McOlbermannism

It is plain for anyone who has ever watched Keith Olbermann that he wants to be Edward R. Murrow, and he thinks he is serving the same purpose as Mr. Murrow. Even as far back as Mr. Olbermann’s ESPN days he was making a distinction between ‘colleagues’ and ‘partners’ just like Mr. Murrow only referred to Fred Friendly as his ‘partner’ and everyone else was his colleague. Mr. Olbermann signs off his shows the same way, “Good Night and Good Luck.” And he has recently started doing editorial comments at the end of the show in an attempt to “throw stones at giants” just like Mr. Murrow.

After watching Mr. Olbermann’s must recent disrespectful rant, I watched the movie Good Night and Good Luck about Mr. Murrow and his war against Senator Joe McCarthy. Never before has anything been more clear. Mr. Olbermann in his desire to become just like Mr. Murrow has become Joe McCarthy. Allow me to illustrate.

• Murrow stayed away from personal attacks and used McCarthy’s own words against him, and Senator McCarthy resorted to name calling and personal attacks never addressing the facts. So too in this latest rant, Mr. Olbermann ignores facts, and only resorts to horrible name calling and twisting of what is really going on. For example Mr. Olbermann confuses Fox News and the Administration, and openly blames the Administration for Chris Wallace asking questions of President Clinton.


• Senator McCarthy is the one who attacks the news media and slanders the media for asking tough questions. Mr. Olbermann, despite often hating the way the Republicans demonize the media, called fellow media person Chris Wallace a "monkey". It should also be noted that an earlier guest on the show vindicated Chris Wallace as did Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, the two shows that flank Mr. Olbermann's disgrace of a news show.


• McCarthy questioned the patriotism during his time on the committee for UnAmerican activities, and Mr. Olbermann openly called President Bush’s actions not the actions of a "true American".


• Mr. Murrow said, "We should not confuse dissent with disloyalty." Yet, in this piece by Mr. Olbermann, the President’s dissent from Mr. Olbermann’s views is openly called disloyalty, and unamerican.


• McCarthy tried to convict via innuendo and Mr. Olbermann’s piece is nothing but innuendo.

In the end, there are no similarities between Edward Murrow and Keith Olbermann. None. However, there is also one major difference between Senator McCarthy and Keith Olbermann. Senator McCarthy hated communism, viewed it as a threat, and later reports show that McCarthy was right, communists had infiltrated the American government. He was simply a smart man, elected by the people, trying to do his job. Mr. Olbermann on the other hand is hack who is neither smart nor right, he is one of those media men who sputs the party line without real reporting that Edward Murrow hated.