HuffPo: "A Tribute to Olbermann: Why He Is Different from the Pundits at Fox News"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

A Tribute to Olbermann: Why He Is Different from the Pundits at Fox News

Mitchell Bard



Writer and Filmmaker
Posted: January 23, 2011 01:59 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitchell-bard/a-tribute-to-olbermann-wh_b_812770.html

Black and white is easy; nuance is hard. Which is why it's much easier to just lump media outlets and personalities into simple boxes: left v. right, or partisan v. objective, for example.

So if you want to play that game, it's easy to dismiss Keith Olbermann, who broadcast his final episode of Countdown on MSNBC Friday. It's simple to dash off a hack piece (like this one in the Daily Beast, which revealed its simple-minded bona fides by invoking the right's favorite jab at Olbermann: he used to work in--gasp!--sports) that lumps Olbermann in with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, as if they all do the same thing just because they are all loud and aggressive.

An analysis of how MSNBC (which uses a traditional journalistic approach to report facts, but then, ditching objectivity, critically assesses how the facts compare with the progressive take on issues) differs from Fox News (essentially a right-wing propaganda operation pretending to practice journalism, with no allegiance to facts) is a book-length endeavor and beyond the scope of a blog piece. But Olbermann's approach reflects the difference between the two networks.

Anyone charging that Olbermann's show was equivalent to Beck's clearly hasn't watched either of them. Olbermann wasn't objective, but he was honest about it, not disingenuously claiming to be "fair and balanced." But his shows were well-researched and relied on facts to make his progressive points.

[snot]

1. And Beck hasn't been pushed out.

Have ANY conservative talking heads been pushed out?

[ellenfl]

2. olbermann is a very well-educated and intelligent man.

he is definitely not just a cue card reader. there is very little that he (or rachel) do not know or do not know how to research. they both do their homework, as opposed to making it up as they go along. of course, the ptb don't want independent intelligence.

ed is the populist and lawrence is the politics wonk. tweety is (finally) getting back to his idealist roots.

i hope we don't lose them all but i am afraid that is what will be. then we can only hope that someone will step up with his/her own truth-telling network. (oprah, are you listening?)

ellen fl