The Many Moods of Keith Olbermann: Rupert Murdoch Worse than the Klan; Immigrants Should Speaka Da English; Joe Biden's Hidden Passion

Nick Gillespie | September 13, 2007

In its October issue Playboy interviews MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who seems to be channeling Ron Burgundy. Really, at times the whole Q&A reads like an elaborate, subtle parody of a fictional douchebag host, the Cap'n Queeg of basic cable. Jiminy Glick meets Larry King meets Wally George.

Some snippets, which make it even less likely that I'll ever watch his show. Or vote for Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). And that's despite lingering affection for Olbermann's role at ESPN, a channel that has made not just sports coverage but all news stuff better.

Question for Countdown viewers: Is he is as big a tool on air as he comes across below?

"After two or three years of bilingual education, you say, 'You want to live here? School is gonna be in English.'"

"If you brought in all of Ohio's voters [from 2004 presidential race] today, they'd look around at one another an say, 'I didn't vote for [Bush]. It must have been a fix!'"

"The [Supreme] Court is on the edge of becoming a clean-shaven version of the religious courts of Iran."

"We will see a draft if the Republicans win in 2008, because they've got a plan to invade every country except Lichtenstein but not enough soldiers to do it."

"Al Qaeda really hurt us but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda--worse for our society. It's as dangerous an organization as the Ku Klux Klan ever was....Half the people there ought to be in an insane asylum....[Fox shows] Family Guy and The Simpsons are marvelously subversive, state-of-the-comic-art. It's just a coincidence that I guest-starred on Family Guy last season and I'll be on The Simpsons this year."

"[My girlfriend Katy and I] were eight minutes into Being Julia when I said, 'For God's sake, it's a cheap knockoff of All About Eve.'"

"I have six lower vertebrae, not the usual five, which may make my spine more rigid than most. Make of that what you will."

"The Democrats have a lot of good speakers. I think Joe Biden scores highest on the three keys: passion, detail and eloquence."

The whole thing is not online, alas, but if you're so inclined, pay to read it here.

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|9.13.07 @ 10:43AM|#

Olbermann's role at ESPN, a channel that has made not just sports coverage but all news stuff better.
I hope your tongue is firmly in cheek because that is insane.

|9.13.07 @ 10:45AM|#

Are those supposed to be damning quotes?

I can't tell.

|9.13.07 @ 10:51AM|#

The quotes do seem a little lame, as does Olberman, as do Playboy interviews anymore.

|9.13.07 @ 10:52AM|#

Are those supposed to be damning quotes?

I can't tell.

Yeah I can't either. What exactly is so bad about any of these quotes?

Is this a multiple choice kind of thing, like, find the one damning quote amongst the valid commentary?

|9.13.07 @ 10:53AM|#

How can anyone take this guy seriously?He seems to spend most of his time attacking people that are ahead in the ratings.

Episiarch|9.13.07 @ 10:55AM|#

I guess his name should be Keith Hyperbolbermann.

|9.13.07 @ 10:56AM|#

Fearmongering, anyone?

IMO, he's no worse than a lot of the other talking heads, and probably pretty significantly better.

chris|9.13.07 @ 10:56AM|#

""If you brought in all of Ohio's voters [from 2004 presidential race] today, they'd look around at one another an say, 'I didn't vote for [Bush]. It must have been a fix!'"

does he think its a fix or is he saying thats what ohioans would say now (get it?). i read it as the latter.

|9.13.07 @ 10:59AM|#

does he think its a fix or is he saying thats what ohioans would say now (get it?). i read it as the latter.

That's how I read it. That most have a case of buyers remorse and wouldn't admit to voting for Bush

|9.13.07 @ 11:00AM|#

does he think its a fix or is he saying thats what ohioans would say now (get it?). i read it as the latter.

That's how I read it. That most have a case of buyers remorse and wouldn't admit to voting for Bush

That's how I read it too

|9.13.07 @ 11:01AM|#

IMO, he's no worse than a lot of the other talking heads, and probably pretty significantly better.

I'd take him over Lou Dobbs that's for sure.

