• Interview with Keith at MediaBistro.com
• Reviews of Keith's "Countdown" on MSNBC from Slate and the Washington Post
• Keith
returns to MSNBC
• Keith
to anchor MSNBC 2004 Olympics coverage
• Keith's "Mea Culpa" to ESPN and my take
• Earlier: Keith to CNN
• Keith
joins Salon.com
• Keith
at Ground Zero on Sept.11
• Cornell
commencement address 1998
• Click
here for more from NBierma.com on Keith as what's right with broadcasting.
From NBierma.com, July
1999:
Keith
Olbermann is spotlighted in on my home page not only because he
is a role model as I steer into the perilous waters of modern
journalism, but also because he is a significant contrarian
influence in media. This is the age of the video clip, and although
he made a name for himself narrating video clips, Olbermann remains
one of the finest ambassadors of the written and spoken word to the
world of television.
Olbermann is a sportscaster, which
is tantamount to introducing someone as a rap artist -- eyes roll,
reputations are threatened. But imagine e.e. cummings recording a
rap album, and you get the idea of how Olbermann has helped elevate
sportscasting to a major form of social commentary.
He is first and foremost a writer
-- probably the best writer among television anchors anywhere, news
or sports, and his radio commentaries among the best minutes news
radio has to offer. Both they and his television lead-ins are crisp
and unique in their content and delivery. If you believe as I do
that it is harder to write a meaningful paragraph than a meaningful
essay, Olbermann's succint and cogent writing ranks among the best
anywhere.
After his confrontation with ESPN
that drove him to news at MSNBC, Olbermann is nowback in sports at
Fox. He anchors "National Sports Report," hosts Fox Saturday
Baseball, writes a column for FoxSports.com, and does daily radio
commentaries.
Though the number one anchor,
rebuilding a reputation at Fox is like trying to rediscover honesty
by becoming a lawyer. Fox's disgraceful blanketing of billboards
with Olbermann's smirking mug is below him, and chillingly
reminiscent of CBS' ad campaign for former SportsCenter
co-host Craig Killborn.
Olbermann took some heat for
flipping from sports to news to sports again. But I say more power
to him. The insultingly monotonous Lewinsky case sorely needed his
refreshing writing and healthy cynicism, and his exit led us to the
realization that if one of the most creative minds in television got
burned out by the Lewinsky case, we should all have better things
with which to occupy our minds. Besides, would that more news and
sports anchors -- who often come across as having an I.Q. somewhere
around the unemployment rate -- would expand their minds as
Olbermann did, and did very successfully.
Hard to believe it's coming from
Fox, but Keith Olbermann provides some of the best television
today.
Olbermann
sez:
I'm very flattered, and, c'mon -- a guy whose face is on
half the unmoving objects in the country making fun of same -- is
that not consistently countercultural enough for
you?
Seriously, I'm very flattered. Go looking for Bill Hicks
stuff if you want some REAL thinking, though.
-8/12/99
This site is not
affiliated with Keith Olbermann, ESPN, MSNBC, Fox, or CNN in any
way, but is an independent venture of Nathan
Bierma.
