Rachel Maddow on Keith Olbermann's Departure from MSNBC

Everyone who was a fan of Countdown with Keith Olbermann was likely curious what The Rachel Maddow Show would have to say about Olbermann's abrupt departure from MSNBC. After all, TRMS was pretty much a spin-off of Countdown.  TRMS also probably shares the bulk of its audience, or at least did before Olbermann was dismissed/quit/whatever. Here's what Rachel had to say.

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FOX "News" Gave $55 Million in Free Airtime to GOP Prez Hopefuls

That $55 mil. is for the calendar year of 2010. That's quite a freebie, wouldn't you say? Shouldn't people like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin be refusing handouts, and pulling their campaigns up by their bootstraps? Heh. Yeah, I know. It really isn't funny. A channel that is supposedly news, seems to be becoming a farm team for GOP presidential candidates. Five--count them, five--potential Republican candidates are or have been employed by FOX "News." And hey, they've even got a governor in John Kasich of Ohio.

[Excerpt]

Report: Fox News gave GOP presidential candidates $55 million in free advertising



Being on the Fox News payroll has its advantages.


Not only did five potential Republican candidates get regular paychecks from the network last year, but they also got something even more valuable: airtime. . .

Read more at: RawStory

Will MSNBC Regret Dumping Olbermann?

Images from source, Business Insider (and who
picked the unflattering Maddow shot?)

My prediction: yes. I did watch with curiosity, what Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz would have to say about it. And Rachel will always have a place in my television viewing. But without the "tent pole" of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which my DVR was set for nightly, followed by Rachel (I'd start at about 5:30, and zip through the commercials), will I still watch from 5-7? Probably not.

In fact, I've decided to put step 3 of my New Year's resolutions into effect in the next week or so: going to the gym after work (step 1 was quitting smoking, step 2 dieting. . .both underway). I should be able to get to the gym before 5, get home a little after 6, and be able to catch Rachel on the DVR. Or not. We'll see.

O'Donnell may be able to build a following, having shown some tenacity recently. But his reputation as a moderate may temper that. Big Ed is not for all tastes either. Rachel remains what she's always been, but her show has a weaker lead-in, and a weaker lead-out as well. MSNBC could do well to hope for a gigantic news story, hopefully one that does not come directly out of their own studios.

[Excerpt]

How Long Until MSNBC Regrets Dumping Keith Olbermann?



Now that the news of Keith Olbermann's stunning departure from MSNBC has sunk in, and the speculation as to why the departure occurred -- Keith's relationship with MSNBC had been deteriorating for a long while (true), Keith made Comcast nervous (also, true) -- is dying down, one wonders how significant the damage MSNBC has inflicted on itself is. . .


Read more at: Business Insider

Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word on Keith Olbermann's Departure

Having inherited Countdown with Keith Olbermann's time slot after eight years, Lawrence O'Donnell, host of (the now awkwardly named) The Last Word was obligated to say something. I'd be shocked if there weren't restrictions on exactly how much he could say, but what he said was pretty great. I liked The West Wing analogy.

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So, Why Do I Keep Talking About Sarah Palin?

Image from Lynnrockets

This is a great question I come around to a lot. A lot of left wing bloggers (and likely pundits and hosts) probably do too. Sarah Palin is a political celebrity, a FOX "News" employee with a vague job description, a former elected official from a small town, and then small state. The latter job, she quit half-way through, with a vague explanation. She has no real policy ideas or depth of political knowledge, other than what she may have crammed into her head in the last two years. She's hyper-defensive, knee-jerkingly responding to any slight or negative story about her. She is certainly the oddest, strangest specimen of a potential presidential candidate ever, and that is really saying something.

So, why is Palin's every tweet and bleat handled as though it was said by a politician on par with a president or major congressional or party leader? What in the world has she done to deserve such attention? And why do people like me keep talking about her, when we don't think she merits such a focus? It's a difficult thing to articulate. "Vague" may again be a word to describe how I feel about the answer. I think Mrs. Palin is an intellect of almost no consequence. I think she has very little chance--barring just the perfect set of circumstances--of becoming president. But not talking about her isn't going to make her go away.

Palin is an almost unique "perfect storm" of the cult of personality. Almost any time she says anything, her popularity falls. At the same time, her core supporters love her even more. Ann Coulter used to have a little of that, but has long since lost it. But Ann Coulter was never given this kind of faux gravitas. And grasp as I may for an answer, I'm still not getting my hands around it. But the article excerpted below does. It's great, take a look.

