The answer to this Jeopardy-style question can be found here. It seems as though Keith Olbermann, who is the liberal version of Stephen Colbert minus any intentional parody went on a little rant about the Obama passport data flap—accusing the Bush Administration of deliberately spying on Obama.
Of course, as we now know, all three candidates had their data looked at and there’s no evidence of anything more than three State Department employees letting their curiosity get the better of their judgment. But that didn’t stop Keith Olbermann from bolding jumping to conclusions.
Olbermann is a hack—and that’s probably a smear on professional hacks. Countdown is the sort of show that only a liberal activist could create—it’s like the liberals took their view of what a Fox News show is and flipped the ideological polarity. How people can stand Olbermann’s preening ego is beyond me—he makes Bill O’Reilly seem like wilting violet in comparison. When it comes from O’Reilly, it’s bad enough, but O’Reilly at least has something resembling a sense of humor. Olbermann’s prodding self-importance makes him almost unwatchable.
Of course, there are enough people watching for MSNBC to fritter away the shreds of their journalistic credibility—which is yet another reason why the cable news networks are less about news and more about appealing to the lowest common denominator.
You obviously have never seen more than 30 seconds of “Countdown” if you don’t think Keith Olbermann has a sense of humor. You’ve probably seen the opening few moments of some of his over-the-top “special comment” rants and think that’s what the show is. Yes, the man has an insatiable ego and its gets tiring night after night, but he hardly suffers from a lack of wit.
Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand, manages to exhibit less INTENTIONAL comic value than Wilford Brimley sitting on his horse scolding to “check our blood sugar often!”. As with Wilford, the unintentional comic value of O’Reilly is off the charts. Perhaps that why O’Reilly is constantly being parodied while Olbermann is not.
Actually, I’d guess it’s because Olbermann is self-parodying. “The Colbert Report” is funny because it takes the stereotypes of a right-wing commentator and ramps them up into absurdity. I don’t think that you could do the same with Olbermann because his show is already over the top.