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BlackGriffen · Sep 28, 2006, 02:33 PM

Which Keith Olbermann clip from YouTube is your favorite?

For myself, there are so many good ones to choose from!

To start with a funny one, this is Olbermann pillorying O'Reilly. A little mean spirited, but still quite funny.

Then you get in to the serious stuff. I'll try to go roughly chronologically.

The first special comment that I know about is this one on Rumsfeld's speech to the American Legion. It's refreshing to finally have a voice in the media who gets that voicing dissent is not offering aid and comfort to the enemy. When Bush does the same as Rumsfeld, Olbermann blasts Bush, too.

His special comments gained greatly in popularity an ratings when Olbermann offered this gem on 9/11. My girlfriend has criticized this one as being not as well spoken as his previous efforts in terms of his sentences being too long, nevertheless it is the seminal comment in that the ratings it attracted inspired Olbermann's bosses to ask for him to make his special comments a regular, weekly IIRC, feature.

Next up we have Olbermann commenting on Bush's Rose Garden meltdown where Bush essentially threatens the security of this nation, holding us all hostage, in an attempt to push his torture bill through congress.

Finally there's Olbermann's comment on Clinton's Fox appearance. Not only is the comment powerful in and of itself, casting a glaring light on the right wing hypocrisy surrounding 9/11, but Olbermann backs it up with some 9/11 investigative reporting the likes of which we just havn't seen in the mass media in a long time.

I think that it's not a stretch to say that Keith Olbermann is the Edward R. Murrow of our day and age. He has definitely earned the right to use the signoff he has been using as an homage to Murrow.

"Good night, and good luck."

BlackGriffen

Edit: type-o

voodoo · Sep 28, 2006, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by BlackGriffen

I think that it's not a stretch to say that Keith Olbermann is the Edward R. Murrow of our day and age. He has definitely earned the right to use the signoff he has been using as an homage to Murrow.

"Good night, and good luck."

Agreed. Keith Olbermann is an excellent news commentator. He is highly regarded by me.

V

mac128k-1984 · Sep 28, 2006, 02:43 PM

I dunno, its not balanced by a long shot, and he asks leading questions and even if the guest on his show refutes him he continues on with the same stream. The way he portrays things the republican party and Bush don't do anything right and are the cause of all social economic woes.

I got tired his one sided reporting, he complains about O'Reilly (who is really bad) but he fails to see that he falls into similar traps - just not to the extent that O'Reilly does

BlackGriffen · Sep 28, 2006, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

I dunno, its not balanced by a long shot, and he asks leading questions and even if the guest on his show refutes him he continues on with the same stream. The way he portrays things the republican party and Bush don't do anything right and are the cause of all social economic woes.

I got tired his one sided reporting, he complains about O'Reilly (who is really bad) but he fails to see that he falls into similar traps - just not to the extent that O'Reilly does

True, he's not balanced, but balance is only good when one side is not clearly wrong. I haven't seen everything he's done, but what I have seen suggests that he tends more towards not checking his brain at the door like so many other newspeople do in the interest of balance. He may not always be right, but there is no excuse for giving someone a pass if you know they're wrong.

You do have a valid point, though, that he may be going too far in one direction, but quite frankly I find his direction refreshing in comparison to the homogenous Fox and Fox wannabes we've had in the news for so many years now. What's more there are those who claim that it is impossible not to be biased somehow, in which case it is more important to wear your bias on your sleeve than to pretend you don't have it. Not saying Olbermann does this, but it's a point worth considering.

BlackGriffen

voodoo · Sep 28, 2006, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

I dunno, its not balanced by a long shot, and he asks leading questions and even if the guest on his show refutes him he continues on with the same stream. The way he portrays things the republican party and Bush don't do anything right and are the cause of all social economic woes.

I got tired his one sided reporting, he complains about O'Reilly (who is really bad) but he fails to see that he falls into similar traps - just not to the extent that O'Reilly does

He's no more balanced than any reporter should be. Edward R. Murrow wasn't balanced when it came to McCarthy.

V

BRussell · Sep 28, 2006, 03:21 PM

I don't like the "good night and good luck." I agree with his commentaries, but that's just a delusion of grandeur.

BlackGriffen · Sep 28, 2006, 03:41 PM

Maybe. After all, it's not very likely that he will ever have the kind of influence Murrow did.

One can dream, though.

vmarks · Sep 28, 2006, 04:04 PM

Olbermann is a hero to some, to others, not much.

But he's darned fun to parody.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk...kwork_str.html

A Clockwork Strawberry

[ed. - Found under a pile of discarded MSNBC Nielsen Ratings: first draft of fringe cable TV superstar Keith Olberman's Howard Beale moment]

By Keith Olbermann
Editor and Chief, MSNBC "Meltdown with Keith Olbermann"

And now, turning to the headlines.

The headlines are, of course, entirely wrong.

Nevermind the fonts, which are totally misleading.

Thus it is surely not essential that a revered and beloved past president, pistol-whipped and sandbagged by a subhuman terrorist monkey with a microphone, finally lashed back with a raw, sinewy panther-like ferocity that sent his primate interlocutor scurrying back for the safety of Roger Ailes’ banyan tree.

