In the case of Keith Olbermann v. Bill O’Reilly, Keith is the most articulated and best prepared reporter on T.V. today. Bill is a mouth piece for the right and FOX. I would love to see a news debate between Keith v. Bill.

The right wing media can’t stand it: someone using their own tactics against them.  Ignorant, mean-spirited, bloviators like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, et al, have been loudly spouting lies, half truths, and swift boat innuendoes for years, confident that the left wing commentators like Alan Colmbes will remain civil and reasonable (thus ineffective) in their discourse.  But finally Keith Olbermann comes along to give them a taste of their own bilious medicine and Variety finally speaks up to criticize.  Interesting!

Subject:Keith Olbermann,21ST Century’s Eric Sevareid.

Although totally different in style,Keith Olberman is the most honest political analyst since the good ol’ days of the most capable and most beloved Eric Sevareid-the greatest political analyst of them all.
That is to whom Keith Olbermann should be compared NOT to a phony like Bill O’Reilly of a phony network called"Fix" News,yes that’s what it should be called “FIX the News”.I am not a leftie,not even a Democrat.
I am totally Independent Centrist.

It is good enough for me to watch “Countdown” every
night and hear Keith Olberman calling a spade spade.I
would not miss him for any thing,except for an urgent
health emergency.

It is an insult to compare Olbermann to O’Reilly.The
former is an honest straight shooter,while the latter
is a sexual pervert,arrogant bully,fraud,propagandist
shameless liar and most disgusting character I have
ever seen in my whole adult life.

How can any one stand watching Bill O’Reilly is really beyond my comprehension.I had tried to watch
his program,but I just could not stand his arrogance
and lies.I tried again and again to appreciate him,I just could not.I finally gave up about him and all of
the “FIX THE NEWS” cable channel.

If you honestly think that somehow Olberman is not as bad as O’Reily and that he is not just the other side to the same coin your smoking something or just not honest with yourself. ALL of the Talk Show TV Journalists who are on show a bias one way or the other, only Russert may have been pretty fair, the rest are a joke for both sides. The one good things about is that you can see the other sides argument, but to think that Olberman or any other person like him and O’Reily are not all biased is just silly. I will grant you that no one else does it to the level that those two do but again-Matthews, Roberts, Abrams, Scarbro, Hannity and others like them are all VERY biased.

The Variety piece is pernicious nonsense.  It flows from the self-congratulatory “centrism” of the so-called mainstream media.  Any thoughtful person who has ever watched Olbermann and O’Reilly knows that the former is an intelligent and dedicated newsman, the latter a demagogic buffoon.  Yes, I agree that Olbermann spends too much time on O’Reilly.  If he’s going to lambaste the right, there are plenty of targets as egregiously abominable as O’Reilly--Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, etc.  Of course, they, too, are occasional Olbermann targets, but with nowhere near the frequency as O’Reilly.  In truth, I’d rather see Olbermann take on, not the far right, but the supposed “center.” All those responsible and respectable anchor people of the broadcast media and Sunday morning talk shows who have turned TV news into the blandest, most cliche-ridden, and least informative fare imaginable.  The risks for Olbermann are far greater with this crowd, since he’d be stepping on the toes of some who are his friends and colleagues.  Every once in a while, the mainstream TV journalists, too, turn up as Olbermann targets (notably, in recent times, Katie Couric).  But Olbermann has chosen the much safer ground of choosing off the wackos.  That said, I don’t think you’ll find a better TV journalist in the business than Keith Olbermann.  The first half hour of his program is the most informative news analysis available anywhere on television.

Keith’s strength comes from his intellectual and political superiority over many news anchors.  However, there is nothing so devastating to one’s credibility in things that matter (i.e., hand guns, Supremes, general elections) as bringing oneself to the front of the line as a “news” story.  Olbermann is too smart a person to let this ruin what I considered until recently his moral leadership.

Keith:  what would Edward R. Murrow do?

Sherryll

I’ve admired Olberman for a long time, even though recently he seems to be taking himself way too seriously and often descends into an irritating pomposity in his remarks.  When it comes to a deep knowledge of Laws and how they’ve been flouted by this president Greenwald wins hands down.

Those of us who’ve supported Obama are getting worried by his turn to the right...especially on the immoral and illegal FISA bill with retroactive immunity for Telecoms.

Keith is more of an entertainer, while Greenwald is a serious barrister...who would you rather have defend you in court?

