Reuters on Olbermann: "most compelling news personality of his generation"

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-09-19T075408Z_01_N19319823_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-OLBERMANN-DC.XML

Olbermann navigates tightrope minus a net

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Keith Olbermann sometimes feels as if he's out there by himself on the high wire, a lone (or nearly lone) voice of reason in a world gone mad. Emboldened by the left as the right man in the right place at the right time, dismissed by the right as a Bush-bashing tool of liberal propagandists, the host-anchor of MSNBC's nightly "Countdown" newsmagazine has long been a zealous polarizing force as a journalist who wears his heart in plain sight.

...

While there is no argument that Olbermann can at times be self-indulgent, somewhat arrogant, over the top and stridently passionate, he is also the most compelling news personality of his generation. Love him or hate him, he is a charismatic, righteously indignant force of nature who is inspiring fervent cheers and detesting jeers in equal measure.

"No voice came to me and told me to do this," Olbermann says. "It's simply the eruption of the need to say something. If this country was founded on anything, it's the fight to the death to protect the right of someone to say that which you disagree with. I just think maybe I'm first in voicing skepticism of the administration that's been irrationally muted."

...

"Yet at the same time I actually don't feel I've changed what I'm saying much at all," he maintains. "I believe it's this administration's continued move away from reality and toward rewriting our history that has made what I'm saying finally seem more relevant. That's the truth."

[rodeodance]

1. "No voice came to me and told me to do this," great one KO!!

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Thanks Sabra.....

K&R

[lonestarnot]

3. On the side of freedom and democracy that man!

Why is that so hard for some people to underfuckingstand?

[clydefrand]

29. Is Underfuckingstand located near Pakistan? :-)

[Bette Noir]

52. No, that's Underfuckingsand.

[BoneDaddy]

59. lol

good one

[malaise]

4. I love KO

Kick for speaking truth to power.
Sp.

[applegrove]

5. He's had a great two weeks that is for sure!!

[tblue]

6. Keith O is our Edward R. Murrow

"It is never unacceptable to think." - K.O.

The man is brilliant. Clone him.

[elias7]

7. "Good night and good luck"

KO echoing Murrow at the sign-off.

[waiting for hope]

8. I missed all the excitement on

DU last night after his commentary - I had a feeling it was going to be hard to get on the bus as it was last time. I did, however, want to comment that his network - MSNBC - is allowing this and they should get some applause. Granted, probably they are only looking at ratings but what KO's saying is a public voice to what we have all been feeling as a collective group. The next thing for him perhaps will be no one in the White House will dare speak his name....:evilgrin:

[Johonny]

9. What I like

is that Keith can still pop on ESPN radio and shoot the breeze for 1 hr a week with ease. Talk about someone you could sit down at a bar and have a bear with.

[tblue]

10. Good idea

but I don't eat bear. :D

[swimmernsecretsea]

13. Mmmm. Bear....

[tblue]

57. I'm vegetarian

but I will eat tofu with Keith O anytime.

[peekaloo]

11. Colbert would like that!

sitting down to share a bear. :D

[badgerpup]

24. That's part of the Second Amendment, isn't it?

...the Right to Keep and Arm Bears?
:crazy:

[Akoto]

28. Slightly off ...

The right to bear arms. They're delicious, you know. ;)

[WatchWhatISay]

42. Or shear a bear

Whichever

[me b zola]

12. Reuters must have read one of my letters to msnbc ;)

In one of my letters of support for Keith I wrote that Keith is the voice of reason & sanity of our generation. I guess I just said the obvious. :)

[Supersedeas]

14. irrationally muted scepticism -- a message directed specifically toward

THE MEDIA!!!

[grizmaster]

15. "righteously indignant force of nature"

Hard to think of a higher compliment for a reporter. Keep up the good work KO.

[jhrobbins]

16. Can someone post KO's email address - I had it, but.....

I lost it and I want to keep this one.

[City Lights]

32. Here's two that'll work:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

[jhrobbins]

55. Thank You

[wordpix]

17. I've been watching KO since he joined MSNBC; he's always impressed but

he's getting stronger, I believe from support like ours.
:applause: :woohoo:

[graywarrior]

18. I'd love to see KO on Colbert Report or TDS.

[darkism]

20. He was on Colbert, as I recall. n/t

[Wetzelbill]

19. He's the Sportscenter guy right?

:)

[Divernan]

21. Like Willie Loman - out there w/ nothing but a smile and a shoeshine.

From Death of a Salesman - the hero talking about how hard it is to keep going when you're on your own. KO's comment that he sometimes feels as if he's out there by himself on the highwire, a lone voice of reason in a world gone mad - made me think of Willie Loman.

