Time Critic: Olbermann's Special Comment Shows He's "Just Another Of The Cable Gasbags He Used To Be A Corrective To"

Last week on "Countdown," Keith Olbermann gave a special comment blasting Hillary Clinton for her remark that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June, which she claims was a historical referenced intended to show that the length of this primary is not unusual but which many took as an implicit announcement that she was staying in the race in case Barack Obama was assassinated.

The special comment was intense, and the video can be viewed below (transcript available here).

At least one critic thought Olbermann crossed the line regardless of the appropriateness of Clinton's comments. Time's media and television critic James Poniewozik wrote of Olbermann:

Even if we concede his argument--that Clinton was at best callously and at worst intentionally suggesting she should stay in the race because Obama might be killed--every time he turns up the volume to 11 like this lately, he sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he used to be a corrective to.

Read Poniewozik's entire column, which includes an interesting analysis of what it means when a viewer is "annoyed by someone you used to constantly agree with" here, and let us know what you thought of Olbermann's Special Comment in the comments below.

Comments

[PuffDragon]

A True Story:

Late one night, in late September 2001, I was confronted by a man wearing all black and a ski cap. I was standing outside the elevator in my apartment building.

He said: "DON'T MAKE ANY NOISE".

It was obvious he wasn't saying that to be polite to the neighbors, and might even try to take my money, or worse.

But, not feeling chicken (he was a few inches shorter than me, and didn't appear to be armed), I shouted at the top of my lungs. He did surprise me with a quick punch to my face, which knocked me down (I should have kept a few inches further when I opened my mouth), I fell, but never stopped shouting at the top of my lungs.

Finally, one of the neighbors came out to see what was happening, and the attacker ran away.

The moral: If I hadn't made noise, he would have gotten away with something bad.

Never "Shut Up", never back down, never be quiet when criminals are in the W' House.

Amen

[PuffDragon]

Keith isn't the problem-it's the times we live in:
If the Congress, Senate and the rest of the MSM did their job (are you listening Katie, NYT, WaPo, CNN, ABC, NBC, et al?) Keith wouldn't have to shout.

Clinton's remark was horrifying and deserves a strong retort. She's not doing well at differentiating herself from The Machine. For that matter, the Bushies cross the line of decency and immorality constantly; how can a decent person do anything but shout?

Thank you Keith!!!

[libsareidiots]

You need to quit puffing the magic dragon PuffDragon. Olberman looked like a true jackass, as he does on many occasions. Reporters need to give an accurate view of what's happening, not their PMSNBC spin of it.

[Mij13]

I boycott the corporate media whenever I can. No cable or newspapers here. I get all my news online. But I always watch Countdown at my gym. Keith is my hero!

[shroomingnewman]

olbermann overreacted. geez, calm down.

[TERRYKEITH4]

You must be smoking "shrooms".

[EGNY]

Let's see. Olbermann:

-- Blasts the Bushies for the criminal enterprise they are, like I wish every day that I could do in so public a forum. Telling the truth isn't Left, Right or Center. It's just the truth.

Thanks for being MY voice, Keith!

-- Speaks up for veterans constantly, while telling the nasty truth about this war. Who wants to say speaking up for solders that Bush treats as cannon fodder is biased journalism? Answer: No one.

Thanks for being THIER voice, Keith!

-- Speaks up about the destructive, dishonest character and tactics of Hillary Clinton's campaign. In his first Special Comment on the subject, he began by saying "...President and Senator Clinton...were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were the focus of...the most uncertainty and the most anger. My gratitude to them is abiding." It would have been FAR EASIER for Olbermann to simply recuse himself from this topic. Instead, he stuck out his neck and told the truth.

Thanks for being OUR voice, Keith

So, who is James Poniewozik? Who cares! If Olbermann's a gas bag, this guy's a hack. But, I'm not a totally glassy-eyed Olbermann fan. Hey Keith...the folks telling you to maybe lighten up on the caffeine might have a point. Please, don't fall victim to reading your own (positive) press clippings. We need you, so don't ever forget -- IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! But, for all our sakes, don't EVER shut up, either!