Question for Countdown viewers: Is he is as big a tool on air as he comes across below?

I watch his show occasionally. He is much more restrained in it. His "worst person in the world" segment I like a lot.

But again, this is a playboy interview. And as a subscriber I read them every month most people try to be playful and provocative. I believe he was doing the same thing.

But in any case, I still don't find any of this offensive or toolish.

|9.13.07 @ 11:04AM|#

Joe et al,

For real? This is like Ann Coulter. Fox News as dangerous as the Klan? The Supreme Court on the edge of becoming like the courts of Iran? Please. I get it that it's hyperbole. Fine. But it's the same as the crap that damns Coulter. This guy defines Tool.

I'd take him over Lou Dobbs that's for sure.

That's not saying much.
I'd rather listen to just about anyone over Lou Dobbs.

|9.13.07 @ 11:05AM|#

"He seems to spend most of his time attacking people that are ahead in the ratings."

You apparently haven't been paying attention to his ratings lately.

|9.13.07 @ 11:07AM|#

Lamar

They categorized him and B.O. as NEWS SHOWS?!

|9.13.07 @ 11:08AM|#

I guess if you were to carefully pull those quotes out of context, you could make them look bad.

You could pretend his statement about how bilingual education should work is actually a call for an official language.

You could pretend his statement about buyers' remorse in Ohio is a conspiracy theory about vote fraud tipping the 2004 election.

You could pretend that the statement comparing al Qaeda and Rupert Murdoch's influece is actually a statement comparing their moral standing.

I guess.

Nick,

Yes, he is a giant d-bag. I tried watching once and I was surprised at how someone so well-regarded in another setting could be such an obtuse, arrogant, knowledgeless know-it-all in this setting.

|9.13.07 @ 11:11AM|#

kohlrabi,

For real. Fox News is far more influential than the Klan, even if they're less morally repugnant. That isn't even hyperbole, like the statement about the Supreme Court.

joe,

I didn't do any of those things, though.

|9.13.07 @ 11:12AM|#

Is he bragging about being a mutant freak with too many spine-bones? I can't tell.

|9.13.07 @ 11:13AM|#

This guy defines Tool.

Stop defaming a perfectly good band.

|9.13.07 @ 11:14AM|#

Joe,

Fox News is just not as dangerous as the Klan. Period. Biased news can be taken or left behind. The Klan kills people.

Influential? Sure. Dangerous, no.

Keith Olberman is like an Iraqi combat battallion.

He can operate on his own if he absolutely has to, but he's not terribly effective without a whole lotta help. When he has an entire production, graphics, research, and on-air team behind him, he's funny and insightful.

But when he goes on a mission alone, he's like a comic actor who thinks that he can stand-up.

Timothy|9.13.07 @ 11:16AM|#

Most of those quotes are just sort of endearingly nonsensical. Nick, did KMW ghostwrite this post for you?

|9.13.07 @ 11:18AM|#

kohlrabi,

Sure, people can take or leave biased news. The problem is, people take it, and act on it, and do dangerous and stupid things.

Or allow their political leaders to do dangerous and stupid things.

The Klan is a few hundred guys with mullets. I'm a hell of lot more worried about our government than the Klan, and Rupert Murdoch has helped make some of the worst, dumbest actions our government has ever taken possible.

Sean|9.13.07 @ 11:19AM|#

I dunno if it's just me, but in that photo he totally looks like he's gonna whip that trenchcoat open and there ain't gonna be any clothes on underneath.

|9.13.07 @ 11:20AM|#

But it's the same as the crap that damns Coulter.

I don't agree at all. Coulter's problem isn't that she is hyperbolic, it's that she is a mean spirited cunt who spews vitriol at anything and everything that doesn't fit her public world view.

I don't recall Keith Olbermann calling any of the GOP candidates faggots and wishing for their deaths.

NP|9.13.07 @ 11:20AM|#

What's so surprising about any of these quotes? Anyone who isn't half blind has known for years that Olbermann is a partisan and, even worse, an insufferable whiner. The guy just had a good chance to let it all out this time.

