Olbermann’s Obfuscation
I admit it, every so often I used to watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann a long time ago. His sarcastic style of delivery was entertaining at times.
Then he started getting on my nerves.
His show and his schtik went progressively downhill culminating in his OBSESSION with Bill O’Reilly - WHAT’s with THAT? It’s a one sided competition. Why does he feel so compelled to be so competitive with Bill O’Reilly? You can only imply someone is a ‘nazi’ so many different ways before it starts sounding a little creepy. It started getting really old.
Still Olbermann managed to get some news this week. It appears Olbermann was on vacation this week and returned from his vacation for the express purpose of selectively editing and slamming Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld’s speech to the American Legion.. The progressive blogsphere is all a twitter over it. Frankly, if Rumsfeld made that many people mad, he must be doing something right.
Maybe he’s gone off his meds, or is desperate for ratings, or both.
You can find Olbermann’s response to Rumsfeld’s speech here.
h/t and photo Olbermann Watch
Hot Air has the video and writes:
It’s an instant classic of nutroots porn, second only to Colbert’s faux-dissident burlesque at the White House correspondents’ dinner. In fact, Olby goes further than Colby: we’re all used to the comparisons of Bush to Hitler and the Democrats to Neville Chamberlain, but never before have I heard someone compare Bush to Chamberlain — and to Hitler (or some generic “fascist,†if you prefer), both in the span of a few moments.
Sister Toldjah says Olbermann has turned moral equivalency into an artform.
More: memeorandum, Newsbusters, National Review, The Political Pitbull, Riehl World View,
Linked to: Stop the ACLU, The Median Sib, Robinik
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August 31st, 2006 at 3:53 am
GREAT post about this. I was so upset when I had him on TV tonight.
I too used to watch him for his sarcastic style of delivery. It used to be funny and entertaining just as you said. But he has changed or maybe he is now being himself more then ever. But very disappointing.
Thank you for your post about this!!
August 31st, 2006 at 4:51 am
I’ve watched Olberman once, and that was enough to convince me to leave my TV on FoxNews.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:11 am
Analysis: Olbermann vs. Rumsfeld …
Olbermann is chasing a will o’the wisp through cloudcuckooland. There is no argument here, no attempt to analyze what Rumsfeld actually said and to voice a rational disagreement. What Olbermann offers instead is an emotion-laden reaction to his percep…
August 31st, 2006 at 6:13 am
Great post and good point. This man needs some serious professional help; or get addicted to a computer game like Virtual Villagers, or Sim City — this sick hatred he has for Bill does nothing to hurt Bill; but Olbermann is the one being damaged. Maybe it’s high time we start a prayer circle for the loons on the left. Someone needs to intervene
August 31st, 2006 at 9:34 am
You people are doing exactly what we are being warned of. Dissent is met by questions of sanity and morality; marginilize the speaker so that you don’t actually have to use any energy to consider the substance of the debate.