[vitasackvillewesttexas]

what is with the eternal ending of sentences with prepositions these days? geez. civility and grammar are the first to go. it's all downhill from there.

[MalamuteMan]

If you want to chide people for bad grammar, perhaps you should work on your capitalization.

[HansMoleman]

I could not agree more. The terminal preposition, the plural apostrophe, the split infinitive, and the pronoun before the gerund are the four horsemen of the coming apocalypse. The time has come to choose sides in the battle for civilisation (note how that's spelled, Americans). The time will soon come to take up arms and fight for the Oxford comma, for the preservation of the semicolon, and for the distinction between 'its' and 'it's'. No one will be safe when the Avenging Apostrophe descends on clouds of glory to reclaim its rightful possessive and elisive function. Repent, grammatical sinners! Turn from your slovenly ways and honour (sic!) the commandments which has been handed down to you from generation to generation.

[Azjhutch]

Ah, ending a sentence with a preposition. Churchill: Something up with which I will not put.

[stryker]

Keith has the cojones to take on the issues unlike so many other commentators. His best was when bush revealed he gave up golf as his sacrifice to the war effort. As far as hillary, she has left herself wide open so don't blame Keith for getting on her about her mistakes and outright tall tails. If she can't take it now, how will she stand up to the repubs if she gets the nomination. She going to cry again?

[StephenJK]

Keith has the cojones? He's got the cojones to continually verbally abuse women using misogynistic phrases, tones and overtures. Oh, that's ballsy alright. Yeah kick a woman when she's on the ground asking for a hand up. That's what real men do? HA! Keith wouldn't know a set of balls if he had a couple between his legs.

[mrmemory]

I used to love watching Countdown, but when he jumped on the Obama MoveOn.org bandwagon and started grouping Hillary like a part of the Bush Administration he just went south. His show used to be informative and funny, but now it just turned into the liberal version of Fox, which is why I can't really enjoy it anymore. Kind of sad, but I'm sure it's just a marketing tool.

[EGNY]

Uh, actually, I'm pretty sure it was Hillary who grouped HERSELF with the Bush Administration, when she started using their tactics.

The trouble with telling the truth is that sometimes it takes you in a steady direction -- so people who don't like the truth you're telling start to call you "biased."

[MalamuteMan]

I'm a big Obama fan, but I'm with you mrmemory... Olbermann just loves doing these "special" comments, some of which are pretty good (I loved his comment on Bush's Golf sacrifice), but this one was unnecessary. Hillary’s statement was in poor taste... very poor taste! But Olbermann’s rant was way too melodramatic. From my perspective, Hillary’s big crime has nothing to do with a poor choice of words... let us not forget that Barack did that too. Her crime is trying to pretend that there has been a travesty of justice. That someone is trying to suppress votes. That it is unfair to the people of Florida and Michigan. Has she forgotten that she and all her advisors signed off on the MI & FL plan? Would she be beating this drum if the tables were turned and seating 100% of the MI & FL delegates would tilt the win away from her in favor of Barack??? I don’t thinks so!!! Hillary’s crime is shamelessly demonstrating that the only thing that matters to her is winning, and her pledge to support party unity has no integrity.

[StephenJK]

KO get's the drama queen award for this twitchy, pen-slamming rant.

[PhDiva]

Sorry. I disagree. Even though I thought Ketih Olbermann was a little extreme, and my sister and I were laughing at some parts of the segment, we actually felt validated that we weren't thee only ones who were profoundly disturbed by Clinton's comments. Somebody needed to really express how outrageous her comments were, and Keith stepped up to the plate. I love Keith. Will marry him, have his babies, etc.

[nonofyabusiness]

The only dissapointing part of KO's Special Comment for me was........At the End, he didn't tell HilLIlARy(intentionally misspelled) to ................."JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!!!!!

Other than that. BRAVOOOOO! (clap, clap, clap)

[kitfox]

KO over the top? - NOOOOOO! That comment Hillary made about RFK's assassination - That my dear friends is what we call "over the top"! bunch of pansies, i tell ya!