[Excerpt]

Why we can't say goodbye to Sarah Palin




In a perfect world, we would not know her name. Her political ambitions would take her no further than the City Hall of her state's meth capital. Her hyperpartisanship would be limited to smearing the mayor for being insufficiently Christian and asking "rhetorical" questions of the local librarian about banning books she doesn't like. . .

Read more at: Daily Kos

Blast from the Past: Soap Operas, Sitcom Style!

As I said before, a huge chunk of this weekend was spent watching Soap--the 70s sitcom spoof of soap operas--on my free Netflix trial. I mean a lot. Anyway, when it came time for me to write my weekly Blast from the Past feature, I couldn't quite shake off the Soapy residue. So, I thought, how about some clips from soap opera spoofs? Then, I thought "how many were there?" Let's see. . .




1. Soap - The one that got me started, and you can read that post here.
2. Grand - This was a very funny show that didn't last very long, unfortunately. It starred Pamela Reed, Bonnie Hunt and Michael McKean.
3. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - My mom loved this one, but it was just a little over my head. . .or something.
4. Fresno - This one was a miniseries starring Carol Burnett, Teri Garr and Gregory Harrison, at the height of the Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Dallas phase.
5. The Powers That Be - Tragically short-lived, but hilarious. Starred Holland Taylor, John Forsythe, and David Hyde-Pierce.
6. As the Stomach Turns - All right, this one is a bit of a cheat. It was a recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show, but is one of the classic soap opera spoofs.

That's it for this week. Happy Monday!

The Album Challenge

Have you seen the album challenge? It's an internet thingy, sometimes on blogs, sometimes on Facebook, sometimes on Twitter, sometimes in email. Basically, it's a challenge to create an album cover for yourself, presuming you had your own band. It sounds silly, I know. But I'm a graphic artist, so I thought it might be fun. But given the fact that I am a graphic artist, I was also worried that my results might look like crap and embarrass me. So I held them for a couple of weeks. And then, one of my favorite (and sometimes NSFW, so be careful) blogger posted his results, so I thought I would too. First, I created one for me, then for the other half. Here they are.

My first try, for me

And if you want to do your own, here are the rules (wisely updated by Alex at VoenixRising.com, which as I said, may be NSFW).

THE RULES

1. Generate The Artist / Band Name by using the title of whatever page loads here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

2. Generate Album Title (use last few words of last quote like 1 to 5 words… whetever…) here: http://quotationspage.com/random.php3

3. Generate the album photo/artwork here:http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

(The rule originally was choose only the 3rd image on this page, but I changed the rules to be ANY image on that page.)

My try for The Other Half
(Didn't get the rule about shortening the quote)

 

Use Photoshop or similar image editing software to create a square proportioned graphic using the above method to generate the content. I also think people should be allowed to do manipulations to the photo, in so far that the original image is for the most part, recognizable.

The Best Keith Olbermann Comment Ever

Keith Olbermann--recently fired/retired from MSNBC--was a polarizing host. His fans loved him, his detractors hated him. But there was an area where he was 100% on the ball, completely right, absolutely without question. It had to do with Sarah Palin, and with his succinct assessment of her capabilities as a politician. . .

Steven Weber: The End of the Age of Olbermann and the Big Gloat

I've excerpted many of actor/writer Steven Weber's pieces over the years, and nearly every time have commented about how well his words express my feelings, as though he sifted through my brain, and applied better words. He did it again. (Bold face mine for emphasis)

[Excerpt]

The Big Gloat



. . .And, as always, it becomes abundantly clear that their drivel is merely the raving of a cornered and terrified animal on the verge of extinction, railing against all who would snuff out its lethal messages of racism, sexism, classism, corporatism. They accuse, they lie, they do everything they have been bred to do to survive. And in doing so, they drag down the system, they drag down humanity, forcing all to live by their antiquated rules and eye-rolling superstitions. The gun fetishes and the god fetishes amount to one big ignorance fetish, a sad commentary on the failure of the intellect to overcome instinct. . .
 
Read more at: Huffington Post

Netflix, the Cast of Soap and Old Age

This weekend, I cashed in an offer from the mail. Usually, I throw out junk mail, but I paused when I came across a free month of Netflix. After all, we just got a new wireless internet capable Blu-ray player for Christmas, and Netflix is one of the features it came ready with. Even if I forget to cancel, it's only $7.95 a month, which is pretty darned reasonable right there.

