This Just In: Olbermann Is Annoying

13 January, 2007. 391 words.

I don’t just hate Leftophobic propaganda from Staunton. For example, I also find Olbermann’s “special commentaries,” which should more accurately be described as, “angry, personal attacks against President Bush to get ratings,” really annoying. One expects those kind of rants from Rightophobic bloggers, but from the host of what is advertised as a “news” show? Give me a break. Check your journalistic integrity at the door, folks. (Not that he had any to start with.)

These commentaries are made all the more annoying by their dramatic showmanship. It’s as if he’s repeatedly trying to recreate that scene from the end of Clear And Present Danger, after the president angrily says to our hero Harrison Ford, “How dare you bark at me like some junkyard dog!” and Ford finally snaps and fires back, “How dare you, sir.” (Or something like that.) The only thing missing from Olbermann’s commentaries is the stirring music of James Horner in the background.

I’m referring of course to Olbermann’s latest creation, his post-speech Special Commentary, Bush’s legacy: The president who cried wolf. I had the great (mis)fortune of turning on the television, which happened to be tuned to MSNBC, just as Olbermann launched into this overly-hyped tirade. I would have started up The Daily Show on the DVR right away, but Mrs. Krehbiel wanted to watch the commentary. :)

I sat quietly through most of the tantrum, silently seething over his raging arrogance and incredibly misleading prose and blatant misuse of cable news airtime to push a radical agenda, but one point in particular shocked me to my core:

“Because last night the president foolishly all but announced that we will be sending these 21,500 poor souls, but no more after that, and if the whole thing fizzles out, we’re going home.”

I simply could not believe Olbermann had the unmitigated gall to go there, after Democrats (for which he is obviously a champion) have spent years refuting Bush’s meme that a fixed exit strategy telegraphs our plans to the terrorists. It was a cheap, cheap, cheap shot, purely political, purely personal, and incredibly childish.

But that’s the kind of stuff you get from an Olbermann commentary. He should stick to reading teleprompters and leave the writing to someone else.

Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a generally centrist commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.

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