In a move destined to add weight to MSNBC's downward spiral of legitimacy, they've gone the route of self-surgery using a meat cleaver instead of a scalpel. As much as they may grit their teeth as the cleaver lays waste to the manhood that served as the MSNBC rudder, you can rest assured that the hand that does not wield the blade is instead inserting itself squarely up the backside of parent company General Electric's vision of political correctness.
As horrific an example of multi-tasking as that may seem, the dismissal of Keith Olbermann is just another example of the once proud network's transition into a cable pablum that seeks to be what it should not.
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MSNBC was the ship that navigated the seas for a young black organizer who had a vision for America, and became its President, and Keith Olbermann was its captain. Not a cruise ship captain mind you — Olbermann's voice and stature was a command whose vitriol aimed with laser accuracy, and once aimed — fired a salvo that wreaked havoc, blasting shrapnel that exploded from a bomb of reason and truth.
Olbermann's invective was laced in sarcasm, but never disguised as anything but opinion. Often, amidst the diatribes against right-wingism, crazed hockey moms, and tanning bed ascenders to speaker of the house — Olbermann would show a human side. His reports on the health of his father, and of the times he would read to him, had me often in tears, and probably half of his viewers in tears.
Keith Olbermann was not a talking head. Keith Olbermann did not get chills and tingles up his leg. Keith Olbermann is an opinionated hot head who fascinated and galvanized his audience while telling the likes of Bill O'Reilly where to get off.
So what happened? Why did MSNBC pull his plug? Oh, he made some political donations to democratic candidates, and that went against his contract.
In an industry where an actor who allegedly was coked out of his skull, banged a porn star, and wreaked havoc on a room at the Plaza — and is still able to keep his job — then what of poor Keith? Keith did what is expected of him. Keith put his checkbook where his mouth is, and for that — he's busted, while our nasally challenged trim chaser returns to higher ratings and the forgiveness of the CBS board room.
It used to be that the fires of hell were reserved for those in the public eye who would "call information for numbers easily looked up in the phone book." It takes a bit more now for scorn to be heaped upon, but let's look at it another way.
Sports reporters are usually considered to be the scrapings of journalistic integrity. Are they not allowed to bet on games even though they are reporting on them? Is Olbermann any different? Can his $2,400 donations to a few democratic candidates sway the outcome of an election?
Would he report any differently on it? Olbermann wears his opinions on his sleeve, you know who he is going to support most of the time. Unlike Pete Rose whose bat may have swung in the direction of his bets, Olbermann instantly manned-up and admitted to his actions.
David Schuster got canned for doing a table reading at CNN. Donny Deutsch got spanked for criticizing Keith Olberman.
MSNBC is losing its best people. While it admonishes itself as "leaning forward," it forces itsbest personalities to "bend over."
