Olbermann's support has been almost entirely on the left side of the political spectrum, though not all progressives are happy with him. A fair amount of feminists were none to pleased with his disparaging remarks about Paris Hilton, and his constant slamming of Hillary Clinton led Bob Sommersby to label him more of a propagandist than Fox News.
We’re stunned each night by Olbermann’s show (when we can force ourselves
to watch him). It points the way to a troubling future. We’ve never seen such
pure propaganda, even on any particular Fox News Channel show. Is this how news
orgs of the future will work? If so, Keith will be a hog in slop. It seems he
was born to play liberals.
This week, the Obama bootlicking went to an embarrassing extreme. It is characteristic of what George Orwell described in his essay "Notes on Nationalism". Orwell used a broader definition of nationalism than just a race or country and applied it to any unit "placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests". Olbermann's "-ism" is Obamaism, and Barack Obama can do no wrong, can't go back on his word and is a force of only good and righteousness.
Orwell stated "Every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered. He spends part of his time in a fantasy world in which things happen as they should". So when Obama went back on his pledge on campaign financing, Olbermann said Obama didn't go back on it (when even Mother Jones liberals said he did)and used it to incorrectly attack McCain.
This was very minor compared to his recent outing when Olbermann discussed Obama's change of heart on FISA. Orwell described nationalists as having an indifference to reality: "Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them". So when Bush pushed for telecom immunity, Olbermann described it as "textbook example of fascism" and even brought the comparison to Nazis :
This is no longer just a farce in which protecting telecoms is dressed up
as protecting us from terrorists conference cells. Now it begins to look like
the bureaucrats of the Third Reich, trying to protect the Krupp family, the
industrial giants, re-writing the laws of Germany for their benefit.
But when Obama decided to back it, we were spared the Olbermann special commentary to denounce Barack Obama as a fascist enabler. Instead, Olbermann decided to praise him and have another Obama worshiper, Jonathan Alter, on to praise all things Obama. Glenn Greenwald described it :
There wasn't a syllable uttered about "immunizing corporate criminals" or
"textbook examples of Fascism" or the Third Reich. There wasn't a word of
rational criticism of the bill either. Instead, the two media stars jointly
hailed Obama's bravery and strength -- as evidenced by his "standing up to the
left" in order to support this important centrist FISA compromise:
So in Olbermann's world, FISA was leading us towards a reincarnation of the Third Reich, until the all powerful Barack Obama supported it. Now all that talk about the fourth amendment being overturned are inoperative. Alter praised the Senator's decision as being one of strength as opposed to weakness, yet was totally detached from reality when he didn't realize that the decision was in fact, a flip flop.
ALTER: Yes. This is part of the message that is consistent across the last
couple weeks and it comes down to one word -- strength. The United States is not
going to elect a president that perceives to be as weak. You look weak if you're
flip-flopping. You look weak if you're not taking actions that seem to be
securing the United States against terrorists. And you look weak if you don't
fight back against your political adversaries.
While other liberal commentators criticized the bill for ruining the fourth amendment, Alter said it saved the Constitution:
So, there was tremendous urgency to get the FISA court back into the game.
And does this bill do it imperfectly? Yes. But it does do it and it restores the
Constitution, which is a point that's not getting made very much.
This was one of the more ridiculous examples of Olbermann's Obamaism, but the following night, Keith decided that Justice Scalia was the Worst Person of the Day for his decision to overturn the Washington DC gun ban. It was a decision that Obama stated he agreed with. When Scalia was against the gun ban, he was vilified, when Obama supported Scalia's decision, Olbermann was silent.
Orwell described this bit of ignorance in the following manner: " In nationalist thought, there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unkown. A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes" This would explain why Olbermann would neatly allow Obama to escape his wrath on the gun matter, as well as everything else.
