I was pretty surprised while watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann to hear Olbermann, in a rather matter-of-fact way, tell his viewers that tonight would be his last show. It takes years to build up a TV news show "brand." And Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show dated back to the darkest days of the one-party Republican state. It was Olbermann's principled and sincere outrage at the warmongering and lies coming from the George W. Bush administration as it pushed the nation into war and recession that established his "brand." But the fact that Olbermann was a "brand" in the first place points to the intrinsic limitations of corporate media.
The only winners in the Comcast/MSNBC decision to drop Countdown with Keith Olbermann are Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and all the other bloviators over at Fox News. Their noise machine just got a lot louder. And just in time for CNN and the networks to focus the bulk of their attention on John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Darrell Issa. The Federal Communications Commission should have blocked Comcast's buyout of NBC. The one thing the corporate media didn't need was more consolidation regardless if the move had anything to do with purging Olbermann.
There isn't a chance in hell that CBS or ABC will pick up anything Olbermann can pitch. PBS? Forget it. They're about to get whacked by Republican budget cuts. He might be able carve out a slot in relative obscurity between the comedic and dramatic fare over at HBO. Who knows? In any case, going into the 2012 presidential election the Democrats just lost a consistent voice of reason and a defender of relatively progressive values.
The right end of the political spectrum in the realm of corporate media just got stronger. There's also a chilling effect, even if the circumstances of Olbermann's ouster were benign. People working for media conglomerates who want to keep their jobs might begin to rein in their views when they drift a little "too far" to the left.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann was the anchor of something extraordinary that emerged, painstakingly and against all odds, during the Bush years. A mild liberal alternative was established in the corporate media to counter the flamethrowers at Fox. Nothing like it had existed since MSNBC fired Phil Donahue in early 2003. Now it's gone. And it's hard to see how this gaping hole on the "liberal" end of the corporate media is going to result in anything other than giving a louder voice and greater ventilation to the policies that are currently being advanced by an aggressive right-wing oligarchy.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JPalermo
Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup
Richard Geldard: Countdown, Network and Mad As Hell
David Wild: "Keith Don't Go": A Farewell Playlist for Keith Olbermann
He who believes in freedom must not rest
He who believes in freedom must not rest until it comes
That which touches him most is that he had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to him
To him the people came first, he had the courage where we failed
And he truly shed much light as he carried us through the gale
The older he got the better he knew that the secret of his going on
Is putting his faith in the people, who dare to run against the storm
Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on him
He strove to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny
Struggling himself didn't mean a whole lot, he came to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way the struggle survives
He is a person who speaks in a voice and he must be heard
At times he can be quite difficult; he’ll bow to no one's word
He who believes in freedom must not rest
He who believes in freedom must not rest until it comes
Adapted from Ella’s Song By Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Long live KO and the struggle for a liberal, rational and genuinely patriotic American Politics.
Sorry.
The early word is he quit.
He was not "dropped".
After his suspension in November he retained new talent representation.
Since these new agents do not benefit from his existing contract they would only be interested in KO if he was interested in making a big change.
It is now looking as though KO wants to be his own boss rather than a Comcast employee.
Who can blame him?
Once his exit agreement was finalized they asked him to leave immediately.
That is a very common practice in broadcasting as he outlined in his story about ESPN.
We will know much. much more in the coming weeks but KO is hardly a victim here.
Hopefully he will become an even more vital voice as he now has no one to answer to but himself.
Might these other hosts be nothing more than toadies that are being used to by MSNBC to pay lip service to Progressive ideas but in reality do nothing more than make us believe that we have a voice ?
What better way to undermine the rise of a true liberal voice in this country than to supply a voice that seems to support Progressive ideas but offers us nothing in the way of ideas to organize,mobilize and energize us to action. We can watch all the pundits we want but until those same pundits actively engage the American people in effective action what does it matter?
It is time that a voice emerged that is free from the influence of media designed to insure corporate hegemony in political affairs.
Mr.Olbermann may very well be tired of the "red meat" journalism of today that constantly pits the left vs.right in the pursuit of ratings. Keith may be looking for a media vehicle that will allow him to organize,energize,and mobilize the American people to action against the real enemy in this country which, simply put, is corporate greed. I look for Mr.Olbermann to reappear shortly either in radio,a syndicated column or on the shelves of your local bookstore,maybe all three.
Good night and good luck Mr.Olbermann,and I say that knowing that every night is followed by a new dawn which grants us another opportunity to do what we can to make America better.