Lets play Obamamann Oddball – Part Deux!
By mw | Related entries in Barack, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Democrats, Liberalism, Partisan Hacks
A few weeks ago I noted the glaring contrast between Keith Olbermann’s coverage of Clinton and Obama. In that post I compared the classic high dudgeon Keith Olbermann “Special Comment” excoriating Hillary Clinton for failing to sufficiently denounce supporter Geraldine Ferraro for her inappropriate comments, with his show two days later when he soft pedaled Barack Obama’s virtually identical response to a similar problem with supporter Jeremiah Wright.
Here we go again. On Wednesday Olbermann completed a pair of remarkably similar and truly jaw-dropping contradictory broadcasts on the issue of FISA, telecom immunity, and of course, Obama’s support for same.
Glenn Greenwald called him on it in his Thursday column “Keith Olbermann: Then and Now“, and kicked off a left field food fight in the process. I’ve quoted Glenn extensively in my exchange with Justin on FISA this week, so thought this might be of interest here:
“On January 31 of this year, Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant voice tone to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA. In a 10-minute “Special Comment,” the MSNBC star condemned Bush for wanting to “retroactively immunize corporate criminals,” and said that telecom immunity is “an ex post facto law, which would clear the phone giants from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with [Bush's] illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass email.” Olbermann added that telecom amnesty was a “shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of Fascism — the merged efforts of government and corporations that answer to no government.”… Strong and righteous words indeed. But that was five whole months ago, when George Bush was urging enactment of a law with retroactive immunity and a lessening of FISA protections. Now that Barack Obama supports a law that does the same thing — and now that Obama justifies that support by claiming that this bill is necessary to keep us Safe from the Terrorists — everything has changed. Last night, Olbermann invited Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama’s support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill (video of the segment is here). 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…”
No need to add to Greenwald’s analysis, but I will state that in my unbiased opinion, Olbermann’s exhibition was one of the most egregious displays of gratuitous world-class journalistic ass-kissing I have ever seen. I can’t figure out how to embed the videos here, but they are both in my x-post at “Divided We Stand United We Fall” if you want to see them side by side.
Glenn’s concluding comments:
“What’s much more notable is Olbermann’s full-scale reversal on how he talks about these measures now that Obama — rather than George Bush — supports them. On an almost nightly basis, Olbermann mocks Congressional Democrats as being weak and complicit for failing to stand up to Bush lawbreaking; now that Obama does it, it’s proof that Obama won’t “cower.” Grave warning on Olbermann’s show that telecom amnesty and FISA revisions were hallmarks of Bush Fascism instantaneously transformed into a celebration that Obama, by supporting the same things, was leading a courageous, centrist crusade in defense of our Constitution. Is that really what anyone wants — transferring blind devotion from George Bush to Barack Obama? Are we hoping for a Fox News for Obama, that glorifies everything he says and whitewashes everything he does?”
This is where it gets interesting. Keith Olbermann then posts a diary on Kos to defend himself:
“I don’t know much about Mr. Greenwald and I didn’t read his full piece, but I do know that the snippet he’s taken out of the transcript of my conversation with Jon Alter last night makes it sound like I was saying defying the left was a good thing. I was actually contrasting it to not cowering to the Republicans, simply as a different thing. Same point, in essence, tonight with John Harwood. It certainly does underscore the degree to which the presumptive nominee trusts his own mind. Did Mr. Greenwald note that I asked if we shouldn’t worry that this Obamaian certainty could turn into something like President “My Way Or The Highway” Bush, or did he leave that out? I do think Mr. Greenwald’s suggestion of some kind of betrayal on my part is simplistic and childish. I’ll take the Dean interpretation of this. If it isn’t the Senator’s game plan, he’ll catch hell from me about it later.”