"The Democrats have a lot of good speakers. I think Joe Biden scores highest on the three keys: passion, detail and eloquence."

He left out, "He knows who to plagerize, too."
Snicker, snicker.

|9.13.07 @ 11:22AM|#

"I get it that it's hyperbole. Fine. But it's the same as the crap that damns Coulter."

Speaking of hyperbole....

|9.13.07 @ 11:23AM|#

Joe,

I get what you're saying, but it sounds to me like when people call books dangerous. It's info. If people make stupid decisions based on it, it's that ignorance and impulsiveness that's dangerous.

Anyway, I really don't care all that much. I have no axe to grind with Olberman, it's just that what he's saying is wild hyperbole, the same crap that Coulter does, but here everyone's like "No biggie."

And BTW, there is little scarier than a mullet. Maybe alligators, but that's about it.

fyodor|9.13.07 @ 11:23AM|#

Oh have a little sense of humor and some tolerance for hyperbole you don't 100% agree with. If someone said half the prosecutors in America are insane, most folks here would jump off their seats to applaud.

|9.13.07 @ 11:24AM|#

Playboy does interviews now!?!

|9.13.07 @ 11:25AM|#

I watched a few minutes of Olberman the other night after watching the Ron Paul "interview" with O'Reilly. Compared to that fucktard's show, Olberman's is a haven for civilized discourse. But that aint saying much.

SPD|9.13.07 @ 11:28AM|#

I don't know about Olbermann's politics -- and I tend to zone out when he, or anyone else, tries to share them with me -- but the man knows a hell of a lot about baseball.

Anyway, I'd take Colbert over Olbermann and O'Reilly every time. At least I know he knows it's an act.

|9.13.07 @ 11:28AM|#

Hes no worse than Bill O, perhaps slightly better.

Yeah, hes lefty and arrogant but not at Michael Moore or even Bill Maher levels.

|9.13.07 @ 11:29AM|#

kohlrabi,

As the wise man said, "Ideas have consequences."

You don't think Mein Kampf, What Is To Be Done?, or The Little Red Book were dangerous?

Also, what ChicogoTom said about Coulter's hyperbole. Keith Olberman thinks George Bush and Dick Cheney are teh suck. Ann Coulter proudly states her belief that the 1/3 of Americans who identify with the Democratic Party are traitors who hate their fellow Americans and need to see their leaders executed in order to be "physically intimidated."

bromo98|9.13.07 @ 11:30AM|#

I have never watched this guy, but all of a sudden he pops up on NBC's Football coverage with the "Worst Person in the NFL" - the first of which was HIMSELF. I don't find him particularly witty or smart with his commentary. It would be great if NBC could just pay to promote their shows instead of cross-polluting what was a pretty good football game.

|9.13.07 @ 11:31AM|#

Yeah, K.O. is almost as smart and funny as he thinks he is.

Which is pretty impressive.

ChicagoTom,

Fair enough, he just wants people put into asylums. Admittedly not as bad as dead. He's incrementally less offensive than Coulter.

Lamar,

OK, it's not actually feces, and most likely Coulter isn't really going to be cast into hell for her exaggerations.

|9.13.07 @ 11:36AM|#

Joe,

I respectfully disagree. I don't think those books are dangerous.

Anyway, Coulter is a nut, I'll agree, I just don't take her rants any more seriously than K.O. talking about putting FoxNews employees in asylums. It's all exagerated bunk, that was my only point.

|9.13.07 @ 11:40AM|#

You don't think Mein Kampf, What Is To Be Done?, or The Little Red Book were dangerous?

Mein Kampf, by itself, wasn't particularly dangerous, in the same way that Das Kapital wasn't particularly dangerous. Both books were/are so boring that almost no one actually read(s) them. It was only when the ideas behind them were brought out in a more readily digestible fashion that they became dangerous.

Playboy does interviews now!?!

Playboy has words?

|9.13.07 @ 11:46AM|#

fyodor,

"If someone said half the prosecutors in America are insane, most folks here would jump off their seats to applaud."

My original point is that around here, it really seems to depend on who's saying it.

