"...political commentary’s long, sad descent..."

[SHRED]

Former radio talk host (and one of the best) Stacy Taylor thanks Keith.



Meet the New Boss

Ironic, isn’t it, that the first ax to fall, after the MSM two week “words-have-consequences” binge, would fall on the one guy who occasionally did a little soul searching on the issue? In response to criticism leveled at John Stewart’s recent Washington rally for “sanity”, Keith Olbermann briefly suspended his “Worst Person in the World” segment. In the aftermath of the Tucson blood bath, Olbermann implored righty commentators to honestly acknowledge that their violent verbal imagery was, to use his word, the “oxygen” that fueled the rampages of shitbirds like Jared Loughner, and he vowed to tone down his own schtick. And, now of course, Olbermann is out at MSNBC, his “Countdown” finale Friday evening, the result of a “mutual decision” that he step down.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that Olbermann had his detractors, and in his career left few bridges unburned. He left ESPN years ago in the proverbial cloud of controversy and later said “I couldn’t handle the pressure of working in daily long-form television, and what was worse, I didn’t know I couldn’t handle it.” When he later was ousted from Fox Sports , his boss, Rupert Murdoch, said “I fired him…he’s crazy.” Olbermann quit MSNBC once before, in the late 1990′s, frustrated with the network’s obsession with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. All that aside, any casual viewer of one of Olbermann’s “Special Comments” could easily see the ease with which Keith could quickly rise to a high level of righteous indignation, dudgeon, and anger. To borrow a phrase, Olbermann did not suffer fools lightly.

Having personally dealt with a long line of the back-stabbers, know-nothing twerps, and incompetent blowhards collectively known as broadcast management, I can relate to Olbermann’s frustrations. Word is that the NBC News Division has not been keen of late on MSNBC’s pointed commentary and will now wield a heavier hand in the networks programming in an attempt to provide more “balance”. That’s the death knell for guys like Ed Schultz, whose style, if anything, has been lately even more agressive than Olbermann’s. Cutesy Rachel Maddow, wishy-washy Joe Scarborough, and even-keeled Lawrence O’Donnell are likely safe for now, but my guess is that big changes are coming for the network. If your idea of incisive journalism is the phony equanimity of David Gregory’s “Meet the Press”, you’ll probably be happy with the new and improved MSNBC. But if you give even the slightest damn about political commentary’s long, sad descent into the blathering infantile bullshit characterized by Glenn Beck, you’ll look back at Olbermann’s departure as a sad day indeed.

Great thanks, Keith.

http://stacytaylor.com/corporate-media/meet-the-new-boss/

[ladjf]

1. Keep up the good fight. nt

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. You can judge a mans character by the power of his enemies. n/t