Billmon:
Who would have thought that a hack ex-sportscaster cable news guy would turn out to be the Edward R. Murrow of our times?
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October 21, 2006
WB: Good Night and Good Luck
Comments
He’s good – but he has to shorten his sentences. It’s really difficult for me to follow his thoughts while he’s speaking. Shorter sentences – more clear thoughts.
Ok – I’m a foreigner and barely speak and understand decent English – but that doesn’t differentiate me much form the general US population. So Keith – just make it simpler: not the issue, but the verbal part.
Thanks.
b
any day give me an oberman over those sanctimonious pieces of shit who speak so sullenly on the bbc
there is another spokesperson for murdoch – i don’t know his name – but like all the presenters he’s got a face like some demented & diabolic baby while using both the most outmoded parole of propaganda & the psychobabblespeak that has its roots on the bad side of california
as for the others they scream & get more shrill in their sentences – as i’ve sd before watching blitzer is like watching some gonnoreah ridden golem & i don’t have the respect some of us here have for that man michael ware who wreaks carnage on my ears & on his own cerabral cortex, if any
as mistah charley says, have mercy on their souls, if any
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 21 2006 19:36 utc | 2
Ha,ha b,
I was just about to write that I like Kieth because he’s the only one (on tv) that does’nt reduce to the sound bite. That he lacks the patronizing attitude toward his audience, in that they can’t absorb the part to the whole and see the big picture. Personally, I’ve been dying, for years now, to see someone do what Kieth does, on the MSM.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 21 2006 19:43 utc | 3
Hack? As far as sports guys go, Oldermann was the best. “He puts the biscuit in the basket!” made hockey popular for a day or two!
But in a political arena where sports journalism seems to be the basic form of discourse – talking heads yelling at each other about how their team’s strategy makes them more likely to win with poll numbers representing the score – it’s only fitting that the best sportscaster becomes the only honest newscaster.
Posted by: Rowan | Oct 21 2006 20:18 utc | 4
Excellent English. Excellent clarity of thought.
Almost gives me some cause to think that all is not lost.
Posted by: DM | Oct 21 2006 20:20 utc | 5
Yeah, Rowan, Olbermann was damned good on the sports beat. Definitely no sports hack, or dummy either.
Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 21 2006 21:14 utc | 6
Under no circumstances should Olberman be asked to shorten his sentences or simplify his thoughts. Let’s have someone raise the bar, for a change.
He demonstrates that words have power beyond the soundbite garbage we usually get to hear from these talking heads.
Posted by: SteinL | Oct 21 2006 21:17 utc | 7
for b and others who might prefer to read. olberman transcript. a little background on keith olbermann. i believe he is a cornell grad and he has been on board since the 2004 election. he was the only mainstream journalist who openly and agressively expressed doubts about the election results. he broadcast nightly as each study came out and conyers held hearings. he has suffered attacks from o’reilly and returned fire. his ratings have climbed as o’reilly’s have fallen adding salt to the wound. imho, olbermann deserves every bit of credit he gets and more.
Posted by: conchita | Oct 21 2006 21:39 utc | 8
Down to the local truck stop diner, a fella can linger over a cuppa joe an a book without no pitchers innit, and listen in on the skinny from the workin’ men who come and go off the interstate for gas an grub.
Keith Olbermann is a name they know, and no one talks stink about him. He’s an underdog talking back to the ‘front office’ to these good old boys.
They read him loud and clear, good buddy.
.
Posted by: Antifa | Oct 21 2006 22:52 utc | 9
More power to Olbermann. I’ve thought of him as the new Morrow too. He is what we really need right now.
Posted by: beq | Oct 21 2006 23:31 utc | 11
Hack? Nah. K.O. was always a cut above. Thank Goodness he’s around right now.
Posted by: mercury | Oct 21 2006 23:41 utc | 12
I’m with conchita (#8) above.
When Mr. Olbermann came through his voting irregularity pieces intact, and still on the air, it seemed to embolden him for a run at protecting the U.S. constitution.
And to take it one step further, by fighting the most craptacular bombast of the Screamers with a righteous bombast of his own, Olbermann’s stuff has become the type of act, I think, that some Barflies, and perhaps even the Bartender himself, were looking for back when the propaganda catapaults where flinging their mind-numbing dung non-stop in the darkest of dark days.
.
I don’t know about hack-Olbermann was one of the few sportscasters who seemed to realize he was talking about grownups playing games.Now he’s one of the few newscasters who seems aware of his obligation to INFORM the public.
Posted by: AnonE.Mouse | Oct 22 2006 3:37 utc | 14
I like KO but he can be sophmoric at times. Hate the format of the show- Distracting graphics and ADHD teasers. It would be interesting to see what he would do an extended interview show.
In other matters- It’s the 21st/22nd new moon and no fireworks. Thank goodness.
Posted by: biklett | Oct 22 2006 3:46 utc | 15
Olbermann to me is like Murrow and the late Mike Royko all rolled into one (and I wasn’t even born in Morrow’s prime). The only thing on Countdown that I can do without is that idiot from The Village Voice (can’t think of his name … but he looks like Eugene Levy with twice the jowl).
Don’t forget Jack Cafferty….
Fuck Caffety. He’s a grumpy old capitalist-turned-populist in the Dobbs mode. Scratch not too deeply and the xenophobia leeches out.
As for Olbermann, isn’t it obvious that the sports guys would be the ones to call bullshit first? Bob Costas, when subbing for Larry King, provides more of the same. They know that if BushCo were a coaching staff, forced to answer tough, detailed questioning four or five times a week, they wouldn’t last a month.
But that’s because the Murkun public cares about its sports teams, and won’t take much shit from the people in charge, or the people reporting on them. Compare sports talk to wingnut talk: there’s ample bullshit on both sides, but the screeners like to allow people through who’ll call the sports blowhards on it.
Posted by: ahem | Oct 22 2006 19:29 utc | 17
that’s because the Murkun public cares about its sports teams, and won’t take much shit from the people in charge, or the people reporting on them.
I made the same point when OxyContin Man got himself bounced from Monday Football. He could spend years spouting the most insane bullshit about politics and be worshipped for it. But when he uttered one disparaging racist thought about an NFL star quarterback, and he was gone within 48 hours. Because the viewing masses actually cared about that shit.
Posted by: billmon | Oct 22 2006 23:21 utc | 18