's on at a tough time period 8 to 9 ... competing with a lot of main stream crap .... like O'Really Spin Zone Control .

[DURHAM D]

5. Dana Milbank can't be taken seriously as a journalist.

I don't understand why Keith has him on all of the time. He is a total lightweight. Likewise, Mike Allen is utterly lacking in gravitas - not to mention honesty.

I think Keith feels the need to lighten it up sometimes with those two idiots.

I vote with you.

[Malikshah]

16. Is it just me, or has Milbank invested in some MAC or Maybelline

His eyeliner is getting *real* obvious now.

T'aint nachurl. ;)

[napi21]

6. Dana's OK most of the time, but I prefer Craig.

I suspect Keith has to be a bit cautious with just how far out he goes with many stories. We all remember Phil Donhough (sp). So far, the only "news" host that doesn't seem to have any restriction is Dobbs.

[WiseButAngrySara]

11. I agree. And interesting observation r.e. Dobbs. Any speculation as

to why that might be?

[napi21]

19. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that he's popular in his

time slot, and he's been around the business for a long time. I know Lou writes most of his own stuff, and isn't as dependent on producers as many hosts.

The other thing could be that he's wealthy enough and confident enough that he says what he believes and just doesn't care what the station owners think.

[renate]

23. where has Craig been?

Does anybody know?

:shrug:

[AlCzervik]

34. love, love, love Craig, his Dad volunteered for the Kerry Campaign

in 2004.

[calimary]

22. And that boob-with-bells-on, Richard Wolffe of Newsweek.

Almost every commentary he makes includes something to the effect of - "but people realize, deep down, that bush/the bush administration is/are doing the best he/they can." This guy is utterly LOATHE to say anything, or point out anything, or detail anything, about how bad bush is screwing the country. But then again, I saw his boss, Evan Thomas, on CSPAN, exhibiting the same attitude, so I guess I can understand where this comes from. It's as though you can almost see the hand of cheney or rove gripping their balls from under the table.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. We noticed too

[savemefromdumbya]

3. We noticed too

[Berry Cool]

7. I don't think you've been watching enough.

For one thing, you might know his name has two Ns if you did.

Second, not every guest is a winner. I think he does challenge when he gets answers that don't seem complete, but he can't force people to say what they're determined not to say.

As for last night's report on whether the Administration hyped the latest terror threat, or whether there is a pattern, that was recycled from his OWN show, not anywhere else.

NBC does do the show fairly cheaply...he ends up having to re-use a lot of their news. But he doesn't repackage Hardball much that I can see. And I disagree that Lisa Meyers is a "stenographer." Same for David Gregory and David Shuster.

I think Keith DOES have alternative viewpoints on. Maybe you just haven't been tuned in when they've been on. He was talking to Kos last week about the whole issue of whether Lieberman's Web site was really hacked. That's just one example, but it's a recent one. He's had Janeane Garofalo and others.

[Armstead]

30. Spelling names has never been my strong point , but I do watch

And my response is to being frequently being disappointed after a big build up.

The fact is that you can't ask a provocative question and expect a meaningful answer from the likes of Dana Milbank. And you can't expect a news story with any real depth or honesty from the same TV Nooze Presstitutes who have been pandering cowards and lackeys of the Bush administration for 6 years.

My point was that OlbermanN as a person and host does go below the surface and challenges the conventional wisdom. But too often the other elements of the show have the same lazy stamp as the rest of the contemporary nes landscape.

I would just like to see the follow-up be more in line with the promise.

[nam78_two]

8. Maybe he has difficulty getting good journalists?

:shrug:

I think KO is great but didn't the show start as a sorta light weight celeb gossip type thing? I thought he made it what it is by sorta going outside the original guidelines or something, cause I don't see MSNBC hopping on board if not.
And once he got popular they couldn't muzzle him? At least thats how I interpreted the KO phenomenon.
I mean even now he throws in some Suri Cruise, American idol type crap, as a sop to MSNBC I guess...:shrug:?

[Rosemary2205]

12. Seems to be quite a shortage of GOOD journalists.

Pretty darn pathetic when comedians do a better job on the news than CNN.

