I think most of us here treasure Keith Olbermann, as a rare ray of sunlight in cable news-- smart, articulate, funny, and unafraid to take on O'Reilly, or lay out the brutal truth about FEMA's murderous incompetence during Katrina. But his online presence has, for the past two months, become virtually nonexistent-- and that's a shame.
I suppose one could leap to paranoid conclusions and accuse MSNBC of censorship, but that seems unlikely. The dropoff in Keith's posts to his blog (
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... ), which in their heyday were very good reading for those of us in the reality-based community, coincided with a)the end of the World Series, and b)the expansion of his day gig on ESPN Radio to five days a week.
Now I realize this day gig is clearly an insurance policy in case Countdown is relegated to the scrap heap (which seems probable at some point, once the 'MS' and its attendant money is gone from MSNBC). It's also an opportunity for Keith to escape the daily hellfire of writing, editing, and anchoring a news program that must walk the line between substance and bread & circuses; and to indulge his interest in sports, particularly his passion for baseball. And all of that is well and good. But it shouldn't come at the cost of neglect of his responsibilities in the news world.
As fond as I am of Keith, I feel he has really let us down by ceasing to write for his blog. He doesn't have to go back to lengthy diatribes, just the occasional link + snarky comment or potshot at O'Reilly would suffice. In this election year, we need him now more than ever; and we need to encourage him to return to being a good citizen of the blogosphere.
If you agree, please take the time to drop Keith and the show a line, asking him to try to find the time and make the committment to keep writing for his blog.
KOlbermann [at] msnbc [dot] com
countdown [at] msnbc [dot] com
Thanks...