For being the only cable news reporter to cover what's truly important and to do so with a depth which is in short supply elsewhere on televison. For being the only reporter to cover the irregularities of the 2004 election; for standing his ground against his corporate bosses; for taking on Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh; and for delivering what was a truly historic commentary about the Katrina disaster.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann isn't the highest rated cable news show. But it should be. Keith doesn't tow any party line and rarely mixes news reporting with commentary in a single segment. In an era in which punditry rules the day, Keith opts for a show in which the news speaks for itself. And when watchdogging is needed, Keith dives in with both feet, but without beating us over the head with self-important demagoguery. He's smarter than that and refuses to patronize his audience by overemphasizing what needs to be said. The Fox News slogan "we report, you decide" actually applies to Countdown more so than anything actually on Fox News.
Keith is old school in the spirit of Edward R. Murrow -- yet, at the same time, his show is way ahead of the news curve. Signing off with, "Good night, and good luck," Keith reminds us what news used to be as well as what it can be. It can be fun without being moronic. It can be muckraking without being biased. It can be insightful without being boring. It can infuse new technologies of information gathering (blogs, for example) without excluding those who aren't tech savvy.
For all these reasons and many more, Reality Based Nation names Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann our Voice of Reality for 2005.