This is both intellectually lazy and immoral. Fascim on the rise in USA.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:39 am
It’s ironic that conservatives have adopted that hallmark of Soviet political manuvering by dismissing critics as crazy/loony/mentally ill etc. I must say, it is enjoyable watching the right contort itself with imaginative logic as it’s grip on power and popularity in america is slipping through its fingers. I can’t wait for November.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:40 am
I thought Olbermann was spot on. Bravo to Olbermann for pointing out Rumsfeld’s (and the administration’s) own insidious and anti-democratic tactics.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:04 am
Oh, man. I gotta start turning on MSNBC more often. There IS a real journalist left in America. God Bless the USA.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:13 am
Olbermann calmly, methodically, and precisely shredded the arguments make by Mr. Rumsfeld. The current administration and its apologists use fear and name calling to disparage its critics and gather support. How about rational debate for a change? Listen carefully to Olbermann’s quotation of Edward R. Murrow at the end of his talk. Those words apply today more than ever. Anyone who attempts to gain your support by appealing to your fears and insecurities, and that includes Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, should be rejected completely and without pause. They are not serving your’s, nor America’s interests.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:22 am
Another poster nailed it: if someone forcefully disagrees with this Administration (which now, apparently, includes a convincing majority of this country) they are either a nutroot or “off their meds” or, of course, on the side of the terrorists. It’s exactly how dissent was dealt with in Soviet Russia and it is appalling. Olberman’s controlled anger is an entirely appropriate reaction to Rumsfeld’s outrageous and expected assertion that you are either an appeaser or with the Administration in regards to Iraq (thus tossing the 65% of Americans who think things are going very badly in Iraq and disagreeing with this Administration on how they are running things into the camp of the Chamberlains). You criticize Olberman for a lack of facts: he has them all on his side and Rumsfeld, sadly, has little in his defense. As Americans, you should be outraged by Rumsfeld’s repeated failures in Iraq (and Afghanistan). I’m not sure how far you have to go back to find a Sec of Defense who has made more mistakes or been more wrong. To criticize failure on this scale and to recognize that Iraq is a fiasco of the highest order is not only common sense, but in America’s best and truest interest. I’m not sure if there will ever come a time when you realize how very, very wrong you are or un-American, but most Americans are getting it. Thank God.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:25 am
Beth,
Rather than compose a mildly amusing post on Olbermann’s reponse to Rumfeld’s attack on any one who dares comment critically on the way things are going in Iraq, you would be far better employed doing a little reading on what has been happening in your country under the Bush Administration’s watch.It is clear from Fiasco and Cobra 11 that the vast majority of commanders on the battlefield, before and after the war commenced, were deeply concerned not only by the number of troops deployed, but also by the complete lack of planning for phase IV (Lt. Gen. Kellogg, overseeing systems for the command and control of forces in Iraq, said, and I quote: ‘I was there for all the planning, all the execution of the Iraq war plan. I saw it all’ But what he never saw was a plan for phase IV. ‘The assumption was that everything would be fine after the war’.)
The main goal, according to the Bush administration, was not to topple Saddam, that was just the first part of a grand scheme to transform the Middle East. The main goal, if this strategy was to be completed, had to be to first secure and then transform Iraq.
In this they have failed spectacularly, despite dire warnings from the very beginning, and the consequences of this failure has weakened America for years to come.
It seems that in the new America, to state the obvious is now an act of treason, which leads to another problem for the Bush admin and its supporters- will there be enough prison space to hold all those who’ve been stating it?
August 31st, 2006 at 11:19 am
By far the best dissertation on the most corrupt, illegal, and criminal administration this country has ever seen.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Non-Utopian Headlines and Dumb Ox Op-Ed (8/31/06)…
Free speech saved versus evil Nazi Bushies! …Hugo and Mahmoud sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g… Mexico or China: the bigger threat? Plus all the News you need, the way you want it……
August 31st, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Keith Olbermann’s commentary of Rumsfeld’s speech was refreshing in it’s clarity. We are truly being led by the most disengenous administration in our nation’s history.
The most baffling phenomena in the USA today is how the hardcore GOP faithful can maintain the intellectual gymnastics required to accept the rhetoric offered by Bush/cheny/Rumsfeld/Rice et al.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Mainstream (?) Media…
Se qualcuno si chiede perché la trasmissione Countdown di Keith Olbermann, della MSNBC, sia molto meno vista dell’O'Reilly Factor di Fox News (che va in onda allo stesso orario), provi a dare un’occhiata a questo video. Si sarebbe vergognato perfin…
August 31st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
click…history-blah blah blah click…baywatch-jiggle jiggle jiggle click…countdown-vomit lies vomit Click…off
August 31st, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Judging by the wails of hysteria by the righties, i’d say mr. O hit the nail in the head. Silly righties canoot stand (still) criticisms of their boys. i imagine most on this blog are as delusional as rummy
August 31st, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Right on Olbermann! I am passing the link to his message to all my friends. WAKE UP America, your civil rights are disappearing and they have mortgaged all our futures to pay off the fat cats. How do you impeach an entire administration? How far down the line of presidential succession do we have to go before we can find someone who has had the guts to see that this puppet emperor, his controllers, and his lackeys have no clothes? Bush doesn’t have the inteligence to have pulled off this scam. Cheney is the really dangerous one.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:55 pm
This may be a trite analogy, but….have any of you ever worked for a company where the senior management decided to launch a new product or marketing campaign or strategic initiative that you (and most working with you) knew was just a bad idea? That’s how I feel about the war on terror.
