CNN, and especially MSNBC & Fox, are the kind of news “info-tainment” that the prophetic film ‘Network’ protrays. The objective for both Fox & MSNBC, is to distort and slander each other. Any objectivity at all has, so it seems, vanished and has been replaced by propaganda. We now have cartoonish figures like Olbermann and Beck trading insults on their respective shows. Real mature.

By Ray Duray, January 24 at 1:11 am #

“Ray here: You are wrong about Beck. He has been tracked by the Drudge Report.”

DaveZx3 here:  I am not wrong about Beck’s popularity.  He has been named second, only to Oprah Winfrey in a recent Harris Poll. 

As much as the left hates Glenn Beck, he has become the voice of the independents, and neither the left nor the right win an election without the independents.  The fact that he is also very strong amongst conservatives and the tea-party movement, make him one of the most powerful political voices in America today. 

Though he is like Olbermann in that he is somewhat hard to watch for his mannerisms, his message is powerful and on target for those who choose to still love and believe in America.

Though I do have a hard time watching Beck, I do have to applaud and support anyone whose message is in favor of defending the constitution, and the principles of the founders.

Well while I agree with Olbermann generally, his style is abrasive to me.  I cringe when he rants sometimes… 

But I disagree with another poster that Maddow applauded Obama’s escalation of the war.  She did not.. Not once.  She has continually had experts on there that say the surge won’t help anything, and it is obvious she opposed the move… 

I can’t say one way or the other about Olbermann because I stopped watching his program (see comments above)...  but I watch Maddow, and she does not support Obama blindly, give him a free pass on all issues, nor did she support the buildup of the war. 

I did.  But she did not..  (yes, while I love her show because I think she is the most intelligent commentator out there who does her homework, I don’t always agree with her)...

I’m glad Stewart called out Keith, MSNBC has been nothing but a cheering section for Obama even when the truth about his foreign policy and domestic polices became more and more apparent. Maddow and Olbermann both applauded Obama escalating in Afghanistan and always make excuses for the guy.

Good job, John. Olbermann is a rabid, ranting lunatic. MSNBC is a clown show; very hideous, humorless clowns.

I’m with you, Ray. Although I am certainly closer to Olberman and Maddow on most issues, the whole game of partisan attacks between Democrats and Republicans leaves the must important questions unasked. MSNBC regurgitates Democratic talking points just like Fox regurgitates Republican talking points. BOTH are shills for the government.

Dear GeorgeM,

You wrote: “Actually, for Jon to start attacking Keith and Rachel is just depressing as hell to me.”

Ray here. I don’t quite understand your point. I’ve come to view the MSNBC two-hour evening tag team to be almost as repulsive as a Glenn Beck/Sean O’Reilly trifecta.

Why do I want to be so utterly cynical about this?

Because I’m about 99% certain that all of these media confections are just about as phony as a three dollar federal reserve note.

Just as with the “currency” we more-or-less trust, Olbermann and Maddow are circulating themselves as bona fide. Why should we accept that when neither of them dares to attack Barack Obama for his grotesque bias toward his well-heeled Wall Street bribers?

Maddow and Olbermann have one schtick. Make pretend that the two wings of the Corporate Party aren’t in cahoots to rope-a-dope the American public.

One the one hand, you have the Malkins, Coulters, O’Reillys, Hannities and Becks of the world engaging in ad homimem attacks against godless liberal commies. On the other hand you have Olbermann, Maddow, Shultz and their ilk engaging in ad homimen attacks against the Republicans.

Who just got off scott free? The corporate criminals who run both networks. That’s who.

Who among these dithering talking heads is attacking Monsanto? No one.

Yet Monsanto is clearly a criminal and immoral operation:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/10/823719/-Millions-Against-Monsanto

Who among Olbermann, Maddow and their dopplegangers is attacking Blackwater. No one.

Yet Blackwater is evil, criminal and completely insane as a corporate concept:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill

The problem with Keith Olbermmann and Rachel Maddow is that they have sold their souls to the management at MSNBC/NBC/GE and they are both engaged in staying inside the tight confines of a childish sandbox of partisan politics in which every fit of pique is designed to hide reality from the American public.

Attn.: Dave Zx3,

You wrote: “Limbaugh is just about as irritating to listen to, but he has a very large audience and high ratings.  And Beck’s ratings are going through the roof.”

Ray here: You are wrong about Beck. He has been tracked by the Drudge Report.

March 13, 2009: FOXNEWS BECK 3,074,000
Jan. 6, 2010: FOXNEWS BECK 2,609,000

The only way Beck is going through the roof is if he’s been unfortunate enough to live in Port-au-Prince.

ardee, January 23 at 10:16 am

I’d have to agree with that. Where’d he come from
anyway? He plays tag with another poster? WTF?

Stewart and Olbermann, two sides of the same coin, a coin I much prefer to the snide and generally witless ( if only as they attempt to hide their partisan nature in assumption after assumption after snotty assumption) remarks of Davie boy…..

Jon Stewart, if you continue this brilliant style there
may be no choice but to make you a main stream media
guy. Maybe you’re already there; high time.

Olbermann’s comments, along with those of Ed Schultz, are a total insult to the people of Massachusetts.  I was actually more offended by Schultz’s comments, which advocated breaking the law to defeat “those bastards”.

Are these guys ratings so low because they don’t have an audience, or are they low because these guys are just not very likeable?  Probably both.

No matter what your message, when you come across like Olbermann or Schultz, you can’t generate much of an audience, except for diehards. 

The left would do well to get some more personable talk/opinion show hosts.  I try to tune in to these guys every now and then to get a balanced input, but I find it very hard to listen for long. 

I can only assume that they have low ratings because there is no audience.  Limbaugh is just about as irritating to listen to, but he has a very large audience and high ratings.  And Beck’s ratings are going through the roof. 

Why do Olbermann and Schultz get such poor ratings?  Anybody got any idea about that?

Hurray for Jon Stewart! Partisan, ad hominem personal attacks can come from the so-called “left” as well as the right, and it is equally deplorable in either case. So who do you think you are, you whores of the partisan left? No more real truth-seekers than your compadres on the right, you are.

Something happened to Stewart a few years ago and he “centered” his comments. I suspect the network owners told him there are limits to be followed or else.
The recent show where he was promoting the book from David Walker of the Peter G Peterson foundation was telling. This guy is a bankster’s bankster and Stewart applauded him.
There was a time when Stewart would have ripped him apart. Those days are past. Now Stewart just uses his rep as a rebel to sell us on the corporate plans.

With the possible exception of his Obama-campaign CareBears-style video with unicorns (which I can’t find now), this was the best Daily Show bit EVER.

The same day, I’m among those went through a big rigamarole to email Olberman (AND Rachel Maddow, who’s been doing approximately the same thing, if less pompously) to protest the unseemly return—when even Chris Matthews seems to be creeping off the O-wagon—to Obama-campaign mode.