The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Wow. I Think I Agree With Olbermann.

Posted on | November 16, 2010 | 3 Comments

Of course, he buys into — and foments on his own — some fairly predictable liberal propaganda (e.g., Republicans were pro-Nazi circa 1940), but insofar as he seeks to point out the differences between factual reporting, opinionated analysis and the “the false god of objectivity,” he’s onto something here:

If only Keith Olbermann could be persuaded to examine the question of whether the neo-Keynesian economics of the Pelosi/Reid/Obama Democrats was doomed to failure from the beginning, so that he might have a Cronkite-in-Vietnam epiphany: “It’s a hopeless quagmire!”

Koppel’s criticism of Fox and MSNBC in the Washington Post, while not without merit, has substantial flaws:

The commercial success of both MSNBC and Fox News is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me. While I can appreciate the financial logic of drowning television viewers in a flood of opinions designed to confirm their own biases, the trend is not good for the republic. It is, though, the natural outcome of a growing sense of national entitlement. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s oft-quoted observation that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” seems almost quaint in an environment that flaunts opinions as though they were facts.

But it isn’t as if Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly never report facts. They report facts every night. Rather, each selects the facts he reports or emphasizes, according to the (presumed) interests of his audience. Olbermann reports facts that makes Republicans look bad, and his liberal viewers appreciate that. O’Reilly reports facts that make Democrats look bad, and his conservative viewers appreciate that.

Sometimes I watch MSNBC, just to see what they’re up to. As a conservative, this can be a painful experience, and not just because of the dreadful liberal bias, but because some of the facts reported on MSNBC genuinely do make Republicans look bad.

However, being a conservative isn’t the same thing as believing that Republicans are 100% wonderful. In fact, I’d love it if Olbermann and Rachel Maddow would devote themselves to destroying the reputations of certain Republicans that I hate even more than they do. For example, John Cornyn.

C’mon, Keith: Assign your researchers to dig up the vilest things possible about John Cornyn. Surely there must be some nasty skeletons in his closet — a hushed-up DUI, a mistress, bribery, kickbacks, transvestitism, something.  Take him out.

Category: Fox News, MSNBC

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