I appreciate Olberman's rants against the Bushies, but I can't help but feel he'd put me down

if I was scrutinized like he does some of the non-political folks he covers.

I'm getting full-up with his arrogance. I wonder, is he so perfect that he's above the same type of scrutiny he gives these non-political folks that he ridicules for our entertainment?

I can't help but feel he'd put me down on sight. Maybe it's just entertainment, but it's wearing thin with me.


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

if they are in entertainment it's still part of the job to get that kind of attention and criticism.

Ever think, when listening to a put down, that you, yourself, couldn't very well withstand the public criticism. I don't think singers and actors, for example, asks for that type of personal scrutiny just because they decide to perform for us.

Just because he can put them down doesn't mean he should. He has every right, but I don't like it. It has me wondering just who is good enough for him, and his attitude towards some folks with their 'oddities' reflects negatively on the rest of his fine work reporting important news which is relevant to our country and our lives.

If you work in an area where you are in the public eye, you're bound to get some scrutiny, and inevitably, you'll get some hard critics, it comes with the job. I know a bit about that as my band is slowly starting to get noticed in my city. We've had good reviews and we've had bad reviews. It's not always easy, but that's how it works, you just have to take it in stride.

Of course some media outlets really go overboard, but that's another story.

:rofl:

internets. So no, I would have to say KO shouldn't make fun of him. :)

I'm just a man. Married for 27 years, 2 children, labored for a living most of my life, involve myself in the world around me.

You usually can't tell the worth of folks by looking on from the outside. Most folks have some value to their lives that isn't worn on their sleeve for everyone to feel and gauge. I try not to judge folks on the surface because those surface judgments are usually wrong.


But, you go ahead, OPERATIONMINDCRIME . . .

then again, in my line, any publicity IS good publicity.

:evilgrin:

Oh please KO make fun of me on air...

:: checking book sales ::

I write for the love of it... that must be why I haven't made anything significant from it yet. :)

That's why I write. But being able to do it full time would be a great thing too.

but I need to bust out a bestseller here one of these days. Either that or win the lottery, so I can just write and not have to worry about anything else. :)

The trick is in the promotion.

instance, he might show stories and videos of the day that you'd see no where else (from other parts of the world) that speak for themselves, and he doesn't have much to say either way about them. But then there are the dumb crooks, and he means dumb. They deserve ridicule.
Can you give a specific?

with that one example, but, he pans more than crooks. Folks make mistakes in their lives. They deserve to have a chance to make amends and recover - not everyone, but, more than a few he puts down - but he seems to think it's his role to pile on, for our entertainment. They could be folks caught in embarrassing situations, or celebrities caught revealing human flaws.

Are these folks he puts down before millions of viewers less than human, beneath him? Are they hurting US? Or, are they hurting themselves? I ask these questions as I listen to him and I find that he's put himself in the position of lashing out in instances where these folks have little chance of defending themselves from the same elevated platform and really pose no harm to anyone. To him, their lives are a joke. It's tabloid and ugly.

It's way too arrogant, and isn't the way that I would treat folks if I had personal contact with them or interacted with them. He's insulated on screen, and thin skinned about attacks on his own character. He has the platform. Many of the folks he covers do not, and probably would not attack him in kind if they did have the means.

edit: sp

'Hollywood' news, but is forced to. So he does it and has fun with it.
As for one day stories, I don't know how damaging that is for Olbermann to profile them as they are usually forgotten the next day.
I feel compelled to protect Olbermann because he has done so much good since this summer with his commentaries that have convinced people there is another train of thought other than Faux to believe in.

by speaking truth to power.

But, I don't underestimate the effect his rants have on folks in their hometowns. Our lives may be fragile, and vulnerable. It's unseemly, sometimes, for him to disregard that. I see myself in some of the folks he puts down. That's what I've always done; see myself in the actions of others, try to put myself in their place. It's become a habit.

BTW, I don't think Olberman needs 'protecting' from the likes of me. This isn't a treatise, it's an opinion on a discussion board. And, I wish him well.

You may have a point, but without offering a specific example, I've no means of assessing it.

Ridicule is part of being a celebrity. Bono gets ridiculed for trying to make the world a better place, for crying out loud. If people can't handle scrutiny, then they need to get out of the spotlight.

. . the ones whose faces he doesn't expose? . . Who do incredibly stupid things like crashing into cop cars after they've robbed the convenience store? Those people?

think Keith Olbermannhe's done anything particularly offensive. To whatever degree he's guilty, consider... how much worse people like Limpbaugh, Hannity and O'Really are.

Keith Olberman will undoubtedly have more Republicans sneaking onto message boards to "subtly" attempt to undercut him, hack away at him, to attempt to use their version of emotional appeal to sour people on him, but there's no actual material here to work with.

It only points out even more that someone is starting to take him very seriously, and doesn't like his ability to speak out, even though the right-wing non-stop hate-spewing idiots like Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. have been bellowing for years and years, accusing Democrats of subversion, of befriending the "enemy," of endangering the country, of destroying the country's moral climate, etc., etc., etc. It has been libel, slander on a vast scale.

It would appear we are starting to get signs they are frightened enough that people are going to listen to him to start their own program of character assassination on an excellent, and brave lone cable tv guy. They're probably terrified he's going to start a trend.

We need as many KO's as we can get; and a reformed media that gives liberals/progressives at least equal coverage/opportunity.