[Garbo 2004]

14. No, it didn't start as a celeb gossip show. He has that and other goofy

stuff to lighten up and broaden the appeal. The program from the beginning was a news program with a quirky bent to it. Something different that you don't/won't see on other news programs and with an attitude. And his treatment of celeb stuff is hardly serious or reverential. He lampoons that stuff and the media's obsession with it rather than presenting it as "news" as others often do.

Olbermann's not Bill Moyers, but at times in some instances I think he's approached Edward R. Murrow territory in his commentary and presentation. More than one will see from his competitors, that's for sure. (Even Murrow had to do a celeb interview program as a trade off so he could do his serious news programs and commentary.)

[nam78_two]

15. Oh ok

Thanks for the info.
Yeah it just popped up on my radar recently-I heard about it on the internetZ :)...

Since I can't stand MSNBC normally :puke:.

And someone told me KO was a sports commentator and the show started as a light fluffy show and KO pulled it in this direction purely through will and force of personality.

[JohMunich99]

18. Well KO was a sports commentator

Then he switched. I believe he started out as a serious anchor to being with. Most ESPN anchors come from a serious anchor background.

[Garbo 2004]

21. KO previously was on MSNBC during the OJ thing. He gave up his show

(which was news and commentary) and left MSNBC because he didn't want to do OJ all the time which is what MSNBC wanted. I recall because I used to watch his program and you could tell that he was getting pretty disgusted with "OJ all the time." He's one of the few people who actually just leaves rather than go along with what a network wants. (Hence the many jobs he left in the past. ESPN, MSNBC, Fox Sports, for example.)

"Countdown" has his snarky imprint, no doubt about that. And he goes farther than other "anchors" do in his coverage of politics and criticisms of the Administration. Perhaps the only network news program to even try to tackle the election fraud subject. It's one of the few "news" programs I actually watch on a fairly regular basis. And when I'm bummed at the news there's a bald squirrel or some such oddity to lighten things up. Or "puppet theater." Or he goes after Billdo and his falafels. LOL

Keith was a sports guy for years and clearly loves it, hence his frequent coverage of sports on Countdown. I think he still does some ESPN radio work. But Countdown was intended as a news program from the start, but not stuffy or in the mold of other programs. Hard to be light and fluffy with what's been going on, though.

[nam78_two]

24. Ok I *have* to know ;)

Whats with the whole O'Reilly Falafel thing? I mean I can guess but wanna know for sure...
And why is that jackass Matthews called Tweety?
What started those two things :)?

[Garbo 2004]

25. Billdo apparently sexually harassed one of his producers, would call her

up at home and talk about shit. He confused "falafel" with "loofah" when he was talking about getting it on in the shower, if I recall correctly. (At least we assume he was confused. A loofah in the shower isn't entirely surprising, but it's quite another matter to get aroused in the shower with a Middle Eastern meatball. LOL.) Apparently she had filed a sexual harassment complaint with Fox, but the general public didn't know anything about it until Billdo and Fox retaliated by suing her, claiming she was extorting them.

All kinds of shit became public info when she then sued him and Fox for sexual harrassment. And her filing with the court was a doozy. People figured she'd taped Billdo's phone calls to her, given the level of detail in the court document.

Olbermann on his program even offered to pay her for the tapes out of his own pocket. (Viewers were volunteering to pitch in bucks if the presumed tapes existed and could be bought.) But the case was settled out of court. Reportedly the producer got around $6 million, IIRC.

More info here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1013043mackris1.html

The reason I call him Billdo was because according to the producer's court filing, if my memory serves, Billdo said he was getting off with a vibrator up his butt while he was speaking to her. What a guy.

Tweety's a more boring case. Supposedly that's what the MSNBC makeup/hairdresser people called him because of his yellow hair. Said it made him look like the cartoon character, Tweety Pie. No match for the Billdo story.