It's pretty nifty. You set up Netflix on your computer, load up movies on their web page, and poof! they appear in your Blue-ray player like magic! I'm sure in five or ten years, the process will be even slicker, and probably taken for granted. But for now, it's very cool. But right away, I discovered a built-in limitation. After just a few searches, I realized that much of Netflix's library is "DVD Only," which means you have to sign up for the $2-per-month extra service where they mail the DVD to you. $2 isn't much, but it's not nearly as convenient, and I can't imagine it is very cost effective. I predict that eventually, Netflix (or its successor) will be 100% online.

Anyway, the service is really pretty awesome, but has the potential to become just one more time waster. I got my feet wet watching episodes of the brilliant but cancelled Better Off Ted. And then somehow, I got trapped in an all-day marathon of the 70s sitcom, Soap. In two days, I think I'm up to episode 15. Of course, that's at 22 minutes a pop, so it's not all that bad. The show holds up remarkably well, retaining every bit of the humor it always had. It is of course not as risque as we remember (the Moral Majority would pass out from today's HBO and FX shows). And the 70s fashions and decor dates the show. Just think of it as That REAL 70s Show, and get past it. There's comedy gold here.

The show of course featured Billy Crystal as TVs first regular out gay character, though they weren't 100% accurate in dealing with it. Baby steps, right? It was still groundbreaking. The cast was absolutely stellar, particularly the older people in the cast (as opposed to the unevenly talented younger ones). Katherine Helmond as daffy Jessica Tate, Cathryn Damon as sensible Mary Campbell, Robert Mandan as philandering Chester Tate, Richard Mulligan as loopy Burt Campbell, and Robert Guillaume as sardonic butler Benson was a cast any show would envy. The other standouts for me were Ted Wass as sexy but dumb Danny and Jay Johnson as Chuck (and Bob the dummy) Campbell.

But the most stunning thing for me (besides the amount of time I spent watching it) was the age of the principal cast. This show originally aired when I was eleven years old. While I didn't completely get it then, I absolutely loved the show in its original run. And to me, Jessica, Mary, Benson, Burt and especially Chester weren't just older. They were old. Of course, my mother was 29 at the time, more in line with Jennifer Salt or Diana Canova (the Tate daughters). So the others were practically the age of my grandparents. 

Today, I am 44 years old, and The Other Half is 49. We both have birthdays within the next 5 months, so both of us will reach milestones of a sort. And both of us will bracket each Soap cast member in the photo above! Now, neither of us is anywhere near as youthful looking as we were when we met in 1998. But neither of us looks old enough to be any of those people! I'm going to be the same age as Chester Tate??? Sorry, Mr. Mandan. I know you're still out there, and got to have a career where you basically looked the same age for thirty years, so I'm really not knocking you. But wow. This life thing is really starting to speed up!

Wonder Woman Coming Back to TV!

Image from source, IGN

One of the recurring subjects on this blog is the quandary: why is it so difficult for superhero movies and tv shows to get made?  There is in some cases over seventy years worth of source material to draw upon, yet projects languish for years in development hell. Marvel Comics has had an easier time of it of late, though they can't seem to get The Punisher right. But DC Comics, my publisher of choice growing up? Pretty dismal.

Other than Batman, the DC heroes have had a dismal record of getting to the screen. Superman made it a few years ago, but went through such a torturous (and expensive) path, the final result was deemed a failure, even though it was pretty good. Green Lantern is coming soon at least, but there are several of my favorites that have been teasingly, frustratingly promised, and yet they never get going. Shazam!, The Flash, Justice League of America, Firestorm, Metal Men, and Plastic Man are just a few that have been dangled, but gone nowhere. Wonder Woman, arguably the best known female superhero, and third-best known period (after Superman and Batman) may finally make it out of that heap.

Wonder Woman has of course already made it to television before, with probably the best casting ever pulled off in a comic book adaptation. Well, maybe it's a tie with Christopher Reeve. But Lynda Carter's WW will always be in people's minds when they picture the heroine. Casting will be the hardest part, beyond Hollywood's basic problem with getting these things to screen in the first place. WW has made its way through enough cancelled scripts, producers and directors to rival Superman Returns. Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon was attached at one point (and that would have been so kick ass). So Wondy is headed for TV instead of the big screen. And they're changing her locale and her job. And it's just a pilot episode that might not get picked up. Wait, maybe I'm not so excited after all.