Every American wants to defeat extremism and terrorists (just like every employee of a company wants the company to succeed). It’s a matter of how we do it and allocation of resources. We’ll need to use military force in some places, diplomacy in others, let our allies carry the ball sometimes, and use sneaky tactics other times.
Let’s not spend precious resources in the wrong place. I mean, give me a break, Iraq was not a central front on the war on terror. It never was. But we turned it into one. We messed up royally. The least our leaders could do is acknowledge that.
So forgive people for getting really pissed off that the admisitration has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars not to mention many lives fighting in the wrong country. And please, let us understand who the are the ones with their heads in the sand. It is the ones that spent hundreds of billions opening a front when there was no reason to.
I would feel much better if we had spent all that money and locked down every single missing Soviet nuclear warhead.
While some on the far left really do think that Cuba would be a better place to live than the US, that is about the same number of Republicans who are polygamists. Most in the middle and the left are simply sad that the US has sqandered the goodwill so many had for it, that it isn’t living up to its potential, and that it blunders blunders blunders with the occasional victory. It is like the US Men’s Basketball team getting a bronze medal in the Olympics. Just sad.
Most people on Earth know the US can do so much better. This country is amazing…it really is. We’re underwhelming everyone.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Wow, that’s quite a collection of comments you got for this post, beth!
August 31st, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Hey Wild Thang
He is definitly disappointing!
Me too, Douglas!
Jo - LOLOL - I think the prayer circle, intervention is an excellent idea! Might scare the daylights outta him LOL
Mass Repub - you are OBVIOUSLY a male, the way you use the remote! lol
Anna! ROFL! Ain’t THAT the truth! They come out of the wood work when you say anything - even this mild about one of their icons. I wrote a post about Michael Moore a while back and the same guy came out and wrote the same comments, over and over!
August 31st, 2006 at 8:13 pm
To the other commentor who has left numerous comments under different names:
Silly righties canoot stand (still) criticisms of their boys. i imagine most on this blog are as delusional as rummy
You are the only one I see hysterical here and getting so upset over critism of one of your icons.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:41 pm
I can’t watch him anymore.
That goes for most all of the MSNBC programs…
AubreyJ………
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Is been a while since it became apparent to just about every one that the war in Iraq had turned into a fiasco. At this point in time Republicans had the chance to force some sence into Bush and change course for the good of our Country. Instead they chose party politics and went on to look the other way at the incredible incompetence of the Bush Administration. It was the Republican Congress worst moment. We did not elect them to Rubber- Stamp.
In November they will pay the price.
As for the Bush Administration. A word of warning. Accountability will be demanded this time. Incompetence will not be tolerated, and WE the American people will finally get the answers we deserve as to why, and how we got into this mess.
It is not Mr. Olebermann that should worry Republicans, but the millions of us that usually stay on the side lines and do not vote because of apathy. This time a lot of us have become angry enough to get out and trow the bums out….. They more than deserve it.
Enough is enough.
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Gil ….. perhaps you don’t remember how we got into this ‘mess’. I’ll type slowly so you can understand. We were attacked by terrorists. We were attacked in our homeland in a devastating blow. The symbols of our financial and military might were blown up. Thousands of Americans died.
That’s an act of war.
We have been at war since then, in an unconventional war because it’s an unconventional enemy. We vowed, as a nation, that we would get the jihadists and those who harbor them. They were given safe passage in Iraq.
If you look at it in no other way than pure stragetic brilliance. Having a military presence in Iraq puts us right in the middle of the middle east - from there we can turn in whichever direction we need to turn. We are in Iraq and Afghanistan - on each side of Iran. At this particular point in time, it is a good idea to have a close eye on Iran.
