Keith Olbermann, headed for the big time!
Submitted by mad4clark on February 16, 2007 - 9:49am.
countdown | keith olbermann | msnbc | NBC | Media
Fantastic news this morning via Steve Gilliard.
Now MSNBC is announcing that Olbermann's contract has been renewed for four more years. More significantly, he is being given new duties with the daddy net, NBC. Olbermann will be submitting stories to NBC's Nightly News and he will also have two primetime Countdown specials on the network each year.
The contract renewal had to be a foregone conclusion given his contribution to MSNBC's growth. But the new placement on NBC's schedule is far more interesting. Despite the heat generated by the cable news wars, the broadcast network news programs each routinely deliver more viewers than all of the cable newsers combined. With this new broadcast platform, Olbermann will substantially expand his exposure and reputation. The announcement describes his Nightly News pieces as essays, which implies that they will contain some analysis and subjectivity. But their presence in a news program adds weight to Olbermann's profile.
The impact of the primetime specials will be more dependent on their subject matter, but have great potential to raise Olbermann's awareness and influence. If he uses these platforms to expand on the popular and passionate "Special Comments" from Countdown, he could cement the same sort of "conscience of the people" persona as that of his hero, Edward R. Murrow, whose famous sign off ("Good night and good luck") Olbermann has adopted.........
Much more at The News Blog
And the original diary at dkos by KingOneEye
he was the only newscaster who stood up for us against the administration, Congress and the MSM.
I hope he becomes a famous as Walter Cronkite
Run Wes Run!
was obviously very pleased himself when he announced it on his programme last night. Hopefully Keith's elevation will make other MSM, plus individual journalists realise what can be achieved by just plain speaking of the truth.
Also, I do think that Keith was definitely in the driver's seat in negotiating his new contract -bet there were offers from competitors on the table.
...changing MSNBC already. I have been watching Tweety again, and even Joe Scar has been tough on the Bushites.
CNN on the other hand still appears to want to be Faux. Why, I have no idea since Faux is losing viewers.
Run Wes Run!
Joe was on the Daily Show last night but not as a guest. It was a comedy skit thing. He's coming around (thanks to his KIDS I believe) and with Keith preceeding him..... he can't help but by osmosis having some of that GOOD DEM aura rub off on him!
I'm so glad as I'm also from Florida (most of my life). It's good to see other Floridians wising up!! Katrina did it for a LOT of us! WE saw what could have happened to US!
Partially why I'm NOW in NC.
he sure called O'Reilly out.
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
Gen. Omar Bradley
It is a giant step to put a progressive voice on a network news show.
__
Rob
BlueSunbelt.Com Progressive netroots for the Sunbelt
robwire.com My personal and political blog
Everytime I email Countdown I end with a WES CLARK IN 08 tag at the bottom. (and I email them weekly)
I hope he picks up on it some day......... I have yet to hear him mention WES. I fear he may be a Clinton fan. poop.
yea KO has...mentioned Clark
snip> Last October Bill O‘Reilly railed against a ruling that more photos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq might be released. His guest on his program was Wesley Clark. Clark is a retired four-star general, was for four years supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe. First in his class at West Point, wounded in Vietnam, earned the Bronze star, the Silver Star and has streets named for him in Alabama and in Kosovo. Therefore, naturally O‘Reilly knows much more about the military than General Clark does. Clark defended the release of the additional Abu Ghraib photos saying we need to know what happened and to correct it. O‘Reilly lectured him and concluded that there had always been atrocities, even by Americans in war. <snip
VIDEO here: (with some really really nice Clark/Kosovo footage) http://mediamatters.org/items/200606030002
Watch and listen...
But have you ever heard him mentioned by KO in reference to "other" candidates that might be running? Not I. :-\
I still love Keith.
I have yet to hear him mention WES.
Not sure I have heard him mention Wes as a candidate, but rest assured KO has heard from Wespeople.
definitely!
I can't personally get my arse in an uproar because the pundits don't mention Wes all that often. IF/when he announces, they won't be able to ignore him quite so much as they did last time. There's just too much to say about him since the '04 media blackout. Watch and listen...
