Wait for it, darlings (Olbermann)

[Miss Authoritiva]

Wait for it, darlings

From Scriptoids

Last I left MSNBC, it was Friday, May 9, 2008, at around 8:10 pm, during Keith Olbermann's show. He and Jonathan Alter were struggling to figure out if Hillary Clinton is (a) Nixon, (b) Agnew, or (c) both.

Wait for it, darlings.

Once the general election campaign coverage starts, we'll be watching Olbermann and Alter struggling to figure out if Obama is (a) more black than white, (b) more white than black, (c) more Christian than Muslim, (d) more Muslim than Christian, or (e) more comfortable with bomb-tossing terrorists (yes, that would be Ayers and Dohrn) than with "working, hardworking whites."

Really, how could such a heavy bloc of political programming on a news channel owned by GE not tilt towards a candidate (yes, that would be McCain) who thinks a 100 years in Iraq would not be such a bad thing. GE certainly doesn't think it would be such a bad thing.

That’s because in addition to owning various media, healthcare, and financial services companies worldwide, GE also produces jet engines, turboprop and turbo shaft engines, and related replacement parts for use in military and commercial aircraft; wind turbines; aircraft engine derivatives; gas and steam turbines, and generators; drilling and production systems, compressors, turbines, turboexpanders, and industrial power generation equipment; and all sorts of other nifty stuff useful for destroying-rebuilding-destroying-rebuilding regions and countries.

Like Lockheed Martin, the current king of morbid vertical integration in the disaster capitalism complex, GE can profit and does profit from making military aircraft and from rebuilding what they destroy (GE Infrastructure) as well as from treating the people they injure (GE Healthcare). As a further bonus, because GE owns media companies (GE NBC-Universal) such as MSNBC, it can effectively catapult the propaganda of its choice.

So while we’re waiting for the real fun to begin, go get a friend to play the Jonathan Alter role and struggle to figure out if Keith Olbermann is (a) a pompous hack, (b) a pompous all-purpose hack, or (c) a pompous all-purpose hack who receives generous paychecks from GE.

[dkf]

1. Nah, Olbermann will begin to tear McCain a new one...

[rurallib]

2. Been waiting for KO to get pulled but he seems to have real

freedom in what he says. Apparently you disagree. Has KO done something(s) in the past to make you believe that he will be joining the rest of the RW media? To me he, Goodman and Moyers are the only light in an otherwise dark TV news business.

[rurallib]

4. Hello Hello? Is this a hit and run to drive people to your blog?

[Miss Authoritiva]

11. No.

This is not a hit and run to drive people to my blog. The entire post is printed here.

[shraby]

14. I remember him admonishing Clinton in a special

comment and pleading with her to clean up her campaign. She lost his support the nastier she got. Now he's washed his hands of her and he tactics. That's what you're seeing.

[babylonsister]

3. Nope. He had free rein to point out the error of *'s ways for years.

What makes you think he'll turn on a Dem? I'd bet you money he'd quit first.

[Wetzelbill]

6. I think he'll fairly critique Obama

but in comparison to McCain, McCain has much more to go after on. So I don't think it's that he wouldn't turn on a Dem, because I don't know if he necessarily "turns" on anybody. I think he sees somebody doing something he seriously has a problem with and he'll rip into them on it. Be that Rumsfeld or Bush, or even Hillary with the Ferraro stuff, or John McCain and all the hypocrisies he has going on.

[babylonsister]

7. Absolutely, and he has. The OP is under the impression

that, because of his corporate sponsors, he'll be turning on a dime. I don't see it, but I think KO will be critical of anyone who is boneheaded, disingenuous, lies, etc. That's what I like about him.

[Wetzelbill]

9. definitely

I'm feeling that, babylonsister. Rock on. :)

[Miss Authoritiva]

13. No, turning on a dime would be too obvious.

Just keep track of the guests, their leanings, their political and corporate connections, the selection of stories and videoclips, what gets asked and answered and what doesn't.

