I was this close to writing my third ever diary last night (Based on reader response, I'm batting .500) defending Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and to a lesser extent Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman which was to have been in response to this diary, "Memo to Keith Olbermann: Go - - - - yourself" and similar sentiments expressed elsewhere. In the end I chose not to add to the glut of Meta diaries that already riddled the Daily Kos landscape. While laying in bed and checking the site on my phone, I read Keith Olbermann's justifiably disgusted response to this comment and more generally this diary on which the comment was made. Upon reading the many responses, I feel that Keith's main point has been lost on many of the readers whether they agreed or disagreed with his take on the speech. It a is point I feel needs to be highlighted even at the expense of yet another Meta diary.
If I can understand people's frustration with seeing a speech by a Democratic president criticized in a venue such as mine, why is it impossible for some people here to accept my frustration about the speech? You don't agree with me, fine. You don't want to watch because you don't agree with me, fine. But to accuse me, after five years of risking what I have to present the truth as I see it, of staging something for effect, is deeply offensive to me and is an indication of what has happened here.
The propensity of many people on this site to question Keith Olbermann's character as a result of his criticism of the President, has caused him to no long wish to participate at Daily Kos in its current form. For way too many people here and across the political spectrum, the failure of one's opinion to live up to the proscribed orthodoxy means they are being disingenuous at best and nefarious at worst.
I came to two realizations while watching MSNBC's coverage of the President's speech last night:
- MSNBC is not the ideological symmetrical opposite of Fox News. There is no way that any personality at Fox would ever criticize a sitting Republican President the way that Keith, Rachel, and Chris have criticized President Obama.
- I really respect all three of them for voicing their dissent because I know they greatly wish to see this President succeed and they are for the most part in agreement with his ideology. It took a particular degree of intellectual honestly to be so frank and candid in their criticism considering the political stakes riding on the success of the speech.
Even though I am inclined to disagree with Keith and Rachel on many issues, I watch them every night because they challenge me intellectually and sometimes even sway me over to their side of things. If I felt that they were mindless shills for the Democratic Party, I wouldn't watch because their show would be predictable and boring. If I wanted someone like that I could watch Sean Hannity, the embodiment of someone who never has an independent thought and can be counted on the tow the company line 100 percent of the time.
You want Cheerleaders? Hire the Buffalo Jills. You want diaries with conspiracy theories, go nuts. If you want this site the way it was even a year ago, let me know and I'll be back.
Fox News hosts and anchors are a bunch of cheerleaders and conspiracy theorists. I may not agree with Keith, Rachel, and Chris much of the time but I watch them every day because they are interesting (unlike CNN) and they share their honest opinion.
The people here that accuse Keith Olbermann of having transformed from an Edward R. Murrow wannabee to a clown for having the audacity to share his honest opinion, never wanted Edward R. Murrow to begin with. What those people want is the Left's equivalent of Sean Hannity, whether or not they realize it.