LA Times: Olbermann's 'Countdown' Blazing A Trail

[Hissyspit]

http://www.startribune.com:80/459/story/1447295.html

'Countdown' blazing a trail
By Paul Brownfield, Los Angeles Times

More than any other cable news show, MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" is us. This has less to do with the host than the format, which is all about ranking things and listing things, prioritizing information in the way we've become acclimated to consume it: as somebody's -- anybody's -- best-of.

- snip -

Olbermann has a coterie of reporters, columnists and bloggers under contract to play themselves, but nonconfrontationally and unironically. They're his salon of Beltway observers, and they typically confirm what Olbermann, you can tell, already has been thinking.

The effect is of an interested observer getting his perspective honed by better-connected observer/friends such as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank and Newsweek's Richard Wolffe. On "Countdown," there is no back and forth -- just forth.

"You're not gonna get much of an argument out of me in suggesting that this is the sort of thing that should be on a national broadcast," Olbermann said, when I noted, as others have in print, that "Countdown" is the hybrid future of broadcast network news. "Some of the sort of brass-band qualities to the show would have to be toned down.

"I had a conversation with the large people at CBS before they went and decided to go to Katie Couric," Olbermann said. "We sat at length talking about this. They had a mixture of greedy appreciation and suspicion about whether or not anything like this, you know, how could you do a 'Countdown' show on the 'CBS Evening News.' Well, of course, you couldn't. Now."

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[Radio_Lady]

1. Eat your hearts out, CBS! Keith Olbermann is a unique talent who is able to combine

serious, intelligent interviewing with a sprinkling of upbeat humor -- and good looks, too!
"Oh, be still my beating heart!"

IMHO, Alison Stewart, his substitute during his illness and vacations, has that same ability.

These are very rare qualities among broadcasters. What a team these two would be!

Thanks for posting.

Peace, Love and Happiness,

Radio Lady in Oregon

K&R for the morning crowd.

[madokie]

9. I think so too

off topic but I hope you're keeping my nieces and cousins entertained out there in Oregon, and they are a happy lot

[Radio_Lady]

16. Hi Madokie -- Nice to meet-chu on the DU!

Are your nieces and cousins children or adults?

Oregon Public Broadcasting is a wonderful service, but it could be better. Local shows will help. We're launching "Town Square" tentatively in January 2008. It will be a local call in talk show on KOPB-FM. Just one hour.

I volunteer in another division of the station (Accessible Information Network) or AccessInfoNet. The station is TV, AM Radio, FM Radio, Secondary Audio Programming, HD Radio and after February 2009, all digital.

Thanks for the compliments to the hardworking OPB staffers on their behalf!

Peace, Love and Happiness

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Lugnut]

12. I like Alison Stewart

She can compete with Keith fairly effectively in the snark department.

[SlowDownFast]

22. Plus she's hot.

Just sayin'.

:shrug:

[charlie]

2. You've gotta be kidding

CBS talked to Keith and went with the bubbly muppet? Such rank stupidity, I'm glad they're paying out the ass for the privelege of having her. Y'know, there's another non-bootlicking ex-sportscaster they could've called on, and maybe lucked into having an Olbermann of their own -- Bryant Gumbel.

[Swamp Rat]

4. Oh, but dey got Katie Couric!

Blond Action Reporter! :D

[charlie]

6. So adorable you wanna pinch her cheeks

Brought into Today to mollify viewers outraged over Deborah Norville replacing Jane Pauley. She was catnip after a catfight, someone whose perkitude could bring sunshine and lollipops back to the show. Way to go Timmah Russert, you sure can pick 'em.

[lateo]

11. And last place ratings...

bwahahahahaha

[aquart]

7. They had a choice and went with...Couric?

Weren't there, perhaps, any JOURNALISTS around? I always liked Aaron Brown. But there are ladies with gravitas. But they went with COURIC?

[bleever]

3. The kid's got potential.

We know it.

CBS: their record sucks right now. The execs are multi-millionaires, but they are multi-millionaire losers.

[Usrename]

5. The Countdown story puts the lie to the corporate media myth.

The myth that programming is based on ratings. If that were really the case, others would follow his lead.

[Hissyspit]

8. .

[cyberpj]

10. I love KO and Countdown - haven't missed it in years - but did anyone else pick up on this?

"Olbermann has a coterie of reporters, columnists and bloggers under contract to play themselves, but nonconfrontationally and unironically. They're his salon of Beltway observers, and they typically confirm what Olbermann, you can tell, already has been thinking.

The effect is of an interested observer getting his perspective honed by better-connected observer/friends such as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank and Newsweek's Richard Wolffe. On "Countdown," there is no back and forth -- just forth."


Doesn't it sound like he's simply pushing his views onto the viewers (like someone else we all know and hate at Fox Noise?) Just seems to me they're saying he only invites those who agree with him. Well? Isn't that the problem we have with FN? Just asking. Like I said, I'm a loyal Keithie and I don't want to see him damaged by unintended inuendo.

[Eric J in MN]

14. On the one hand, neither Milbank nor Wolffe is a liberal activist,

...as far as I know.

On the other hand, Olbermann has on Rachel Maddow, who is a liberal activist, without balancing her with a rightwinger.

[Horse with no Name]

19. Maddow isn't a liberal activist

She is a very informed and very smart woman who is politically savvy.
Why would she need to be balanced if she is being honest?

[Eric J in MN]

20. Can't she be both...

"a liberal activist" and "very informed and very smart"?

[Horse with no Name]

21. A Liberal Activist that needs to be "balanced" as you put it

Would be like saying that Maddow is cut from the different side of the cloth as someone like Ann Coulter.
Not so.
Rachel Maddow is very educated but she is willing to criticize a Democrat.

[stillcool]

18. Pushing his views...

how about pushing a little news? Seeing how so many still watch these cable news shows, and seeing how the content is a pile of bullshit, I am ecstatic that there is (one) cable news program that sheds a teensy sliver of light on reality. I certainly am not going to take a sentence in an article and judge a program I watch based on it. Comparing Fox to Olbermann?

[cyberpj]

23. I wasn't judging, I was asking if anyone else thought they were implying that. Calm down. nt

[133724]

13. OMG....

[Buns_of_Fire]

15. THESE are guys *I* want to have a beer with! (n/t)

On edit: How on earth to you misspell "(n/t)"?????

[L0oniX]

17. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is the only network news program I watch ...

other than satellite Dish Network channels Free Speech TV (FSTV) and Link TV. I highly recommend these channels for the news that the others won't give air to.