Nor is it not important, in the infinitesimal cosmic clockwork of simian Beltway irony or lack thereof, that the current President’s prefab peanut gallery of poo-flinging psychedelic missing links has described his predecessor’s tone as “crazed.”

Insofar as it is as it is, in the words of founding father John Quincy Fillmore, "shan't not our very tone be encrazed?" Good, old fashioned batshit gravel-munching crazy, for, in such times as such are these, that the nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al-Qaeda; when, and in which the nation’s groundwater of ideas has been flouridated by the poisonous propaganda of heinous Fox play-by-play "homers," in bias so blatant that it would prompt Harry Caray puke a rainbow arc of Budweiser vomit from his pressbox cloud during 7th inning stretch at the friendly confines of heaven’s celestial Wrigley Field. No, citizen, these are insane times when the only sane response is to hop aboard Ozzie Osborne’s Crazy Train, go to the dining car for the all-U-can-eat bat head & psilocybin buffet, and, in the words of founding father George Jefferson, move on up to that dee-luxe apartment in the skybox of CrazyCom stadium.

Nonetheless. The headline is this:

Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years.

He wisely watched Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.

Afterwards he dare bespoke the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.

"At least I tried," he said of his own efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. "That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried. I really really extremely really tried. They didn't try and I did, and this is the real difference, the trying. And also, I tried."

Continued at http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk...kwork_str.html

BlackGriffen · Sep 28, 2006, 04:07 PM

That is pretty damn funny, vmarks!

Sky Captain · 06:20 PM

His special comments gained greatly in popularity an ratings when Olbermann offered this gem on 9/11. My girlfriend has criticized this one as being not as well spoken as his previous efforts in terms of his sentences being too long, nevertheless it is the seminal comment in that the ratings it attracted inspired Olbermann's bosses to ask for him to make his special comments a regular, weekly IIRC, feature.

Umm so just who is he critisizing with his endless bloviation? Investors?
The administration? For not erecting a building yet?(not a memorial)

davesimondotcom · Sep 28, 2006, 05:50 PM

Comparing Olbermann and O'Reilly is perfect.

They both think they are the smartest person in the room, but they are both just blowhards with airtime.

D. S. Troyer · Sep 28, 2006, 06:10 PM

I watched one with Jane Hamsher on with him. She is HAWT!!!

D. S. Troyer · Sep 28, 2006, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Comparing Olbermann and O'Reilly is perfect.

They both think they are the smartest person in the room, but they are both just blowhards with airtime.

Naw, just O'Really.

BlackGriffen · Sep 28, 2006, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Sky Captain

Umm so just who is he critisizing with his endless boviation? Investors?
The administration? For not erecting a building yet?(not a memorial)

I'll give you a hint: he was using the hole in the ground as a metaphor. A very apt one, if I do say so myself.

BG

marden · Sep 28, 2006, 06:38 PM

He's nowhere close to Rush or O'Reilly or even Dennis Miller or Bill Mahr

Not as talented as Stewart or Colbert.

One step up from Chris Matthews.

marden · Sep 28, 2006, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by D. S. Troyer

Naw, just O'Really.

In this case O'Reilly is right.

TheWOAT · Sep 28, 2006, 07:20 PM

I liked him better on Sportscenter.

marden · Sep 29, 2006, 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by TheWOAT

I liked him better on Sportscenter.

He couldn't make it there.

TheWOAT · Sep 29, 2006, 01:57 AM

Well, he did make it there. Ive heard that ESPN doesnt pay well, and who would want to live in Bristol all year? So he left like all of the other decent teleprompter readers there.
His next TV appearance post ESPN was interviewing the losing World Series team for NBC I believe, not quite his best moment. So now he is riding the "Criticize Bush" horse and hoping he gets the ratings, Good luck with that.

marden · Sep 29, 2006, 02:20 AM

Originally Posted by TheWOAT

Well, he did make it there. Ive heard that ESPN doesnt pay well, and who would want to live in Bristol all year? So he left like all of the other decent teleprompter readers there.
His next TV appearance post ESPN was interviewing the losing World Series team for NBC I believe, not quite his best moment. So now he is riding the "Criticize Bush" horse and hoping he gets the ratings, Good luck with that.

Thanks for enlightening me.

And Olbermann, he comes off like the nerd in the chess club who didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

http://drinkingwithkeitholbermann.wo...-1997-to-2001/

Especially the one you want to just smack.

I always thought he was a loser.

BlackGriffen · Sep 29, 2006, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by TheWOAT

Well, he did make it there. Ive heard that ESPN doesnt pay well, and who would want to live in Bristol all year? So he left like all of the other decent teleprompter readers there.
His next TV appearance post ESPN was interviewing the losing World Series team for NBC I believe, not quite his best moment. So now he is riding the "Criticize Bush" horse and hoping he gets the ratings, Good luck with that.

It's about time somebody did - we have more than enough people trying to get ratings by doing Fox's Bush Jr. bootlicker routine.

BG

marden · Sep 29, 2006, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by BlackGriffen

It's about time somebody did - we have more than enough people trying to get ratings by doing Fox's Bush Jr. bootlicker routine.

BG

Just what the hell do you think kept you safe and sound long enough to grow up to be such an insolent and angry young man? It was boot lickers who stood up for your country and prevented you from licking Nazi boots or Nippon boots. Or KKK boots. Or Commie boots.

Don't you forget it!