(Cross-posted at My Left Wing)
If you came to this diary because you expected some torrid, falafel-nee-loofa-laden phone-sex talkin' oxycontin-snortin story about an actual affair with Keith Olbermann, you're going to be disappointed.
If you still want to know why I would refer to it as a "love affair", there's more after the flip.
I have to admit it right up front: I watch cable news. I want to know what they're talking about and covering because the majority of people I talk to watch televised news and for many, it is the sole driver for their opinions. So yes, in addition to a
variety of other sources, I watch cable news. Sometimes I even
like it.
During the 2004 Presidential election I became particularly enamored of Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Initially, it wasn't so much his actual TV show that interested me. A friend had encouraged me to visit the Olbermann blog for some pretty witty debate coverage. I'm always one for smart, accurate and ironic political coverage, so I did. I dug up an archived copy of the round-by-round blogging Olbermann did during the St. Louis debates - find it here - and scroll to October 8, 2004. Too freakin' funny.
So he's a funny guy and while not in the same mold as John Stewart, I like him for the same reasons. Immediately following the Presidential election Olbermann was virtually the only mainstream news person covering the Ohio controversy. He picked up the story on Countdown long before anyone else mentioned it, covered it with more detail than virtually any other outlet I found, and stayed with it long after the other MSM outlets had started whispering "tinfoil hat".
Let me give you some excerpts of what Olbermann has been saying about Rove in recent days:
[OLBERMANN, July 20, 2005] Who knows if President Bush really did rush his nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court in order to knock the Karl Rove story off the front page. But if he did -- he did a poor job of it.
Unfortunately for the conspiracy theory and/or the conspiracy, the first 18 hours of Democratic reaction to the Roberts candidacy seems to be almost benign.
No hair-on-fire, "Save America!" response means no controversy.
No controversy means no headlines.
No headlines means -- we rejoin the Karl Rove story already in progress.
< snip >
Karl Rove is the Natalee Holloway of non-tabloid journalism. His story will stick around, whether or not politicians or reporters want it to, because people will watch.
Hell, we even did Karl Rove Puppet Theatre last night.
And he did. And it was both funny and accurate at the same time, with good interviews and analysis.
Remember - I am pulling things only off of his blog and not the transcripts for his show. This entry from last week is good, too:
[OLBERMANN, July 11, 2005] Karl Rove is a liability in the war on terror.
Rove -- Newsweek's new article quotes the very emails -- told a Time reporter that Ambassador Joe Wilson's trip to investigate of the Niger uranium claim was at the behest of Wilson's CIA wife.
To paraphrase Mr. Rove, liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers; conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared to ruin the career of one of the country's spies tracking terrorist efforts to gain weapons of mass destruction -- for political gain.
Politics first, counter-terrorism second -- it's as simple as that.
In his `story guidance' to Matthew Cooper of Time, Rove did more damage to your safety than the most thumb-sucking liberal or guard at Abu Ghraib. He destroyed an intelligence asset like Valerie Plame merely to deflect criticism of a politician. We have all the damned politicians, of every stripe, that we need. The best of them isn't worth half a Valerie Plame. And if the particular politician for whom Rove was deflecting, President Bush, is more than just all hat and no cattle on terrorism, he needs to banish Rove -- and loudly.
Nothing equivocal about that.
Listen - I'm not writing this just because I love Olbermann. I'm writing it because I think his show has broad popular appeal (because of its style) and I think, more importantly, that Olbermann himself has great crossover appeal given that he was a former sportscaster. He's not always on our side, but when he is, he's there firmly and loudly regardless of what others in the MSM are or are not saying.
He deserves to be supported.
Watch his show. It's on Monday through Friday, 8pm EST. Write the management at MSNBC TV and show your support for Olbermann. Note who advertised during Countdown and if Buy Blue would support a particular sponsor, contact the sponsor and tell them you are supporting them because they advertise during Countdown.
Keith Olbermann isn't Walter Cronkite. But we have so few news shows and hosts who are willing to break away from being lemmings that we need to support this type of reporting and newscasting when we see it.