Hey Keith, I love watching your show keep up the good work and for the buffoons putting you down ignore them like I do Hillary.

[engineer68]

Keith lost me when he drank the kool-aid Matthews gave him. Matthews has a lot of emotional problems sorting his love for McCain then it was Rudy, when along came Thompson a real hero. His hatred of women left him with Obama for the Dems. Keith may have a problem with older women, but he should be his own person and think for himself.

[Stella1]

Oberman is the Bill Oreilly of the far left period.

[OmegaJamie]

Well, Stella, there is no Bill O'Reilly of the far left. To be liberal or progressive is to be open-minded, to encourage debate, to consider more than one side, and to be intelligent. So, you see? Bill O'Reilly just doesn't exist on the left. That doesn't mean anger doesn't exist: some righteous, kick-ass anger. Deal with it.

[huffy2001]

Are you serious? You're joking...right?

[kurd]

HA-HAAA! Take it like a man, Queen Hillary fans! HA-HAAA!

[lafemme]

Keith Olbermann becomes the biggest of the hypocrites when he speaks so self-righteously. That is the result when someone you used to agree with sudderly goes sour. Thankfully, I missed this latest "gaff" and all the hullaballoo that followed. And then I saw it. My first reaction was exactly what she said she meant - that she was marking the timing of this year's primary by reference to when the assassination took place. If people weren't so brainwashed by the anti-Hillary vitriole that's been out there ever since she became the underdog, they wouldn't project needless meaning onto everything that's uttered. Even if you don't agree with my instant perception of what Hillary said, to make the jump that Olbermann and others have made is simply insane. Sounds like a little of the 'ole white man's guilt talking, and that's no way to support a candidate or detract from another. It's time for Olbermann to retire. His good days are over, I'm afraid.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

Yea okay. His "good days" are over because you don't agree with him.

Talk about an ego.

[lafemme]

It's much more than not agreeing with someone. To jump to his conclusion is so absurd, it's time to bring out Samuel Beckett. For crying out loud, you really think a candidate would intentionally say something about another candidate possibly being assassinated? If that's grist for the mill, I can think of a lot more uncivil things to say to further contribute to the distintegration of the party by the extremist Obama supporters.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

Furthermore, she could have easily made the time-reference argument you are refering to without mentioning the assassination of RFK.

She could also have just as easily said, hey anything could happen, so lets wait and see.

She purposely chose to make a statement about RFK's assassination when it wasn't necessary.

It's obvious that you are a Hillary Clinton backer.

[lafemme]

I'm an anti-John McCain backer, and I think what he did was disgusting just like I think what MSNBC did about the Scott McClellan story is disgusting. Honestly, people, start thinking for yourselves for once rather than standing behind someone because he gets emotional about how much he hates someone. That's no way to reunite this party, "my friends."

[huffy2001]

It's obvious that you are a Hillary Clinton backer.

_______

Like that's what...akin to being a Nazi? Or a member of the KKK? Or a Muslim Terrorist? What's your point?

Maybe it was clumsy and stupid...I'll grant you that. But I don't in any way think it displayed anything nefarious or evil. That's just Kieth, Chris and company doing their normal Obama bloviating.

Lest you wonder. I am a Hillary Clinton backer. A proud one.

Guess I should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Or maybe sent to Gitmo or something.

[Stella1]

Oberman is the far left Bill O`Reilly. He can no longer attack Fox news. Their listeners sound alike.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

Bullsh#t

[WriterGuy]

Actually, unlike O'Reilly, Olbermann usually has some facts to back him up. And, unlike O'Reilly, he restricts most of his impassioned, first-person rants to one specific segment, carefully separated from the rest of the show. Bill is one long tirade...

[lafemme]

In response to your post above, the one in which you reply to me, but which does not provide a reply option, I have to say that anyone who truly believes in such an undercurrent is delusional. I hate having to level such an accusation against a "white, god-fearing Christian," but there you have it.

[barryfilms]

Agreed. He's become so full of himself that he's become what he himself has always despised. We stopped watching him months ago. I'm noticing more and more that women seem to really dislike him.