Via Mr. B. Tent Democrat, Bob Somerby doesn't like Keith Olbermann because he thinks Keith Olbermann is stupid. He also thinks that if you like Keith Olbermann, you're stupid, and you belong to a "tribe."
I only occasionally watch Olbermann myself. (I like Maddow better, but usually these shows are on when we're trying to get the 2 & 4 & 8 Year-Olds to go to bed, which is something like a 6 hour process). And no, I don't much go in for the Special Comments, etc. They did serve a purpose back when Bush was clearly lying and nobody on the teevee was saying so out loud. But now they come across to me as pompous and rhetorically stilted. (And he went way overboard during the primaries.) But if we must have cable news, and it appears we do, I'm glad it's at least somewhat balanced out between left and right, I guess.
Which, coincidentally, is sort of how I feel about Somerby. Useful up to a point (in Somerby's case this point was reached about five years ago) -- but Christ, Olbermann doesn't take himself half as seriously as Somerby does. At least Olbermann doesn't go around yammering about how everyone else but himself is in a "tribe," when the "holier and more civilized than thou, because I know how to nitpick Tribe" is really quite as annoying as it is numerous.
And when the Movement Conservatism Tribe really is kind of evil. Garofalo's comments, and feel free to read them, seem about right to me. Somerby doesn't like what she has to say because he doesn't like "character-based" discussion. Well, whatever, but that's hardly going to get you very far when it comes to an analysis of Rush frickin' Limbaugh, and I refuse to admire your refined sensibilities if you think it's out of bounds calling Limbaugh a crazed misogynist narcissist, because, well, that's simply accurate. What, are you going to "debate" Limbaugh? Are you going to say that contempt and abuse are not the correct response to Limbaugh from a moral to an analytic to a political perspective? Phooey on that noise. Now that's "cosmic inanity."
But Somerby likes to preen! And he likes his gotchas! Even if they make no sense, like where he goes after Steve Benen for, among other reasons, not saying that the HuffPo had originated a smear against Fox's execrable John Gibson... even though Benen clearly links to the original HuffPo piece in question (the highlighted text in the second sentence is called a "hyperlink," Bob). Or, even better, where Somerby winds up for the smackdown on Garafalo on the basis of a comment by comedian Aisha Tyler (who's very funny) on Countdown the following night. This is long, but you'll want the full flavor:
It’s hard—very hard—to be as stupid as Olbermann and Garofalo were last night. (We’d like to think the lady was drunk, but she seemed quite lucid. Keith plays the fool every night.) By the way, note to Janeane: Following you on last night’s show, the very pleasant Tyler said this. Because it made so little sense, the question seemed to be planned:
OLBERMANN: Now, considering what I’ve seen covering the Republican party intensely for these last six years, Aisha, that [speech by Jindal] was the most clear-headed presentation that could be made on their behalf. Have you now or have you ever been a member of the Republican party? And would you consider running for president on their ticket?
TYLER: Ha ha ha! Well, I think I could bring a little bit of that hot factor that they clearly—I mean, I can rock a leather jacket like the next Alaskan governor. I have not ever been a Republican. I do have two relatives in my family that are Republican delegates, and even they jumped off of that ship, like flailing rats on a sinking vessel, at the end of this last election. I don’t know. You know, it would be nice to be a rock star. But anybody can be a rock star when the rest of the room is wearing helmets and drooling on themselves.
OLBERMANN: Finger puppets, you may have just given—if Michael Steele calls you, you know what happened.
TYLER: This is Big Government Piggy!
Huh! Tyler, who’s black, has two Republican delegates in her family. Luckily, Garofalo had already explained their psychiatric derangement. Tyler’s kin are mentally ill, “struggling with Stockholm Syndrome.”
What did Tyler think of that? Olbermann, a highly-paid gong-show host, knew that he mustn’t ask.
Uh, Bob, they are no longer struggling with it, because, as Tyler clearly said, "even they jumped off of that ship, like flailing rats on a sinking vessel, at the end of this last election." Here, let me boldface it for you: even they jumped off of that ship, like flailing rats on a sinking vessel, at the end of this last election. So it would appear that Tyler's relatives... ultimately agree with that Garofalo moron! Weird!
Anyway, I'm not Olbermann's biggest fan by a long shot, but next to Somerby he's down to earth and at least speaks English and not this bizarre nitpicky sneer-language.