So - It is on. But in this battle of intellects, I’m afraid that Olbermann brought a knife to a gunfight. Greenwald replies today:
“Olbermman then denies that he was justifying Obama’s support for the FISA bill but then goes on to do exactly that:
“Seriously, there is little in the polls to suggest McCain has anything to run with other than terror . . . . So why hand them a brick to hit him with — Obama Voted Against FISA — if voting Aye enhances his chances of getting himself his own Attorney General to prosecute FISA.” – KOHow can Olbermann accuse me of distorting his commentary and deny that he’s rationalizing Obama’s support for the bill and then write the above — which does nothing but justify Obama’s support for the bill? That’s exactly the mentality I was criticizing yesterday — that Obama should be excused for supporting this assault on core Constitutional liberties and the rule of law because doing so is necessary to avoid appearing Weak on Terrorism. That’s the behavior which Obama has repeatedly vowed to reject, and it’s that precise mentality that has to be extinguished, not perpetuated. What is most disturbing here is that people (including Olbermann) who for so long have vehemently criticized Democratic leaders for capitulating to Bush and trampling on the Constitution out of fear of looking “Weak” are now invoking that very excuse to justify what Obama is doing here (that’s what Olbermann explicitly did in his Kos reply). To excuse Obama’s conduct on that basis is to perpetuate Democratic complicity. Obama had — and will continue to have — a critical opportunity to reject and debunk that rancid framework, and it is his embrace of that framework here (”I’m going to give Bush what he wants and trample on the Constitution in order to avoid being ‘weak’”) that makes what Obama has done here so harmful and worthy of criticism.”
Heh. Your turn Keith.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 and is filed under Barack, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Democrats, Liberalism, Partisan Hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Sounds like Keith is auditioning for press secretary of the Obama administration
June 27th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Keith Olbermann: the overdue New York State Tax Warrant, Chinese American Trading Company the buyers of his real estate, the corporation
Keith Olbermann: the address from 2001 of his, the parents of Katy Tur and the civil actions
http://www.webofdeception.com
June 27th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
@pdx
That had not occurred to me, but I think you may be on to something. That would explain a lot.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
WOW that made me sick to my stomach. That HUGE tornado of word twisting and spin going on there. I watched those videos a few times, i never heard KO “support” Obama for voting for FISA. I heard him relaying what Obama said about not cowering and then asking his guest questions about the topic. I will honestly say im for Obama but still have reservations. When i heard about him voting for this bill i was shocked, but the i TOOK TIME TO READ IT and looked at it from his point of view, yes its everything he wants, but it DOES restore the 4th amendment like KO’s guest said. Isn’t that what is most important out of all of this? The telcom immunity, althought important, hides the bigger issue of the fourth amendment. It seems to me some people are just reading headlines and not doing thier due dilegence in actually FACT checking.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
and looked at it from his point of view, yes its *not* everything he wants,
June 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Agreed. See my comment about this here. Not an easy decision, but a good compromise Obama made to restore many of the civil liberties Bush completely ignored.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Olbermann did a complete about-face on this. Greenfield’s right. Keith used to be must-see tv for me. But if I want to watch a lying hypocrite with an agenda I’ll watch Bill O’Reilly. These days it seems there’s little difference between them.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:38 am
The key difference between his reaction to the Ferraro mess vs the Wright mess is this: Ferraro worked for the Clinton campaign; Wright did not. You can reasonably exert some control over somebody who works for you. You can’t reasonably exert any control over your preacher.
Why are we bringing this up now?
June 28th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Really? You do not see any difference between KO saying about Bush supporting the FISA bill on the one hand that it is:
And saying about Obama supporting FISA on the other hand:
Really?
What about his statement in his Daily Kos diary?
He could not be more explicit. This statement says he is not going to criticize Obama for supporting FISA, he is going to give him Obama a free pass for supporting what he considers a “fascist” bill, not because it is right, but just because he wants Obama to be president. Journalism at its finest.
Whatever.
No matter. Apparently Olbermann has blinked. On his Friday “Countdown show he announced that on Monday he is going to do a “Special Comment” on Obama and FISA saying “Senator Obama wants his cake and to eat it too.”. We’ll see.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Shortwoman,
Actually Wright also worked peripherally for the Obama campaign until he was asked to leave, just like Ferraro was working peripherally with the Clinton campaign until she was asked to leave.
If you read the whole post you will see that I was only bringing it up in the context of showing an identical Olbermann pattern. First the high dudgeon damning of a specific action by a politician in one of his “special comments”, Then bending over backward to soft-pedal or excuse the exact same behavior when it is Barack Obama.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Justin,
KO said in his Kos excuse, that he was OK with the bill because John Dean is the smartest guy on the planet and John Dean said it restored 4th amendment protections. Problem being that John Dean did not say that. John Dean says this:
The point, is that this bill is such a piece of sh*t, that not even the best constitutional lawyers can say whether it provides any real additional protections. So we are right back where we started. It is subject to the interpretation of the President. Not rule of law, but rule of presidential personality. No worries, though. In Obama we Trust.
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