The Decline of Keith Olbermann

Make no mistake about it, I used to see Olbermann as the future of news. I thought he was crafty in his delivery, easy to listen to and after the debacle of the 2004 election, he was unafraid to cover stories often seen as taboo in the years after 9/11.

Then he started his special comment segment, which, if you were at the point of wanting to scream out loud after more than one term of the Bush administration, really hit the mark. Olbermann was brash and forceful in his verbal takedowns of everyone from Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Chertoff (especially in the wake of Katrina) and President Bush himself.

Then the 2008 election season kicked off, and throughout the series of 30 million debates held since last March, it started to become obvious that Olbermann, like a 17-year-old high school geek obsessed with the new hot girl in class was starting to fall in love with Obama. You could hear it in his delivery. He would talk about Obama as if he was Neo in the Matrix, and Hillary Clinton as if she's killed his first born. Things got so out of control that Obermann became the poster boy for Clinton supporters who felt that their candidate wasn't getting a fair shake in the press (and she wasn't) while Obama simply walked on water to the nomination.

Things have gotten so bad that the sight of the man makes me cringe. My girlfriend's dad, who is a registered Republican, used to rip on me regularly that I like someone as unforgiving in his delivery as Olbermann. The suddenly, I realized he was right.

But it was through MSNBC's coverage of this week's Democratic debate where Olbermann really hit rock bottom. At different times he insulted Pat Buchanan regarding something that Obermann clearly misunderstood and audibly asked "can we wrap him up?" of GOP consultant Mike Murphy, who had committed the ultimate sin of disagreeing with something Senator Obama said.

Olbermann needs the king of shock treatment that the Ramones once talked about, and he needs it now.

But for the jury, I submit this video of Olbermann reading an AP writer's somewhat negative review of Obama's speech and ending with the suggestion that the reporter, "find new work."




What a sad sight.