Michele Bachmann Still Merely Truthy, Andrew Shirvell Even Worse Than We Thought, Keith Olbermann Talk, And Anderson Is Not Happy With AMC

Hello party people! Another week is upon us. I actually don't have much to say about the broadcast, so...you want some bullet points? Of course you do!

• The 360 kids kicked things off with keeping Michele Bachmann honest regarding some statements she made about the history of these here United States. You might find this hard to believe, but it turns out some of the stuff she said wasn't true. I know, right? So unlike her!

• Bachmann is going to give the "Tea Party response" to Tuesday's State of the Union Address (no, I don't think anyone asked her), and I have to admit, I'm a little excited. I didn't think anything would top Kenneth the Page's performance in the category of unintentional hilarity, but we just might have a contender!

• There was discussion with former Republican Congresswoman Susan Molinari, Paul Begala, and historian Professor Eddie Glaude Jr., which was totally not worth watching. But! Was anyone else amused at Molinari's passive aggressiveness when Anderson Cooper dared (DARED!) to ask her about something other than the exact topic she was told they'd be discussing?
  

• You know that creeper guy, Andrew Shirvell? Turns out he's a creepier creeper than anyone knew. Seriously dude, get some therapy (and maybe some medication).
  

• Discussion with Jeff Toobin and Chris Armstrong's attorney, Deborah Gordon:
  

• Today Jared Lee Loughner pled not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. Ted Rowlands reported, Sunnie Hostin discussed:
  

• The Keith Olbermann speculation is still going strong. Well, on CNN anyway. I have to roll my eyes at the hypocrisy when it comes to these media stories. They were all over the Jon Klein and Rick Sanchez firings, weren't they? Oh, wait...

• Colby Hall and Bill Carter discussed:
  

• Tonight's RidicuList dealt with the AMC show Mad Men, which Isha Sesay tells us she has never seen. Anderson notes that he should have asked her that question before she got the job because it might have been a deal breaker. I've actually never seen Mad Men either, Anderson. Am I not worthy of watching your show now? You and your impossibly high standards!

• Okay, so, our anchor is really not thrilled that the companies behind the show are squabbling and now he may have to wait to get his Mad Men fix. Why are you depriving the Silver Fox, AMC? I love that Anderson has basically finagled this segment into being a block of airtime specifically designated for ranting about what ticks him off. He's now Andy Rooney...with snark!
  

• Props for the SNL reference. I believe I've used the same on this here blog. Anyway, Anderson? It's going to be okay...even without Mad Men. (But anyone ever messes with Dexter, there will be blood on more than just the show.)

• The show wasn't bad. Not spectacular, but no real complaints.
  

Keith Olbermann Out At MSNBC

Hi everyone. Wow. Another one bites the dust. After spending the day working and running errands in this brutal weather, I decided to take a nice evening nap. I got up just in time to watch George Clooney on Piers Morgan, logged onto the Twitter, and discovered that the media world had turned upside down. Not quite what I was expecting.

The details of Olbermann's firing (escape?) are still murky, but it's no secret to anyone who pays attention to this sort of thing that he has quite the reputation in the industry. Even among certain liberals, the sometimes joke has been, "sure he's an asshole, but he's our asshole." Right now the conventional wisdom seems to be that the Comcast merger and loss of Jeff Zucker finally forced the pink slip, though NBC denies. The Wrap has a completely different take, reporting that Olbermann left on his own with dreams of creating a media empire.

Though I stopped watching Countdown in recent years, I'm still a little sad to see Olbermann go, especially if it wasn't on his terms. He was an anchor monster, yes, but his heart seemed to be in the right place. Before Anderson Cooper was really even on my radar, Countdown was the cable news show I watched every night. Following the election of 2004, because Kerry had conceded, no television anchor would significantly touch the story of election irregularities in Ohio. No television anchor except Keith.

I know some of you are now picturing him bombastically ranting about stolen votes, but it wasn't like that--he mostly just reported the facts. Olbermann was different in those days. Though it wasn't hard to peg him as a liberal, he did a lot more reporting than he did commentating. What attracted me to the show was that he gave light to stories that others didn't seem to have the courage to report.

It was a different time then. There was still significant support for Bush, there was still significant support for the war. It was a very, very hard time to be a liberal. This was compounded by the fact that while conservatives had a strong voice on the airwaves, liberals had none. Then there was Keith. He took a chance and spoke out against what was happening in the country, and it laid the foundation for what MSNBC primetime is today.

I'll always be grateful to him for having the courage to say something when others didn't. He made me feel a little less alone. I just wish he didn't let it overtake him. Eventually Keith became a little too similar to that which he mocked. My readers know I hate false equivalency. I am not saying he became the exact opposite of those who inhabit primetime at Fox News, but the constant childish voices and harping on the Right was something I couldn't handle anymore. I wanted a news anchor, not a performer.

Worse still, at some point I felt like I could no longer trust him. Segments from the show, coupled with comments he made online, left me feeling uneasy. I wasn't sure that he wouldn't stretch accuracy to make a political point. Sure, he's never simply made things up like the other side does, but I have higher standards than that. As a result, and with sadness, I slowly began to stop watching. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw an entire Countdown broadcast.

That's the short story of Keith Olbermann's tenure at MSNBC--through my eyes anyway. I wish him well, and hope he lands somewhere else soon. I also hope the network does their best to place all of his staff. TV news is one crazy industry, huh?

As for the 360 kids, they were all over this story. It was manna for a news junkie, but sometimes I wonder exactly what viewers they're targeting. Because the majority of the country? They don't care about this story--in fact, many have probably never heard of Olbermann. This sort of gets at the heart of CNN's problem: they have no identity, and their audience is subsequently all over the place. I won't be surprised if they pull a really good demo tonight, but nor will I be surprised if they get completely demolished. It's because I don't know who's watching, and many times I get the impression they don't either.


To end these musings with some fun, below are the two RidicuLists from this week concerning Fountain Lady. Hilarious stuff. They appear to be taking a lot greater care to write the segments in Anderson's voice, which is really helping his now almost pitch perfect delivery. I'd previously noted that sometimes the segment seemed to be nothing more than a hot mess of random references, clearly not written by Anderson, as evidenced by his awkward delivery. But this week has been really good. Enjoy: