paid to provoke

So now we know, via CNN, that Don Imus, an entertainer, was paid by CBS to stir up audiences. Imus’s contract stipulated that

“[s]ervices to be rendered are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character. These components are desired by and are consistent with company rules and policies.”

Suspicious minds want to know: who else in the infotainment universe might have such an understanding written into his contract?

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC poses at the Ronald Reagan Library on Thursday. (AP)

I dunno, of course—I’m just taking an educated guess.

But why else would an organization like NBC News, which just two weeks ago had to go on Oprah to explain why they aired as “news” the Cho sick fantasy tapes, be so sanguine about Olbermann switching between opinion (like his denouncement of Giuliani in a Countdown “Special Commentary”) and “journalism” (like his hosting the Republican debate, which featured Giuliani among others)?

Because infotainment rules (obviously!)—that’s why—and it’s up to us viewers to figure out what we should take seriously or not:

Olbermann knows to leave his opinions at home when he anchors events, said Phil Griffin, NBC News senior vice president.

“Keith’s an adult,” Griffin said. “He can tell when it’s appropriate to express himself in a commentary and when to be a journalist. That’s one of his strengths. He knows exactly the tone and his role when he’s doing anything.”

Of course political campaigns are also a circus, and politicians are the world’s most shameless showmen and -women … so, for all I care, Olbermann can throw tomatoes at all of them the next time he hosts a “debate”—that would be really fun!

But he’s still a despicable hack. And NBC News is inviting a further loss of its credibility by referring to Olbermann’s program Countdown as “news” and by referring to anything he does as “journalism.” At least CNN tries to distinguish between “news” and “views” and Glenn Beck refers to himself as a “rodeo clown.”