Keith Olbermann’s Most Dangerous Game

(AXcess News) Pensacola, FL - It is easy to be an admirer of Keith Olbermann. Alone among the mainstream journalists on TV he has had the guts to say what the alternative media has been saying even back when George W. Bush’s poll numbers were above his IQ.

There is a disturbing trend on Olbermann’s Countdown show lately. He seems to have misfired in his view of the real problems in America. On a seemingly daily basis Keith Olbermann takes Bill O’Reilly to task for the latest stupid comment has made. Going strictly on the basis of O’Reilly’s history of stupid comments, this could last until either Olbermann or Billo dies. By giving O’Reilly a nightly plug on his own show Olbermann along with all those who run anti-O’Reilly web sites are succeeding only in proferring to this footnote to history a platform for those who otherwise would not even be aware he exists.

O’Reilly’s good friend and fellow Bush apologizer Geraldo Rivera is fond of justifying his shows about those unworthy of television coverage with the analogy of turning on a light to reveal the cockroaches among us. It’s a bad analogy that should be forever locked away in Al Capone’s vault along with his bottles of moonshine and Geraldo’s career. The fact is that there is an even better way to avoid cockroaches. Don’t the turn the lights out until it’s time to go to sleep. Avoiding the cockroaches won’t make them go away, true, but at least you won’t be bothered by them.

By nightly focusing on the latest ridiculous statement from Bill O’Reilly (a man even more misinformed than Rick Blaine), Keith Olbermann is accomplishing two things. One, he is making himself look petty; and he’s already having to deal with that by allowing the suits to dictate that he must cover such idiocy as Britney Spears and American Idol. The second thing is much worse: He is keeping Bill O’Reilly in the consciousness of America. O’Reilly’s ratings have gone down while Olbermann’s have gone up.

As more Americans wake up to the stunning tapestry of lies from the conservative political machine over the course of this decade, those who actually watch O’Reilly from an uncritical, lemming-like position have been reduced significantly. O’Reilly’s nightly viewership will never be what it was once was. If you can’t trust the politicians who lie, after all, why would you trust journalists who never once have told you they were lying?

Fox News continues its pro-Bush method of presenting news unabated, seeming to have some supernatural protection from being able to admit they were wrong about everything. O’Reilly’s viewership now is down to those core Bush supporters who would blame a liberal photographer for taking a picture of Bush shooting a baby.

Olbermann does neither himself nor America credit by giving O’Reilly free publicity. The saying goes that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but there is a fallacy. No publicity is bad publicity. There is a Halloween episode of The Simpsons where giant advertising comes alive and wreaks damage upon the citizens of Springfield. The only way to stop the rampage is to avoid looking at the advertising figures who have come to life because advertising goes away if nobody pays any attention to it. Twenty years from now Bill O’Reilly be in the same position that Morton Downey, Jr. is now. (No, not dead, though that will probably also be the case.).

Morton Downey, Jr. used to be a household name in American and his ratings were ten times what O’Reilly’s ever were. Today he is almost completely forgotten by those who were around and totally unknown by those who weren’t.

Bill O’Reilly is, once again, a mere footnote in American history. He is no more worthy of being honored with the title Worst Person in the World than his fellow mental midget Glenn Beck. Between the two of them, they might just possibly possess enough intelligence to make it to Final Jeopardy, though the greater likelihood is that if a two-headed Beck and O’Reilly played Monster Jeopardy, there would one empty podium come the final answer.

The best thing is to avoid even mentioning people like O’Reilly, Beck and the Big Fat Idiot.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I couldn’t possibly disagree more. The idea that, if not for Olbermann, “a lot of people would not even be aware (O’Reilly) exists” is absurd. If anyone is that out of touch, they are not even from this planet.

(Notice: Olbermann’s ratings have been going UP while O’Reilly’s are going DOWN.)

One of history’s time-tested antidotes to tyrants is to EXPOSE and RIDICULE them. Did Edward R. Murrow help Joseph McCarthy’s career? Did Walter Cronkite PROMOTE the war in Viet Nam when he spoke out against it? Darkness doesn’t go away until LIGHT is thrown on it, and silence equals consent, my friend.

Indeed, there are still NOT ENOUGH media people publically EXPOSING and standing up to O’Reilly’s bullying and lies.

Bravo, Olbermann!

I live in Scotland and have been to Ireland many times and they have a great saying, “I wouldn’t give him the steam off my pish”.

I could understand this argument if Keith spent a lot of time on this. It is not like he spends the whole show on Bill. Yes Bill makes the worst persons list a lot. Just like Rush and Ann C. I would argue that O’Reilly spend more time preaching against the MSM then Keith does on Bill. Plus if Bill O and Fox are the ratings leaders doesn’t that make them the main stream media. The idea of ignoring Bill is just not going to work. Bill was around way before the Countdown can on the air and since the debut of Countdown O’Reilly’s ratings have dropped.