Half the prosecutors in the United States are insane.

|9.13.07 @ 11:47AM|#

Argh. STANDARD LIBERTARIAN BOILERPLATE #3

My previous comment should not be construed as support for government suppression of any ideas, thoughts, or feelings, no matter how repugnant they appear to me.

Half the prosecutors in the United States are insane.

*Stands and applauds*

Only half??

|9.13.07 @ 11:48AM|#

"at times the whole Q&A reads like an elaborate, subtle parody of a fictional douchebag host"

really? at times? well, I suppose it's good that you pick up on the wink and nod occasionally

|9.13.07 @ 11:49AM|#

Forty percent are evil. Ten percent are Hamilton Burger.

|9.13.07 @ 11:50AM|#

Fox News is just not as dangerous as the Klan. Period. Biased news can be taken or left behind. The Klan kills people.

Influential? Sure. Dangerous, no.

I'm sure there are many Iraqis, living and dead, that would disagree. The Klan hasn't been relevant since the Johnson administration. The Cincinnati Bengals are a greater threat to polite society than they are.

Also, ESPN used to be a force for good in sports, and other, journalism. Now it's everything that's wrong with sports and other journalism. Do we really need round the clock Michael Vick coverage?

ESPN, a channel that has made not just sports coverage but all news stuff better.

If by "better" you mean "louder and more obnoxious," then I agree.

Removing the ideological aspect (who gives a crap about that anyway from a TV talker?), Olbermann can be alternately very cutting and funny or just annoying.

|9.13.07 @ 11:52AM|#

ESPN is a pestilence.

|9.13.07 @ 12:07PM|#

Yeah, I don't get it. These quotes seem garden variety. A bit blowhard-y to be sure, but roughly a category 2 on the blowhard scale.

|9.13.07 @ 12:10PM|#

"Al Qaeda really hurt us but not as much as Rupert Murdoch"

Forensics show it was the Al Qaeda comment that did the real damage. It would be an non issue without it.

MattXIV|9.13.07 @ 12:10PM|#

joe,

Olberman said "as the Ku Klux Klan ever was", which includes the eras where it was indeed quite dangerous, not just its modern irrelevance. He also included a comparison to Al Qaeda, which does currently kill people. It's the same idiotic schtick that O'Reilly and Coulter engage in. I'm content to ignore the lot of them, but you're grasping for a distinction that is at most one of degree not kind.

I'll answer you question about Mein Kampf etc, too. No - to blame a book diminishes the culpability of the actual murderers. It's not the existence of the ideas themselves, but the people who of their own free will embrance them where the danger lies.

VM|9.13.07 @ 12:43PM|#

"In its October issue Playboy interviews..."

there are, like, articles and words n stuff in that mag?

who knew!

thoreau|9.13.07 @ 12:54PM|#

So Nick Gillespie really does read Playboy for the articles?

VM|9.13.07 @ 12:57PM|#

Never mind that, Thoreau! I'm still having troubles getting over the fact that there actually are articles...

Russ 2000|9.13.07 @ 1:03PM|#

"The [Supreme] Court is on the edge of becoming a clean-shaven version of the religious courts of Iran."

Mencken essentially said the same thing.

fyodor|9.13.07 @ 1:10PM|#

Never mind that, Thoreau! I'm still having troubles getting over the fact that there actually are articles...

Don't they always print silly things (supposedly) said by the models right next to their pictures? Well....

VM|9.13.07 @ 1:23PM|#

Fyodor:

if they do, who cares! everybody knows that you can't 'bate and read! :)

|9.13.07 @ 1:44PM|#

Guys, to get the full effect of each quote, you have to mentally add "in bed" at the end.

carrick|9.13.07 @ 1:55PM|#

You don't think Mein Kampf, What Is To Be Done?, or The Little Red Book were dangerous?

No

The megalomaniacs that wrote the books, then implemented the concepts were dangerous.

