Our political journalist mentor has signed off for now.
We are surprised he survived the campaign funding debacle late last year, whether this was Olbermann's decision or not, democrats lost their loudest voice last night.
Olbermann was MSNBC's most popular personality and single-handedly led its transformation to an outspoken, left-leaning cable news network in prime time. For nearly eight years, Countdown with Keith Olbermann led the charge against conservative misinformation in prime time. He was one of the few voices in the media willing to hold the Bush administration accountable and fight the right-wing smears against progressives and their policies.
MSNBC's entire nightly broadcasting schedule was modeled around Olbermann. Shultz, Maddow, Mathews and O'Donnell. The only speaker with the testicle fortitude of Olbermann is Ed Shultz, and one could assume that Shultz would be the next to topple at the MSNBC guillotine.
Whether you liked Olbermann or not, his journalistic aptitude was bar none top shelf. His way with the English language was exceeded by none. The mans fervor for ensuring those on the left had a voice was unrelenting. His words where often backed up with data and facts rarely used by other cable news entities.
Once Olbermann dropped the pretense of journalistic objectivity, he became a hero to liberals battered by the popularity of Fox News Channel and its conservative commentators. Olbermann openly feuded with Fox, often naming personalities like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck one of his "worst persons in the world" for some of their statements.
Republicans number one nemesis is silenced, yet we hear Beck, Palin, Faux News et al ranting about shutting people up and freedom of speech. Tea bags galore are commenting on right wing blogs everywhere regarding their number one obstacle. If one was to look beyond the smoke screen one would assume that Comcast was the executioner in Olbermann's case.
Olbermann is an innovator and extremely talented broadcaster who showed there was a market for progressive views on cable news.
Where will we find Olbermann next, well Faux News is certainly out (but just think of the possibilities if he was a unbalanced and unfair Faux newsy), and the only other alternative for a major voice would be CNN. CNN has continued to struggle in prime time, most recently with a program in Olbermann's time slot hosted by Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker. Bringing Olbermann on, however, would mean a dramatic shift in the network's determined nonpartisan stance, and there was no indication such a change was imminent.
For now Keith we bid you a fair ado! Your leadership towards NFTOS is greatly appreciated. You absence or the hole you leave will be hard to close, and we at NFTOS look forward to your return. The scales of political journalistic justice have tipped way to the right today.....a sad day indeed!
Until Olbermann surfaces again, we are left with the half witted Lawrence O'Donnell.
And on this day, we wish Olbermann "good night and good luck."
NFTOS