Watch and listen...
on another show when Clark was on the Hannity show and was trying to explain to the moron SH that Bush needed to have dialogue with Iran and others in the area about what to do about Iraq and SH was trying to tell General Clark he was wrong. KO made a snarky remart that SH was trying to tell a 4-star general how to fix Iraq. I don't remember the words exactly but it pleased me.
He let 'er rip (OK, I'm partial, I'm proud to call him a friend) - courtesy of the very talented SusanUnPc @ NQ...
OLBERMANN: Now, when it comes to which of the pro-Iranian agents inside Iraq are being portrayed as villains and which ones are being portrayed as allies, is there cherry-picking there going on by the administration as well?
JOHNSON: Absolutely. You know, they‘ve caught the Hollywood bug. You‘ve got to have a good villain. Last year we had Zarqawi, Zarqawi dies. So the new villain is Muqtada al-Sadr. Unfortunately, Muqtada al-Sadr, among the Shia clerics—yes, he doesn‘t like us, but he is the most pro-Iraqi nationalist in the group. The guy who is the most pro-Iranian, al-Hakim—Aziz al-Hakim, was sitting in the Oval Office in December of 2006 doing a grip-and-grin with President Bush. That guy, when you have—when you run a group called the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and you are closely tied to Iran, and a few weeks ago, one of the Iranians that the United States picked up and is accusing of being involved with this bombing, is, in fact, he was in al-Hakim‘s compound. So it‘s complete disconnect. We‘re trying to fight Muqtada al-Sadr, when the real threat from the United States comes from Sunni sources, not Shia sources.
OLBERMANN: There is, of course, the whole question of what Iran‘s point of view had been at a critical time in this—our experience in the area, in 2003, and Secretary Rice testified last week she had never seen the overture from Iran in ‘03 for talks with the U.S. that would have perhaps provided some assistance regarding Iraq. Today, the former aide to the secretary, Flynt Leverett, said that was unthinkable that she did not see it. Are we—once again, just—is this just blatant, headfirst, ram-it-through-the-wall kind of misinformation being passed off by the administration? Are they just denying something that‘s obviously true?
JOHNSON: It‘s one of two things, Keith, either it‘s incompetence, and we saw an element of that with her handling of the information prior to 9/11, or she has a medical problem, perhaps early-onset Alzheimer‘s. You know, I can‘t figure it out. The lead-in to your show tonight, about Afghanistan, is particularly important. One of the issues that most concerns Iran is the resurgence of the Taliban. This is one of those areas in which both the Iranian Islamists and the United States agree on. Neither of us want to see the Taliban back. So that was an area that could have been negotiated. The Iranians wanted to negotiate. And, you know, frankly, Condoleezza Rice is lying about this. But she‘s gotten away with it now for six years, so why should she change?
OLBERMANN: And it‘s not like we could use anybody‘s help against the Taliban (INAUDIBLE).
JOHNSON: Exactly.
OLBERMANN: Larry Johnson, former deputy director of the Office of Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department. Larry, as always, great thanks for joining us.
JOHNSON: Thanks, Keith. http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/bushs_the_boy_c.html#more
(Emphasis mine)
Four More Years!
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
Gen. Omar Bradley
Did you catch Johnson's latest diary at Kos?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/15/124452/975
Watch and listen...
but I missed it at the time. You know the intel folks like Lang, Johnson or Beardon always substantiate what Wes says.
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
Gen. Omar Bradley
Olbermann is great. If there is one show I try to watch each evening, it's countdown.
On a side note I notice that one of the ladies from Faux jumped ship to CNN.
(Kiran Chetry sp?) I saw her filling for Solidad O'brien the other morning doing an interview.
A few weeks back she was on Faux in the morning and they were discussing Obama admitted cocaine use in his youth and if it would kill hi chances. Kiran Chetry quickly added that it didn't stop Bush and which point everyone went silent and looked at her.
I wonder if she decision to leave waqs voluntary
Sometimes you can win out if you don't sell out!!
The General gets it right.
Competence--What a concept!
what can happen if someone searches for the truth and strives to keep reporting it. Congratulations go out to Keith Olbermann for leading the network news charge against the lying liars who are attempting to hijack our democracy.
Glad to hear it.