Sometimes the propaganda gets catapulted indirctly. Here's a (non-KO) example. In her latest column, Maureen Dowd featured a direct quote from an anonymous Indiana farmer.

In a restaurant in Greenwood on Tuesday, Obama approached an older white guy who waved him off, muttering afterwards to a reporter: “I can’t stand him. He’s a Muslim. He’s not even pro-American as far as I’m concerned.”

Well, assuming he actually exists, the anonymous Indiana farmer is entitled to think that Obama's "not even pro-American." But didn't Dowd have an obligation to clarify in her column that Obama is a Christian?

So watch for the stuff that gets by unchallenged, usually because it's time for a commercial break.

[Miss Authoritiva]

10. Well, only time will tell.

I never thought that I'd be watching Olbermann and a guest working hard to come up with the perfect Nixon/Agnew comparison to Clinton. I mean, WTF? I've said elsewhere on DU, it's not the media's role to tell a candidate when to checkout. That's up to the voters and the party.

I am a former Olbermann fan (I could be won back, Keith, really). But since the start of the primaries, KO has really lost his touch. At first I thought it was because he had to be on-air so much with Chris Matthews, who is a real brain-sapper; and I had great hopes that once Rachel Maddow began appearing as a guest that maybe KO would sort of self-correct. It hasn't happened.

[LaurenG]

5. I can't agree and I don't see how you came to these conclusions. nt

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

8. Yeah, and that's why he has been railing against the Iraq war for years now

:wtf:

[Berry Cool]

12. Olbermann is a man of principle, and he's already demonstrated it.

The reason his position on Hillary Clinton changed had nothing to do with his supposed GE "overlords" and everything to do with her turning into a person I don't believe he feels he recognizes any longer. At the same time as he has been pointing this out, he has been one of the few media voices already railing about John McCain, pointing out his pastor problem, his out-of-touch foreign policy ideas, his warmongering stance, and every other flaw you could name.

Even if I knew no more about Olbermann than that, it would be a huge stretch for me to believe that after having done all that, he would magically turn on Obama and begin attacking him as a scary Muslim black guy.

Time and time again, bloggers who hadn't even heard of the name Keith Olbermann before 2006 have assumed that his strings are pulled by GE and that he parrots whatever it is they find politically expedient for him to say at the time. Time and time again, he has done interviews in which he has said that although, in the early days of his show, he was pressured to do things like counter each liberal guest with two conservatives, he pushed away the pressure--and that GE doesn't give a damn lately what he says or who his guests are as long as he keeps the ratings coming.

Yet the countdown continues...the countdown amongst progressive bloggers as to how long it will be before Olbermann finally reveals himself for the bought-and-paid-for media shill he is and starts peddling pro-Republican propaganda on behalf of his corporate masters.

But it's never happened. And it never will.

Olbermann's already been down this path with MSNBC. In 1998, doing night after night of shows on Monica Lewinsky was making him literally ill. The ratings were great...but he believed it was wrong. And he found a way to get out.

I have no doubt that if anyone tries ever again to put the screws on him to slant his news any way other than what he sees fit, he will walk. Again. It will break his heart, but he'll walk.

Scriptoids is barking up the wrong tree. If he's looking for a media lapdog who will say whatever the people who sign his paychecks want him to say, Keith Olbermann isn't it.

[conejodemocratic]

15. Attacking Democrats is not what we should be doing

Shame on Olbermann.

[Berry Cool]

16. The only shame is on Hillary.

Who do you mean "we," kemosabe? Olbermann never said he was a Dem. He doesn't even vote. He knows no party loyalty. He calls things as he sees them, regardless of party.

I know that comes as a shock to those unable to conceive of a journalist doing such a thing, but you'll get over it.

[babylonsister]

17. What should "we" be doing, if criticism is deserved? Do tell. nt

[mitchtv]

18. I agree but

there is a difference between criticism and mocking. KO would do well to save that for the enemy