Keith Olbermann's office? Look for a cut-out of O'Reilly's head gazing at FNC from a window at NBC

Kansas City Star: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann enjoys big success and a little wisdom
Sun, Jan. 06
Aaron Barnhart


Olbermann’s critics say the guests on “Countdown” never disagree with him. “I’m not going to have people say, ‘You’re right,’ or ‘No, you’re an idiot.’ I’m going to have them say whatever will increase people’s awareness and knowledge.”

NEW YORK | When MSNBC moved a couple of months ago from its longtime home in New Jersey to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, Keith Olbermann got his pick of offices. It was a nice perk for the anchor whose bracing mix of irony and stridency made him the first big star the 11-year-old cable channel can call its own.

Olbermann chose a room looking directly into the street-front studios of MSNBC’s rival, Fox News. If you’re walking up Sixth Avenue, look for the huge cardboard cut-out of Bill O’Reilly’s head gazing out of a third-floor window in the world headquarters of the National Broadcasting Co....

By any measure 2007 was a terrific year for him. Since mid-2006, when he began inveighing against the Bush administration in a series of on-air editorials, known as “Special Comments,” ratings for “Countdown” have risen 55 percent. MSNBC is beating CNN when Olbermann is on, and catching up to the second-place news channel overall. His new book, Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration’s War on American Values, was assembled from a year’s worth of editorials on “Countdown.” This weekend it will enter the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list at No. 19.

“I’ve often thought the real danger in broadcasting is people going on the air without ever stopping to ask: ‘Now why is it again that I think people want to hear me talk about this?’ ” Olbermann said. It was four hours before that night’s “Countdown,” and the 6-foot-3 native New Yorker was taking a break before shutting himself in his office to compose the last few hundred words for that night’s broadcast.

“Inasmuch as it is a responsibility and it is the public airwaves, I think I owe the viewers and the industry and the people who’ve gone before me — who have been role models, who have faced actual dangers to do this in the history of our country — I owe all those things and people my best. To try to present an honest version of what I see around me.”...

http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/columnists/aaron_barnhart/story/431088.html

I KO's head doesn't get too big. :woohoo:

I have a date with him every night at 8, and again for that midnight rendez-vous.

Keith delivers a lot of valuable and detailed information, and his guests tend to be compelling - especially during the first half-hour. I like to re-watch to absorb what I may have missed earlier.

Thank you for posting this. Keith's numbers and this article should prove to anyone in the news business that America is hungry for honest and well-researched journalism. Someone who will not only do their job by probing/asking/prodding difficult questions, but do it with a powerful intellect!

Thanks for posting. :)