Ted Kaczynski was dangerous. His written ramblings were not.

oncogenesis|9.13.07 @ 1:58PM|#

I'm happy to ignore Olbermann's cookie cutter liberal politics in order to get my fix of relentless-yet-overly-eloquent Bush bashing. Nobody else on basic cable can take Bush to the woodshed like Keith can.

|9.13.07 @ 2:05PM|#

"I don't recall Keith Olbermann calling any of the GOP candidates faggots and wishing for their deaths."

you could at least have gotten the point. she was riffing on the cast member's predicament in gray's anatomy, who got in trouble for referring to another cast member as a "faggot". she was saying that if you call somebody that word, you get sent to reeducation camp.

it never ceases to amaze me that people don't even do the basic research before critiquing.

here you go (from wikipedia)

"In October 2006 as season 3 began, the show's actors attracted media attention when Washington was alleged to have referred to another cast member as a "faggot" during an on-set altercation with Patrick Dempsey. This cast member transpired to be T.R. Knight who came out about his sexual orientation following media speculation. While Washington denied using the word, he issued a public statement apologizing for his "unfortunate use of words." The controversy later reignited at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards. After the show won for Best Drama Series, the cast and crew appeared in the pressroom to answer reporters' questions. While creator Shonda Rhimes was being asked about the incident, Washington unexpectedly stepped in front of the microphone and stated: "No, I did not call T.R. a faggot." (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association placed the footage on their website) Afterwards, in an interview with Access Hollywood, Katherine Heigl criticised Washington for revisiting the incident publicly and using the slur in the pressroom, and said "he needs to just not speak in public. Period." Later that week, Knight appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talkshow and said he and others had heard Washington use the slur during the October incident. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation then called on Washington to apologize.[23] Network executives went on to reprimand Washington, who then agreed to undergo counseling and issued a statement saying: "I can neither defend nor explain my behavior...I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine within my own soul, and I've asked for help." In an effort to try to come clean with the viewers, Washington surprisingly checked into a residential treatment facility to undergo a psychological assessment for the slur."

personally, i find coulter hilarious. but i can find far right and far left hilarious without feeling offended. i feel the same way about mike malloy, although i don't think he intends to be hilarious (as far as i can tell)he is.

thoreau|9.13.07 @ 2:08PM|#

I just wanted to get post #69 in this thread.

brian|9.13.07 @ 2:18PM|#

KO is liberal with some libertarian streaks. I remember one segment when he was blasting Bush about the suspension of habeas corpus by going line by line through the Bill of Rights describing how the government could take these rights away now without charging the detainee with anything.

And yes, he defended the Second amendment.

T|9.13.07 @ 2:55PM|#

Maybe I'm out of touch with the mainstream or something, but who is Keith Olbermann? I gather he's on television? I'm not being snarky here, I honestly don't have a clue. Why should I give a rat's ass about the guy as opposed to any other drone on TV?

I also note the continued viability of Playboy in the era of high-speed internet baffles me. I can get more and better pictures of naked women for free, and the articles never struck me as being worth the cover price most months.

|9.13.07 @ 3:01PM|#

Maybe I'm out of touch with the mainstream or something, but who is Keith Olbermann? I gather he's on television? I'm not being snarky here, I honestly don't have a clue. Why should I give a rat's ass about the guy as opposed to any other drone on TV?

He's a second tier TV news drone who is starting to claw his way up to first tier. He got his start as an anchor on ESPN's "Sportscenter" program, and then jumped ship to MSNBC to do various non-sports related news commentary programs. He's attempting to be the next Chris Matthews, basically, with maybe a little Jon Stewart thrown in for good measure.

carrick|9.13.07 @ 3:14PM|#

I can get more and better pictures of naked women for free, and the articles never struck me as being worth the cover price most months.

You have to go back to the glory days (60's, 70's, even into the early 80's)) when the best writers all wrote at least one article for the magazine. The interviews in particular were world class.

Now, they have no real point to be in business.

MattXIV|9.13.07 @ 3:14PM|#

if they do, who cares! everybody knows that you can't 'bate and read! :)

Methinks you underestimate our multitasking abilities, VM.

