Quote:
Originally Posted by atomiczombie
Geez, it's not like Keith doesn't wear his political biases on his sleeve every night on his show anyway!!! They should give him a slap on the wrist and bring him back. He is an important voice for the political left in the media.
What do you all think?
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I think that he shouldn't be fired but that *some* kind of disciplinary action is probably appropriate here. More than Rachel Maddow--who I think actually tends to be a stickler for facts--Mr. Olbermann gets a bit carried away from time-to-time. I hope that he takes some time and reflects upon what his role as a journalist is.
Ultimately, I don't want MSNBC to be FOX News Left. I want MSNBC to be the standard by which American television journalism is judged. FOX is unabashedly partisan (and all the statements by its supporters that it is fair and balanced mean just this side of nothing, saying something is so does not change the objective reality at all) and what I want is for MSNBC to be reality-based news. That means that if an on-air personality is speculating, they will SAY that they are speculating. What that means is that if a liberal guest says something not supported by the facts, they are called out for it as quickly as a conservative guest would be. The same goes for politicians whether they are on the air or their actions or words are being reported on.
Part of what I love about Rachel Maddow (and which I wish Keith Olbermann would take a lesson from) is that she is very concerned about the facts and getting it right. As most of you know, I have a serious monkey on my back about this kind of thing because I believe--and every day I see more evidence of this--that we (and by this I mean liberals/progressives/the American Left) have theorized ourselves into a corner. By that I mean that we have helped create a culture where it
no longer matters if a claim is actually true in any kind of empirically verifiable sense. Ms Maddow is shining light on something that those of us who grew disenchanted with this ideology have been saying for a while: this idea that whatever you believe to be true is alright and deserving of respect has real, serious, political implications. I am glad that Mr. Olbermann suspended the 'Worst Person in the World' segment. It had outlived its utility (however much it might have had) and made him seem histrionic.
When Mr. Olbermann returns, I hope that he recommits himself to being more like his hero, Edward R. Murrow, and less like his nemesis, Bill O'Reilly. We have enough loud voices who play fast and loose with the truth, we need more journalists and on-air personalities who, when some representative of power says that global warming isn't happening, or that cutting taxes reduces the deficit or any of a number of other nonsensical statements, asks the obvious follow up question: "okay, you believe this. But is that belief based in fact?"
Cheers
Aj