I don’t know who you hang with - but ‘just about everyone’ must just be in your circles.
September 2nd, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Beth.
We were NOT ATTACKED BY IRAQ BETH.
We were attacked by a bunch of Saudi Arabians.
Please get your facts correct. You can interpret them any way you want, but you are NOT ALLOWED TO INVENT THEM.
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:53 am
Gil - please quit shouting. If Im not allowed to invent facts, than I hope you will stop spinning them around.
We were attacked by jihadists. Jihadists come from various countries - which is part of what makes this an unconventional war. We are fighting an ideology rather than another country.
The jihadists would have come to where ever the war is being fought. We knew that when we went into Iraq, they would come there from all over the world. We need a base of operation in the middle east. We needed to topple Saddam. According to President Clinton in 1998, Saddam posed a real and present threat to the United States. He stated that we needed to go in and take down his regime because he supported terrorists and used chemical and biological weapons against his own people and would use them against neigboring countries and western countries.
Since we have been in Iraq 500 caches of chemical and biological weapons have been found. However, the MSM neglects to highlight these discoveries of massive amounts of WMDs. Nevertheless, it is what it is.
We are at war - whether you or I like it. Your choice is to give the bully in the playground what he wants, hoping he”ll leave you alone or you can pop him in the mouth and take your chances. But we know that bullies only pick on those they know won”t fight back - so unless we bring the jihadists to their knees, they will bring us to ours.
Just like the bully in the playground, the jihadists will only hit targets that don”t fight back - notice who they are bombing. Norway for crying out loud.
I choose victory. It really is okay for us to be strong and to defeat our enemies. I know that scares you, but we are much safer that way.
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Check out #24. Beth is your typical Bush robot: ignorant, gullible, ill - informed, paranoid, and incoherent.
These people do not have a mind of their own. They can only parrott the talking points emanating from Fox News, the official Arm of the Ministry of Truth. These people are cowards who long for a strong “leader”. They want dictatorship. They took to Bush the way some Germans turned to Hitler: because they are losers.
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Beth.
Like I said STOP INVENTIG !!!!
“500 caches of Chemical and Biological Weapons have been discovered”. That dear lady would be news to Bush, or Rummy. Please direct all of us ignorant blogers to ONE remark by any one in the Bush Administration about what you just said.
“We were attacked by Jihadis” Yes, from Saudi Arabia and you so called Jihadis were in fact Al-Quaida. I would like for you to kindly tell me what facts am I spinning? Al-Quaida is not some generic “Jihadis”
In your “We were attacked by Jihadis” I see the mental Gymanastics that people like you have to go into to explain your point of view. Iraq has much more to do with a sectarian war about to become a civil war than any “War on Terror” beeing waged against some Jihadist.
Clinton was not the only one that believed that Saddam was a danger. The entire world community believed that the man was dangerous….. To a point. Neither Clinton, nore any Arab neighbor of Iraq demanded an invasion for the simple reason that he was not dangerous enough to call for one. What Saddam did to his people DOES NOT JUSTIFY an invasion. I have news for you Beth, we are not the world’s policeman. And if we are, we are doing a rather poor job. Look at the Genocides in Rowanda, Somalia, the Congo, etc. How come we just decided to look at Saddams atrocities and ignore the others? Mental Gymnastics that’s how come.
I am scared to defeat our enemies? Really Beth you take the cake!!
If one questions the policies of this administration and the way they decided to run the war on terror, that translates into beeing scared in your eyes Beth? Dear Lady you are very confused indeed.
September 4th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Gil,
Beth and her cohorts are the ones who are scared shitless. They have swallowed whole the paranoid stance of the Bush cabal. As a result, they are running around in ther feces - stained underwear as they cannot change their diapers fast enough.
As I wrote earlier, these clowns lack any kind of intelligence, moral fiber, courage, or integrity. They are a bunch of malcontents eager to be led by a “strong” Daddy figure. These are the same kind of people who put Hitler in power in Germany.
They do not invent facts. They do not have the critical ability to do that. They are content to indiscriminately repeat talking points and rumors.