LibertyPlease|9.13.07 @ 3:30PM|#

I'm a hell of lot more worried about our government than the Klan, and Rupert Murdoch has helped make some of the worst, dumbest actions our government has ever taken possible.

Now that Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal, I'll be cancelling my subscription. Their editorials have always been many words with little thought, but now every day will bring some form of "We've always been at war with Eastasia!"

LibertyPlease|9.13.07 @ 3:35PM|#

Addressing the comments about Playboy, the magazine's polictics and news commentary are extremely reasonable. There is more honest and intelligent coverage of current events in 1 month's issue of Playboy than in 4 weekly issues of Time or Newsweek.

Want to hear something strange? Hustler is even more reasonable. Go figure.

carrick|9.13.07 @ 3:42PM|#

Hustler is even more reasonable.

Larry Flint was anti-war from the very begining.

I still recall a very provocative ad that asked "which is more obscene -- a photo of a girl with her legs spread or a photo of a soldier with is legs shreaded?"

First "real" war photo that I can recall seeing.

|9.13.07 @ 3:50PM|#

Markus: Yeah, but she was clearly implying that she wanted to call Edwards a faggot. The joke wouldn't have made sense otherwise. If someone said, "I wanted to say what I really think about Barak Obama but I saw what happened when Michael Richards used the word nigger," it would be pretty clear that he meant he wished he could call Obama a nigger.
The one where she IS innocent is the one about wishing Edwards was dead, where she clearly was not wishing that at all but attacking Bill Maher for wishing Dick Cheney was kiled, saying that "If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." This was alluding to Maher's remark and saying (accurately) that it was worse than the faggot remark, not saying that she actually wished Edwards was killed.

Wikinger Elch|9.13.07 @ 4:15PM|#

*imagines a quote from "Mein Kampf" with Stevo's "in bed" at the end:

Deutschland ist über alles. Im Bett...

yup. works.

|9.13.07 @ 4:37PM|#

Gosh Nick ... you are sooo counter-counterculture! Substantive? Not so much.

DannyK|9.13.07 @ 6:45PM|#

Olbermann has Bush dead to rights, and that's the only thing I watch him for.

|9.13.07 @ 9:34PM|#

So long as he keeps going after Bill O'Reilly and Fox News, I'll keep tuning in to Olbermann.

|9.14.07 @ 12:23AM|#

Olbermann has Bush dead to rights, and that's the only thing I watch him for.

I watch him for that and Oddball. Once the Iraq War is behind us, I will probably find him intolerable (unless he's paired with Dan Patrick on the radio).

When he reports on domestic policy, he comes across as a self-righteous blowhard. When he reports on Iraq, he comes across as a self-righteous blowhard who happens to be right.

JM|9.14.07 @ 12:45AM|#

"After two or three years of bilingual education, you say, 'You want to live here? School is gonna be in English.'"

What's so bad about this? Should the government provide free bilingual education to everyone? I thought Libertarians opposed government run education?

If we want the government to provide education for everyone how long must bilingual education be provided? Two to three years sounds reasonable enough to me, after that it doesn't seem too cost effective to the taxpayers who are involuntarily funding this persons language classes.

Perhaps your unlimited love of illegal immigration is clouding your thoughts.

|9.14.07 @ 4:59AM|#

I think the clouded thoughts belong more to someone who recognizes that libertarians oppose government run education and then goes on to berate them about how the government runs education.

jimmy|9.14.07 @ 2:04PM|#

i never watch KO anymore, after his ridiculous ohio recount marathon in '04, but at least he can still be funny. al franken, for example, just ain't funny any more. and bill maher committed two great sins of punditry: (1) not being the least bit funny, and (2) once claiming to be a "libertarian" but ending up being just another post-Marxist whiner.

|9.14.07 @ 4:41PM|#

I don't think he's as witty as he thinks he is. But I have to give him props for sending O'Reilly into a purple rage.

|9.15.07 @ 12:41PM|#

ESPN better, made all news better?
This for a channel that can't pay for itself; it's forced into basic packages on DirectV and Dish because it can't stand on its own.
This moves your whole opinion into the BS pile.

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