My Hero: Keith Olbermann

I find most politics insipid, really I do. Despite some of the recent rants and posts here I honestly try to avoid political talk because three quarters of it is bad talking head spin for whatever political party the speaker is goose stepping with. VERY few of those talking heads actually BELIEVE in what they are saying to back it up by genuine fact (and not 90% opinion poll), let alone get PISSED about the point they are calling out on.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gets pissed. He genuinely seems to care about what he's covering to the point of sweating, allowing his blood pressure to rise, and spit genuine passionate venom at the people he gets pissed about. Are all of his opinions dead-on? Not to me, not 100%, but he does seem to do his best to back up what he's reporting with enough facts to make his point more convincing, and quite honestly more entertaining, than most any other serious reporter on the cable news channels today. Here he is, calling Rush Limbaugh out on some statements he made on his radio show about the recent Edwards smear, and especially the remarks made by Limbaugh about Mrs. Edwards:


He runs a Worst People Of The Day segment on his show that points out the three most irritating people that he's run across. This segment focuses on Walmart's treatment of Mrs. Shanks:


This one covers the resolution of the Shanks affair:


Like or hate his viewpoints at the very least he is entertaining, usually wherever he goes. Here he is explaining to PBS's Bill Moyers why he gets soo pissed on his program:


You can find a number of his rants on YouTube (which is obviously where all of these clips originate from), or you can track down his show COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN on MSNBC (honestly one of the VERY few reasons to watch the channel), and occasionally on your local NBC affiliate on weekends (check your local listings for time and placement). Personally I enjoy the YouTube segments the most (the recent clips of him telling his channel's co-hort Joe Scarborough to "Get a shovel" is great entertainment indeed!), but at the very least you have to appreciate his passion about his work. To have a soap box like that, to be passionate in your as-informed-as-possible beliefs and not afraid to speak out about them, THAT makes Keith Olbermann my hero.

WAKE UP