Posted on 11/12/2006 8:18:15 AM PST by SmithL
Keith Olbermann just needed to find his voice. He'd been a droll sportscaster, a serious news anchor and a bickering critic of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. But none of those personas really clicked.
Then he found one. A little over a year ago, as the White House fumbled and botched the Hurricane Katrina recovery, Olbermann finally blew up.
He concluded a broadcast of his MSNBC cable news show, "Countdown,'' with an indignant rant in the rat-a-tat-tat cadence of his idol, Edward R. Murrow. He called it a "Special Comment.''
And just like that, Olbermann found his voice -- the angry everyman. He became a liberal counterpoint to conservative media ranters like O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, and an Internet star, too.
The result has been a cultural earthquake.
"Here's what happened,'' Olbermann said in a phone interview this week. "Five years ago (on Sept. 11), 50 percent of the country went quiet. There was this self-imposed censorship. Suddenly it became unimaginable to criticize the administration. And no one else was brave or stupid enough to say, 'I don't remember signing that document.' ''
Today Olbermann is hot, in every sense of the word. He likes to say that the first step to creating one of his blistering editorials is to "get pissed off,'' and that's certainly how he sounds.
But there's something more to it, too. Conservatives may hate his attacks, but no one doubts that he comes across as one of the smarter guys in the room. When he laid into then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Aug. 30, he threw in references to Neville Chamberlain and the policy of appeasement. Let's see NBC network anchor Brian Williams pull that off.
Not that he would try it.
"Broadcast networks are not interested in the controversy,'' Olbermann says
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I consider Olberman's antics no different than a professional athlete giving that extra effort in the last year of his contract.
If CNN signs him away from MSNBC, he will get more exposure.
His 'problem' is that the Democrats are now the majority...so who's going to be the focus of his rants?
LOL, that is as it should be, he really is a one man freak show......
Hot? I don't think so. I had the misfortune of seeing Olbermann in shorts on the #7 train as we were both heading back into Manhattan from a Mets game and it was not a pretty sight (think Bill Clinton/Pillsbury Dough Boy).
???
That is one of the dumbest out of touch statements I've ever read!
Nothing but a damn lie.
Yes, after 9/11 people ceased criticizing Bush. For about five minutes. The first of many Olbermann lies.
He comes across as an unhinged nutbag. "Smarter guys in the room" doesn't come to mind when he tears an Ann Coulter doll limb from limb with a look of pure hate on his face. Nor do the ceaseless attacks on Bill O'Reilly or the stupid face masks inspire much confidence in his intellectual abilities.
The only ass in the world who can think its funny when a kid falls out of his chair. This guy is the worst of the worst, and let me add then some.
Hmmm ... I'm an angry "everyman" and Olbermann is one of the quislings that angers me.
Poppycock!
If a bear craps in the woods and nobody steps in it, did it really crap in the woods?
Keith Olbermann was a failure as a sportscaster and until recently, his show on MSNBC drew few viewers.
When he started doing his vicious hateful "Special Commentary" it went flying around the Blogosphere and was replayed endlessly on YouTube. The KOS, DU, and HUFF crowd regard this vile "journalist" as the reincarnation of Edward R Murrow and worship and idolize him.
His ratings have shot up, and he was pulling 79% of O'Reilly's numbers before the election.
The face of the Dem Party has become these loathesome hateful, sanctimonious people. The election is over, and these folks can slink back under their rocks now. Nobody is watching.
O'Reilly will trounce him in the ratings war.
That is true, the Dems got the "put up or shut up" vote. This is going to get interesting, to say the least. The Hate Bush mantra won't sell now!
Those who have sown hatred and scorn, will reap the same.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
Got cable?
The idiot's on MSNBC.
Between Olbermann and O'Reilly, cable news has more than its fair share of egomaniacs, hypocrites, perverts, and liars.
This is quite an accomplishment (by these two) for a medium that is mostly show and little substance.
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