Friday, May 09, 2008

Keith Olbermann - Our generation's Edward R. Murrow?

The previous post has generated some interesting and somewhat heated intellectual thought from people who take pride in their atheism and free-thinking. The Exterminator responded to this comment by The Lifeguard:

"Maybe Evo's right... maybe some of the public needs to start hearing what these mutants are actually saying and have someone call them exactly what they are on national TV: scary, intolerant people who wield way too much political power and are threatening our democracy."

Ex then wrote back to Lifey:

"And who would that someone be? Edward R. Murrow is long dead. "

Very true (except in our memories and movies), we don't have him anymore. We have to go with what we have and we have some pretty good commentators. One of the best of them at the moment is Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. Unfortunately, that means his audience is limited to those with cable access and the net. But this is part of the world we now live in and we have to do the battle of ideas by whatever means are dictated by modern technology and cultural preferences. Olbermann is one of the voices I'm counting on to force the wider media to pay attention and disseminate information to the electorate in the coming 6 months.

Here he exposes the "scary, intolerant people who wield way too much politcal power"

5 comments:

Alejandro said...

I agree with youi 110%. Olbermann is the man... or maybe we should call him the Olber Mann.

Anonymous said...

I heart Olbermann.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding me that that fat turd Falwell is dead. I cheered when he died and seeing him in this clip let me cheer all over again. It's these little bits of joy that make life worth living.

The Exterminator said...

Yeah, Olbermann is pretty good. He's no Edward R. Murrow -- a man who put his own ass on the line -- but he's probably better than anyone else.

But does Olbermann have any real influence the way Murrow did? It seems to me that most of us interested viewers/bloggers have heard all this stuff about Hagee already. Good for Olbermann for keeping it out there and up front. But I wouldn't overestimate his influence.

Now if Russert or Stephanopoulos or the ladies of "The View" or Oprah or even Jay Leno talked negatively about Hagee, that would be important. If The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times or The Wall Street Journal took up the chorus on the front page, that would also be important.

Mind you, I'm not saying by any means that Olbermann should stop talking about Hagee -- and Parsley, too. And while he's at it, he should throw in Pat Robertson and every stealth theocratic preacher in the country.

But the sad truth is that the American public doesn't give a shit. All those "hard-working," less-than-college-educated, white male Americans -- the Clinton/McCain base who will, allegedly, elect the next president -- couldn't care less about gay rights or Muslim rights or black rights or women's rights ...

That's why, if it were up to me, every voter would have to take the same test that would-be citizens do. It's not enough that they merely hear the horrifying things that Hagee and Parsley (and Wright, too) say. They have to understand why those screamed phrases are wrong, why those kinds of sentiments conflict with the ideals of the nation's founders.

Anonymous said...

The information here is great. I will invite my friends here.

Thanks