[Cameron27]

22. He is like Willie Loman

except that I can barely watch Death of a Salesman without crying in sadness; I can barely watch KO without crying with joy.
:-)

[Janice325]

23. Thank you for the link.

I'd like to think Keith is making a difference. He is a true American hero, IMO.
k&r

[PATRICK]

25. Marc Anthony school of rhetoric

The article, practically every sentences uses "condemnatory praise" and he compares Keith to Howard beale, not Murrow, eating up type space to force the inappropriate analogy. Maybe the Beale analogy fits better if one thinks how the things that reporter is reacting to go under the radar compared to the showy angry man TV persona itself. This article ignores the Big Whopper- that the Bush horror and most truth nowadays is off limits and and abandoned gold mine in most journalism and all big media outlets.

The same quizzical tone of isolating condescension is something we are well aware of, the "crazy guy" who speaks out about obvious danger and outrage disturbing the phony peace. problems with e-voting? Dems being defrauded and bashed? free ride to the RW loons? Sooner the spotlight turned on the "oddball", the messenger than the glaring, mammoth, 800 ton gorilla rampaging in the national living room.

At least someone in his field is pretending to listen. the usual defensive posture when truth is obvious and outspoken is silence- then late: kill the messenger.

I find this kind of article very troubling, very typical and hair-raising in that it is positive for not being stridently, foaming at the mouth with Bush-serving lies type of hit piece. It recognizes only the success and trashes everything else with gentle reflex and overtaxed shoddy reasoning powers. It is the kind of respectful treatment one hears of some foreign enemy begrudgingly admiring some rival, but less than that since it then gets real personal in raking KO's behind the scenes personality over the coals because his professional demeanor and content is unassailable.

If one has ever wondered about the story of the single prophets being opposed by the many court prophets and the lack of recognition the genuine article has in relation to many others in a particualr profession on the wrong track- here is a classic study. When the mass of a group abandons the truth the one-eyed seer is dogmeat. But truth- and the people, have the final say.

[PegDAC]

39. My thoughts exactly

Murrow, not Beale.

[ClintonTyree]

26. ...."a journalist who wears his heart in plain sight"......

unlike the FUX Snooze, CNN, MSNBC and network talking heads who have an empty hole where the heart is supposed to be. KO is the only one who cares enough about our country to buck the CONservative trend and speak the truth. Our country is going down the crapper and the rest of those assholes act like everything is just dandy. :puke:
I'm glad KO is around to make people THINK and not just recite the White House talking points like the rest of those "journalists:. :eyes:
It's about time someone (besides progressives) recognized this.

[Taoschick]

34. He also

Wears his bias in plain sight which is why I don't call him a true journalist. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy and hope we have him around for a very long time but journalism isn't supposed to be about telling the audience how YOU feel about any given subject.

Maybe we just need a new term.....something between commentator and journalist.

[WatchWhatISay]

43. And just who would qualify as a "true" journalist

All I see are PR people and stenographers.

[BlooInBloo]

27. It's true, and I love Olbermann, but let's face it folks....

... it's a low bar that's been set, viz a viz "most compelling news personality of his generation".

[Towlie]

30. And what will K. O. talk about this evening?

I wonder if Keith Olbermann will say something about Bush's outrageously hypocritical invocation today of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The principles of this world beyond terror can be found in the very first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document declares that, "The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom and justice and peace in the world."

How dare Bush, of all people, pretend to have any respect for that document?

[rosesaylavee]

31. Thanks Sabra

Nice to see MSM acknowledge their best representative. Olbermann is courageously leading journalists the long way back from the lala land they have been living in for 5 years.

BTW, like your new election season avatar.

[whistle]

33. I agree

[fooj]

35. Keith gives me hope.

[zonkers]

36. Spooky how he channels everyone's energy. Life must fell surreal for him.

[zonkers]

37. He's so well rounded, such a composite -- a dude's dude as well as

a having a very mannered, sensitive/feminine side, don't you think. Such an original. And to think it all happened so naturally, spontaneously right before our eyes. He is the man.