[nam78_two]

26. LOL thanks

I do remember the O'Reilly thing now...but I never knew about the "falafel" part-I only knew the loofah crap.
He is such freak I wouldn't put it past him to be aroused by falafels :rofl:

[NYCGirl]

27. Actually, it was not OJ Simpson, but Monica Lewinsky:

In 1997, Olbermann left ESPN to host his own primetime show on MSNBC, named The Big Show. The news variety program covered three or four different topics in a one-hour broadcast. Olbermann also occasionally hosted the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News, and he was the co-pre-game host (along with Hannah Storm) of NBC Sports’ coverage of the 1997 World Series.

When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in 1998, he began hosting another news program, White House in Crisis. Olbermann says he became frustrated when the Lewinsky story constantly consumed his regular show. In 1998 he would state that his work at MSNBC would "make me ashamed, make me depressed, make me cry." <1>. He left MSNBC after 17 months to return to sportscasting, although he has said that even if Lewinsky never happened, he still would have left to return to sports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Olbermann#After_SportsCenter

[Garbo 2004]

31. Thanks. Brain fart. How could I forget Monica 24/7? That was it. n/t

[goclark]

9. Dan Abrams is in charge now, right? nt

[Fredda Weinberg]

10. I believe he's learned from Donahue's example n/t

[Mend]

13. I watch, I then feel so awful about the state of things, then

I don't watch for a while. The show depresses me, especially when milbank smirks.

[oasis]

17. Olbermann debunks O'Reilly's shit. He exposes the Bush Administration.

He doesn't spew right wing talking points. Not too many around doing much better than that on a daily basis.

[sandnsea]

20. He's not doing left wing propaganda

He's presenting the facts as he finds them. If you don't like his reports, perhaps you don't like hard facts as much as you think you do.

[Armstead]

29. No -- But I don;lt consider the crap the MSM churns out as "the facts"

I'm not looking for propaganda or news that makes me feel better. Just some tough minded honesty and 3 Dimensions.

There's a lot of "facts" out there that get buried and ignored. Also a lot of perspectiuves that are disregarded. People like Amy Goodman go beyond all that crap, and show what's really going on....You can agree or disagree with her politics -- but the information she presents about what happens below the surface is important.

But what passes today as MSM "news" is just the result of a bunch of lazy, pampered, priviledged goofballs who are out of touch with reality on any level beyond their cushy townhouses. They take one bit of the day's "conventional wisdom" and flog it to death. Never really going beyond the boundaries of what's safe and acceptable.


Do you eer ask yourself, for example, what is happening to the heralthcare industry while the media is obsessing on the latest Terrorismn Scare or the Scandal du Jour or the latest round "horse race" political coverage?

[sandnsea]

32. You want your view presented

Amy Goodman doesn't always present pure facts either. She only presents the Hezbollah said of the Isaeli conflict, she only presents the Castro side of Cuba, she is far far from thorough and fair.

And your post didn't attack all the media, you attacked Olbermann who doesn't present just the mainstream view. He'll put on whoever he believes is presenting the facts, so if you don't like what he sees as the truth but you do like what Amy Goodman sees as the truth, then you're not interested in a full airing of the facts, you're interested in left wing propaganda.

[Armstead]

33. No, frankly i find left wing propaganda boring

Yes people like Amy Goodman have their own biases. But if all she (they) were doing is mouthing off left wing platitudes, I wouldn't bother listening. But the fact is that they give the other side(s) of the news, and as long as one knows where they're coming from, then there's a lot of information to be had.

I also watch Fox News sometimes. There's also occasionally information in there, and it's also worthwhile to know what the conservatives are thinking.

Those two ends of the pole, howeer, have a different role than the MSM is supposed to have. Mainstream media ought to be presenting a wide variety of opinions. And once upoin a time, reporters had an instinct to ferret out the real facts and go beyond the spin. But theses days they just regurhitate what the political "leadership' is saying and echoing each other.

[kentuck]

28. I don't see it that way...

Keith prefaces the story in another perspective and then you get the M$N perspective, that is true. But he plants the "seed" for his viewers to look at the story in a different way. ANd that is very important. Otherwise, it would just be an opinion show of Keith Olberman and I'm afraid it would not be on the air very long. He goes as far as can and still remain on the job, imo..