If he noticed you at all, he might notice your improper use of the subjunctive and incorrect spelling of his name - but only if you did something so monumentally stupid as to be noticed at all, or if you became prominent in your field and then he might (for instance) make light of your grammatical errors only if you were noted for pointing out those errors when others make them.

When he makes light of someone who has committed a particularly stupid crime, do I feel slighted? No, because no matter how bad things have gotten, I've never been tempted to, say, drive a car into an elementary school or any of the other stupid things the 'ordinary' people he's highlighted have done.

Sadly.

In order to have the chance to throw these excellent thunderbolts, Mr. Olbermann must, to a degree, wallow in the slime. It's TV, after all.

The old saying: TV is a long, shallow, plastic trench where the whores run free and good men die like dogs.

Olbermann is still on his feet, blowing up MSNBCs ratings like crazy, and the word is getting out. I actually credit the 11/7 wipeout, to no small degree, to Mr. Olbermann. The fact that he's doing the kind of work he is means he's pretty much one of us, and one of the best of us as far as I can tell.

The fact that he has to shovel that dreck in order to do so is to be expected, because it is TV, and MSNBC TV to boot.

Molly Ivins said you have to dance with them what brung ya. Mr. Olbermann got brung by TV, and has to pay that particularly wretched piper. If he refuses, he's off the TV. It is what it is.

I feel bad for him, honestly, because I'm pretty goddam sure he hates it more than you do, or I do. "Now here's the segment the producers force me to do" is a line I've heard from him more times than I can remember.

thanks.

I'm sorry, but alot of the celebrities he makes fun of deserve what they get. Getting paid millions and acting like idiots does not make me feel sorry for them. Small time crooks making dumb mistakes while committing crimes does not make me feel sorry them. I have had difficult times in my life as well but have never done some of the dumb things these people have done. K.O. is simply pointing out the absurdity of the situations these people get themselves into. Celebs who act arrogant and idiotic have no one to blame but themselves as well as these crooks. When someone decides they want to be famous they have to take into consideration that they have a responsibility to be, well... responsible. just like the rest of us. And no one's background should be an excuse for committing crimes. That's mostly what K.O. does on his show besides politics.

I like what he says. He seems to be an honest man speaking from the hip, but the fact that
its really just about demographics and ratings, but more than that, in the mainstreaming of
dissenting opinion, that the media world order lead the 'dissent' as well, it is an attempt to
coopt the disagreement that has broken the bush imperium in to a corporately acceptable format.

And in order to work and speak those words, in the newsroom of the entertainment company, Mr.
Olberman is paid his elite salary to keep his critique on bush and not the corporate frame that
has endorsed all this warmaking, that his network itself played its cynical part in the early
phases of selling a lie.... and now he's a saint, because he's paid a salary to speak a popular
view so an entertainment company can get ratings. Those views were written here for years on
DU had anyone interested in reading it from an opposition that was authentic and not shooting
for ratings... for us to see him as the hero, is backwards, 'he' is the rear view mirror of media,
the bbs is where the rubber meets the road.

People need to recognize the con. Its entertainment, actors on a stage acting out emotions and
feelings that belong to the audience; borrowing those primal narratives for a moment, and then
returning them at the end, bowing to the sacred public who are the real heros, not the imaginary
ones on stage. Olberman is acting out what 'I' feel, except it is immasculated and weak by the
intensity i would be delivering were i reading his same words... as i'm more than working for
entertainment, i'm working for political change, and that this honesty and original of a regular
person, doing a howard beal, admirably, but still owned by big corporate and carrying their message.

The fact that olberman is under their editor's control, directed by their money, leaves the views
with slimey corporate slant, that i beleive is deliberate, so that the 'cons' and 'fauxes' can attack
the liberal media, like a puppet theatre between 2 media companies ruled by the big hand of the owners,
blaming each other for their failure to tell the truth, when the truth is that they are the lie, that
their system is the lie, and that they, all of them, have coopted the genuine moral and spiritual
goodwill of real people, and pissed it away like its a joke for a buck.

Good luck to Mr. Olberman, i wish him the best, he's doing a brilliant job. Would that we all were
paid as much to be citizens who weigh in truth.

;(

to a man whose name they refuse to even learn to spell right, implying he's some kind of a sellout for making big money working for the MSM, while they toil away in obscurity and poverty "working for change."

Sheesh.

It's no wonder there are so few Keith Olbermanns in this world, and so many more who would rather earn THEIR big bucks speaking for the Republicans and the Bush Administration. At least when they do that, they get kudos and pats on the back from those who think the same way.

What do they get from some people for speaking truth to power? Attacks and putdowns from the holier-than-thou for not having chosen to do it by toiling away in obscurity and poverty.

When are we ever going to realize that for true change, we need ALL kinds of help and ALL kinds of people on board...not just the saints, but the snarky ones too?

On edit: And just for the record, sweetheart...he IS an honest man speaking from the hip. It's not just about about demographics and ratings or being "corporately acceptable" to him. He is criticizing the corporate frame as much as anything else...it is just that he, personally, had no place in selling the lie in the first place. This kind of talk is nothing new to him...only the attention is new. He did NOT come late to the party, as you imply he did. There is no "con" about it, no acting. Olbermann has plenty of "intensity" and "honesty" and originality for me. I don't begrudge him what he gets paid. After all the years he's been in his line of work, putting himself on the line in public, he's earned it.