[bobbolink]

38. He feels like he's out there alone on a highwire, because he IS

That's what's wrong.

He's alone in what he's doing.

Well, with a few exceptions. (Does Colbert count?)

We need HORDES of truth-speakers.

What an idea...

[StrictlyRockers]

40. Here is my letter to the decision makers at MSNBC.

KO needs all the support he can get. Have you written your letter yet?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2174903


SR

[Raksha]

41. I have a sticker on the side of my computer desk:

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

By that standard, Keith Olbermann is a true revolutionary. I think I'll write to him and tell him so!

[The Deacon]

48. The Phrase That Keeps Rolling Around In My Head

Is a paraphrase of the explanation Schindler gave for saving Jewish inmates of a concentration camp:
It was my fate to live in a time when simple human decency was an act of courage.
Scary, no?

[donheld]

44. And we have DUers who want him to "shut up"

:grr: Please Mr Olberman don't listen to them.

[sakabatou]

45. Olbermann: This generations's Edward R. Murrow

[Hubert Flottz]

46. The ONLY one I trust!

[NoGOP]

47. I admired how.....

....He was one of the very few MSM journalists that devoted a good bit of on air time to the prevalent election fraud in Ohio.

[Hubert Flottz]

54. I liked the way he reported on the Ohio election theft too.

That was when I started watching him every evening. I quit watching the CBS evening news when Dan Rather left.

Welcome to DU.

[NoGOP]

58. Thank you

for the welcome!

[Time for change]

49. Decent article, but I don't like this part:

"Olbermann can at times be self-indulgent, somewhat arrogant, over the top and stridently passionate".

Where the hell is that coming from? Is that an attempt to inject some sort of "balance" into the article?

Does anyone else here agree with that characterization? Arrogant? Self-indulgent? Over the top? Strident? And not only that, but the article says that there is "no argument" about those things.

Jesus, he's demonstrated remarkable courage in speaking truth to power regarding perhaps the greatest threat that our country has ever faced. How is that self-indulgent or over the top?

[OXM]

50. Thing is, it's true.

He is all these things, and this makes watching him so compelling. What I like about Olbermann is the idea that someone can be self-righteous and right at the same time. You can't whisper truth to power.

[Shakespeare]

51. Nah, that's accurate--and not necessarily a bad thing.

It's inevitable with a "big personality" like Olbermann--the key is balance, and KO does a pretty good job of keeping his presentation (not his politics; there's a difference) balanced. Look, I ADORE the guy--but he's not perfect, and frankly, to be as good as he is, there's got to be a little self-indulgence, arrogance and passion.

[Time for change]

60. Maybe we use different definitions

In my view, arrogance is not a good thing at all. It indicates a strong tendency to act like you are right at all times, despite the facts, and to act superior to people.

Keith does not ACT as if he is right despite the facts. Rather, he is very careful to marshall all the facts before coming to a conclusion IMO. If he went beyond the fact then he should be considered "over the top", which would mean that his opinion should be given much less weight. I don't see how arrogance and "over the top" can be considered a good thing. I can't stand arrogant people, which characterizes most of today's Republican Party.

[xxqqqzme]

56. when he bitch slaps

'bill-o', 'the big talking head' he can get self indulgent - BFD! Every talking hair-do on fux is self indulgent all the time!


I have been paying extra attention to story captions -lately. It seems the line between Jon Stewart/TDS and Keith Olberman/Countdown is getting blurry. There are some great punny captions now on both programs.

[churchofreality]

53. TOO BAD LOTS OF PEOPLE DON'T GET MSNBC

I recently switched from landline cable to satellite. I explicitly asked the provider if MSNBC was in the package I was getting (because my wife and I are die hard Countdown fans) and they assured me, yes. So they hooked me up and lo and behold no fucking MSNBC! I called and ranted and raved until they upgraded me to the package that had it. The point I'm trying to make is twofold, 1. it's a shame that everyone can't get it because Keith is brilliant and one of the few ballsy journalists who stands up, and 2. that Orielly fans tweak us by saying that Keiths audience is so small, but I think thats mostly due to the satellite and other providers not having MSNBC as predominate as FOXNEWS.