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June 15, 2008
The New Yorker Profiles Olbermann
This is a good read. Not very flattering of Olbermann in places, but still good. The following passage hit home for me personally:
At MSNBC, Phil Griffin was worried, and with good reason. The average “Countdown” viewer is fifty-nine years old, and forty-five per cent of the viewers are women, presumably Democratic—a fair description of a Hillary Clinton supporter. Griffin believed that Olbermann was beginning to alienate his core audience, and asked him to ease up a bit on Clinton, and possibly even make some conciliatory gesture to the Clinton camp. Olbermann was offended by the suggestion. “I can’t do that!” he says, recalling that conversation. “Me doing a commentary against my own opinion is pandering. Black and white. And I’m not going to do it. Would I pull back a little bit, or think long and hard about whether or not I want to knowingly alienate part of the audience? Yeah. And I did. I mean, I held fire on Senator Clinton for quite a while after she began to really scare me, with some of these tactics.”
On a couple of occasions, I was asked to back off of the Clintons for fear of offending half of whoever reads my stuff (I hasten to note that no-one at Huffington ever asked me to ease off). My reaction was similar. This past Democratic primary season, regardless of what some of my peers might think, was not a decision between two equals.
This primary season was entirely about A New Way Forward vs. More Of The Same. Did we want a nominee who panders to the Republicans, mimicks their tactics, voted to invade Iraq, and carries along the same old players who have lost elections year after year? Or did we want a fresh, inspirational voice who refuses to play by the old rules? I chose the latter and I will always stand by that decision.
Filed under: Hillary Clinton || Iraq || Keith Olbermann || Media || MSNBC || Republicans
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Posted By Bob Cesca | June 15, 2008 2:58 PM
Comments
Well said, sir.
Posted by: lnbno13 ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.bobcesca.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 15, 2008 3:58 PM
I couldn't agree more, Bob.
You did a great job.
When the Hilldebeast conceded, the media predictably fell over themselves in their love for her. Most of them were willing to forgive everything that went down during that hag's campaign-- from basically going tongue-to-tongue with Rove on Fox News (as well as tactically) to refusing to disavow the implication that she was "just waitin' for the black dude to get offed."
It's a f--ing hideous family.. even their daughter, who is whoring it up as a hedge fund manager.
Posted by: MG at June 16, 2008 1:16 AM
I watch Keith every night.
There were times in the last six months where it was obvious to me he was holding back what he really wanted to say about Clinton.
He held off on any real commentary about the manner in which she ran her campaign until the RFK comments.
Then he was accused of "Clinton Bashing" by hillary's delusional supporters.
Posted by: Terry4505 at June 16, 2008 10:00 AM
Speaking as a 54-year-old white female Bill turned me off right after the South Carolina primary and Hillary lost me when she said as far I know, he is not a muslim. That's when I knew she must not win the nomination. And I never miss Keith Olbermann. You and he, Bob, put into words how I feel so well. Thank you.
Posted by: midad at June 16, 2008 2:38 PM
