There’s no question that Keith Olbermann is entertaining. His show is unique (as far as I know, and I admit I’m no expert) in the pre-11:30 p.m. timeslot–a raucous, high-energy mix of news, tabloid headlines, comedy, irony, sarcasm, and red meat for liberals in general and Bush-bashers in particular. He is nasty, belligerent, in your face, and mean-spirited. You love him or you hate him, but it’s impossible to feel neutral about him. Like Rush Limbaugh, I suppose. In other words, Olbermann is pure gold for this era–he grabs the attention of viewers.
Surprisingly, a news exec gets this and is not afraid to say it (via Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post):
“NBC News President Steve Capus says “there’s no question he’s stepped up his opinionated discussions, but the audience is smart enough to know what is straight news reporting and what is opinion-driven talk.”
Olbermann makes my teeth hurt.
But I’ve got a feeling that his show is a template of the infotainment-to- come as we acclimate to the Constant Information Era.
This future will include a lot of engagement from the audience, rather than a passive stance in front of a television monitor. Viewers will need to think critically in order to be able to tell the “straight news” from the “opinion-driven talk.”
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Why does Olbermann make your teeth hurt? And why do you think he’s “nasty” and “belligerent” and “mean-spirited”? That’s the exact opposite of the feeling I get from him–and it’s precisely why I enjoy watching him. Because, from what I can see, he only brings the hammer down on the truly deserving, and respects what deserves respecting. Because he is, to my mind, the very antithesis of the “infotainment” you so deplore. And that makes him stand out like a sore thumb in a world full of stupid pandering media.
He makes my teeth hurt for the same reason Chris Matthews and Sean Hannity make my teeth hurt: television is, famously, a cool medium. They are red-hot. I cannot take an hour, or even a half-hour, of any of them.
I don’t deplore infotainment. I call it by its name. I believe it’s here to stay. I enjoy a lot of it. But I get my “news” from other sources–news aggregators, bloggers’ links, and print.
I find Olbermann entertaining. I think his kind of program will become more, not less, popular.
[...] I’ll have further thoughts on this development. Why I find this interesting: see this post, and this one. I wonder if Jon Klein oversees Headline News. I’ll be curious to find out. [...]
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