On the eve of the special election in Massachusetts earlier this week, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann called republican Scott Brown an, "irresponsible, homophobic, teabagging... supporter of violence against women...." And on it went, a long string of mean-spirited, largely baseless slurs. I don't watch Olbermann's show, but I happened upon it that night as I was flipping between cable news channels trying to catch coverage of the election. I saw that rant, rolled my eyes, and promptly changed the channel.
I really liked Keith Olbermann when he co-hosted ESPN's SportsCenter with Dan Patrick from 1992-1997. But I find his nightly show on MSNBC (called Countdown) literally unwatchable because of its predictably shrill, over-the-top partisanship. I feel the same way about Fox News' Sean Hannity, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, among others.
A lot of people would lump The Daily Show With Jon Stewart in that same category. But I don't. Sure, it has a bias, a "leaning." But it's not doctrinaire. A case in point, the other night Jon Stewart criticized this rant by Keith Olbermann at length. I almost posted the video of that on this blog at the time. As it turns out, Keith Olbermann apparently responded last night on Countdown to this criticism by Jon Stewart. I have embedded the 8 minute clip below. This clip features both the original rant by Olbermann, as well as Jon Stewart's entire 6 minute critique. Olbermann's response comes only at the very end of the clip, in the final seconds. But it may surprise you.
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