Los Angeles Times Takes On Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews & Dan Abrams -- MSNBC Prime Time Trio

WOW... I don't know how much more blatant you can get in a media review of MSNBC prime time than one posted in the LA Times. Has the network, more specifically its "stars" gone too far this election season. Take a look at an excerpt from his very pointed criticism of Keith Olbermann (and right on target some would argue).

From Howard Rosenberg:
"Countdown With Keith Olbermann" is the bean ball between "Hardball With Chris Matthews" and "Verdict With Dan Abrams" in MSNBC's weekday lineup. This trio has spent the election season heckling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from deep inside Sen. Barack Obama's hip pocket and hammering Sen. John McCain since Day One.
Olbermann and Matthews co-anchored MSNBC's coverage of this year's party caucuses and primaries, and when Obama clinched the Democratic nomination this week, calming down these guys would have required a defibrillator. But the low point was New Hampshire, when they spent probably 15 minutes giggling at and making fun of the speech McCain gave after topping that primary's GOP field....
"Is Keith Olbermann the Future of Journalism?" the American Journalism Review asked last year. The piece quoted Chicago media critic Phil Rosenthal saying Olbermann "flows from funny to poignant in connecting the seemingly random dots of a day's events, important and trivial, steadfastly clinging to basic tenets about what is and what isn't news without being bound to traditional approaches." He's right about Olbermann loosening the vise of tradition, which can be a good thing. And Olbermann doesn't just flow funny, at times he hemorrhages funny. But poignancy? Connecting random dots? "Steadfastly clinging to basic tenets about what is and what isn't news"?
Get a grip. The man's a big ham.
NOTE: Check out the full American Journalism Review article mentioned above.

While I have blogged several times before here about the creative writing and production of 'Countdown' (and I still believe that), you won't find posts since the political season heated up that support that attacks on Hillary Clinton. I don't think Olbermann was alone in the pro-Obama, anti-anyone else approach this season though. The general spin of cable news this political season has been more than annoying. Everyone screams "fair", "most trusted", etc. But if you watched a compilation of the season, you will find very little in-depth reporting on key issues, how they affect Americans and how candidates planned to take real action instead of standing on more political rhetoric. Clinton seemed to be the only one challeged there. MSNBC has been most heavily criticized for its attacks on Clinton.

Is Olbermann the future of news? I think the question is too narrow. The future of TV news is eroding, thanks to the 24-hour entertainment, opinion-driven philosophies driving the cable news madness. There is a serious lack of depth and insight... but a great deal of influence from the cable newsers. In the end, I don't think you can blame this trend on Olbermann, Matthews, Abrams, Bill O'Reilly, Anderson Cooper and others.

SAMPLE COMMENT FROM ONE OF MY PREVIOUS OLBERMANN POSTS:
Anonymous: "NBC should be ashamed for giving this moron more airtime. He is a tabloid sportscaster posing as a journalist. He preaches his hatred for everything conservative and wears his bias on his smug grin. He offers zero dissenting views while he preaching the same hate day in and day out. His show is continualy dominated in cable news(sadly enough still MSNBC top rated program), so now their trying the network again. His rating were atrocious when strategically placed ahead of NBC's Sunday night football game, so I guarantee they'll be even worse tonight. I am glad to see he decided to discuss the weighty issues of the day with a comedian tonight, because his show is a joke. NBC has truely reached rock bottom."
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