an excerpt wrote:One night after Bush's address to the nation, MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann blasted the president's "dangerous, even Messianic certitude."

"Only this President could extol the 'thoughtful recommendations of the Iraq Study Group,' and then take its most far-sighted recommendation — 'engage Syria and Iran' — and transform it into 'threaten Syria and Iran' — when Al-Qaeda would like nothing better than for us to threaten Syria, and when President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to be threatened by us," Olberman said.

The MSNBC anchor added, "This is diplomacy by skimming; it is internationalism by drawing pictures of Superman in the margins of the text books; it is a presidency of Cliff Notes."

Nina wrote:How long do you think it will be until he is "accidentally" killed?

Nina wrote:Have you been following the National Conference on Media Reform at all?

Amy Goodmans guest, Robert McChesney, summed up the state of the media pretty well this morning....

Gotta love Bush's deals with those two stations in Florida to begin broadcasting Radio and TV Marti! What the fuck? Isn't anyone paying attention to these things??? People were killed for broadcasting propaganda! Fuck!

Congress early next year will investigate allegations of mismanagement and political cronyism at taxpayer-funded Radio and TV Martí, a ranking Democrat said Tuesday.

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. -- slated to chair the oversight and investigations subcommittee for the House International Relations Committee -- said he will move to hold hearings on the Martís in late January or early February. His comments came a day after Radio Mambí, WAQI-AM (710), and Azteca América, WPMF-TV 38, each began carrying an hour of Martí programming daily for payment.-

Delahunt said the U.S. government is essentially hiring the stations to reach mostly local audiences, funded with taxpayer money. The six-month contracts call for Mambí to be paid $182,500 and WPMF $195,000. WPMF general manager Enrique Landín said Channel 38 also will sell commercials during the Martí newscasts -- which enraged Delahunt.

''Now we're subsidizing private commercial stations,'' said Delahunt, who called the Martís politically motivated boondoggles. The Martís will receive $37 million this year. ``This is outrageous.''

Andrew L wrote:All of this is to say that my standards are high. This goes for music, for writing, and for thought and politics. It is accurate to say that some on this thread, and many American liberals elsewhere, have been gushing over Olbermann.

clocker bob wrote:

Andrew L wrote:All of this is to say that my standards are high. This goes for music, for writing, and for thought and politics. It is accurate to say that some on this thread, and many American liberals elsewhere, have been gushing over Olbermann.

Your raging anti-Americanism is preventing you from judging Olbermann from where he is, in the corporate media. You seem to want to measure him against radicals who operate without market-imposed restraints. That's unfair. Seen in the context of what we reliably expect from network news and commentary, he's Michael Jordan. It's a rigged game, but Olbermann didn't rig it.

You ought to save your sneering "he's a tepid paper thin latecomer radical" invective for the general public, who fail to police their media or to demand more from it. I would say that Olbermann is defining the limits of speaking truth to power in his arena. Should I discard him because I know he'll never speak ill of the Federal Reserve or tell the truth about 9/11? That would be short-sighted. I can admit that what Olbermann says on TV inspires me, and, if people are hearing it, creates a climate that makes me and my crazy theories an easier sell. You ought to admit that Olbermann's contempt for the regime helps your more advanced (elitist )radicalism get traction also.