I agree with the sentiments of nrobi, but I’m wondering if Olberman’s nearly daily rants against O’Reilly, which delivered some much-needed media medicine to the Republican’s talking points network, Fox (Faux), has not devolved into overkill.

O’Reilly was once an intimidating bully, sitting unchallenged on his nightly broadcast, and Olberman arrived to challenge him, and to rub his face in it. (Just writing about it now, I had forgotten how demagogic he had seemed before). I’m sure the original broadcasts where Olberman leveled his criticisms at O’Reilly had a powerful punch, as such media criticism had not been done before, and their was more than enough fresh material to utilize.

So Olberman succeeded, he helped reveal O’Reilly as an overblown, self-important, clownish figure. But that he continues to do it endlessly on practically every broadcast removes the stunning quality of it after awhile. The reality of it now is, that either Olberman, or his associates, listen to and parse every word of O’Reilly’s radio and television broadcasts, trying to find anything, at all, to make into an issue, if they can, and to blow up into something of “major significance”, if possible.

In doing so, Olberman makes himself, and his program, into something of a cartoon. His show is poorer for it.

I love the hard-hitting, riveting quality of the first part of his daily broadcasts. His guests, such as John Dean, add immensely to his program. The latter part of the show really drags for me, with his “Worst Persons” segment, and the celebrity gossip has nothing to do with news, but it’s on, because he’s on because he’s on MSNBC. “Oddball” would have been titled “human interest stories” in another era.

We’re all remembering George Carlin right now. In what was probably his last appearance on Olberman’s program, he told Keith: “I really like your show. Especially the first 35 minutes.”

On the critical topic of the FISA extension and telecom immunity, he blew it.  He rightly called out the Bushies:

“This is no longer just a farce in which protecting telecoms is dressed up as protecting us from terrorists conference cells. Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich, trying to protect the Krupp family, the industrial giants, re-writing the laws of Germany for their benefit.

...Sorry, Mr. Bush, the eavesdropping provisions of FISA have obviously had no impact on counter-terrorism, and there is no current or perceived terrorist threat the thwarting of which could hinge on an email or phone call that is going through Room 641 of AT&T;in San Francisco.”

But when Obama initially came out in support of the bill, he was a sycophant, totally changing his tune. Thus, the end of his credibility with me…

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/26/olbe rmann/index.html

And in his response to the Glenn Greenwald commentary linked to above, he totally blew it again:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/27/olbe rmann/index.html

Edward R Murrow II my arse…

In the case of Keith Olbermann v. Bill O’Reilly, just about everybody loses, according to this piece from Variety...Wait,does this mean Variety is correct ?
Who is “everybody”, anyway ? I`m afraid you guys are
totally somewhere in left-field by “makes him more like his Fox.”,or should I say “you must be as crazy as Fox`s Billo -boy “!
First off,there is only one(1)Keith Olbermann,someone
who a.has class and facts on his side,whereas Billo and FIX-news rambling on “full of hot air/lots of spin” on about everything they bring up as “newsworthy news,etc”,which in fact is nothing else but “far-right manipulated trash,junk,garbage,lies”.
b.Keith Olbermann is the “only person with a honest
conscience to tell the way it actually is,no lies” !
Only People who are “Liars themselves” don`t want to
hear the true facts,yes indeed! The true fact are out there for everyone,only Keith Olbermann brings them
to everyone during his “MSNBC Countdown w/Olbermann”.
It`s there during the week at 8:00pm,so listen in and
get the “real,honest News..everybody deserves” ! ! !

O’Reilly is a bullying, noisy, blolwhard ‘entertainer’.  Olbermann at least addresses real news, allows guests to speak, and doesn’t attack underage guests in a hysterical, fact-deficient way. O’Reilly is a bully.  A nasty, hysterical bully.

What a nonsense! Variety concludes by saying that the loser is: us.  You can’t be more wrong by this stupid judgment.  Somebody has to stand up to O’Reily and the Fox News.  No one is standing up to say anything to make them come to their senses and stop attacking other people who don’t have a voice to express their greivances.  I think the Olbermann is taking a correct stand against Fox News and their attack dog, O’Reily.  The auther of Variey magazine article is very naive to write such stupid nonsense.  Why does he say the losers are “us”?  Through Olbermann’s commentary we find our truths and would be able to distinguish between real news and ommentaries and lies propagated by Fox News.