[Excerpt]

NBC Orders Wonder Woman Pilot



Looks like Wonder Woman may be back on TV soon after all. It's been a turbulent month for the DC heroine, as Warner Bros brought their new David E. Kelley scripted version of the character to the networks, only to see them all pass. Now though, Deadline reports NBC has made a surprise move and ordered Wonder Woman as a pilot. . .
 
Read more at: IGN

And just for kicks. . .

Overtime with Bill Maher, January 21, 2011

Rachel Maddow was a panelist. In the HBO show, she didn't have much to say about Keith Olbermann's departure, but the news was clearly very fresh, making me wonder how long even Olbermann knew. Anyway, the clip is good, and so was the episode of Real Time. Check it out if you have HBO.

Ep. 199: January 21, 2011 - Overtime

Captain Obvious: The Liberal Media is a Myth

With the firing/retiring/whatevering of Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, there are fans who are feeling sad, and FOX fans who are dancing a Snoopy dance. He had the channel's highest rated show--in fact the highest rated news commentary show not on FOX "News." The most recently known ratings for these shows has Glenn Beck (frequently but wrongly called Olbermann's flip side) at 1.780 million viewers to Olbermann's 1.106 million. Hardly a chasm of difference there, yet "nobody watched" Olbermann's show or his channel, according to detractors.

There's a lot of talk from both sides about Comcast's role in this, if any. There are people worried (or hoping) that this will lead to similar departures by Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell. Most people couldn't name all of those people. But that right there is pretty much the list of the top liberals in the media.  On talk radio, where the percentage of conservative-to-liberal shows is in the high 90s in the conservatives favor, there are a few other names: Randi Rhodes, Tom Malloy, Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller.  None of them has the name recognition of a second or maybe even third tier conservative host.

Nobody watches Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Nobody's heard of Randi Rhodes. Air America Radio is dead, and almost nobody can tune in to liberal talk radio on their car radio, even if they want to. Newspaper sales are down. Newsweek practically went out of business. CNN gets anemic ratings, only rarely stepping up into MSNBC's "nobody" zone. FOX "News" is the king of cable "news"--and yes those quotes are required. Comcast's takeover of NBC (and thus MSNBC) puts ownership of media in the United States into even fewer hands. All of those owners are enormous corporate entities with conservative leanings.

So somebody tell me please. Where is this "lamestream media" Sarah Palin keeps whining about? Or the "drive-bys" that Rush Limbaugh sputters about? Let's just face it. The right-wing talkers who used to be the far right fringe are now squarely mainstream. The most moderate, most middle-of-the-road, objective reporter now looks like a leftist by comparison. And the actual left are now called "far left." So they can stop complaining about the liberal media. They can stop squinting their eyes and finger wagging about the mainstream media. The conservatives have it. They are the mainstream media. But they're still not news.

Keith's Final Countdown... Stupid European Monkey Style...

Just couldn't help myself...



Apologies to Dear Editor...

Keith Olbermann's Announcement of the Final Countdown

A few things are dribbling out, like the fact that The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell will take over the 8pm (5pm PST) slot, The Rachel Maddow Show stays where it is, and The Ed Show gets the 10pm slot. If you didn't get a chance to see Keith Olbermann's parting words, here they are.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keith Olbermann Quits MSNBC

Wow, that was kind of out of the blue. Toward the end of a seemingly ordinary Friday show, the host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann announced that today was his final show. Giving no clue by his demeanor, Olbermann broke the news late in the hour between his last two segments, and concluded with his now standard reading from James Thurber. I'm a little stunned.

I've watched the program regularly since before Olbermann's political leanings were overt. I just liked the format, and the focus that he put on some stories that you didn't see elsewhere. All the way back when he had segments like "keeping tabs," a sarcastic lampooning of the tabloidy stories of the day. On one hand, this is going to disrupt my routine in a big way! On the other hand, it is going to free me up from a routine that had perhaps taken too deeply to root.

Where this leaves MSNBC, and why the heck it happened is anybody's guess. I'm thinking that this decision came fairly abruptly. Olbermann has recently discontinued his popular "Worst Persons in the World" segment, and had said that it may return in a changed form. . .which doesn't sound like a person who is preparing to leave. And MSNBC has only recently added The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, rounding out their full schedule for the first time.  The Rachel Maddow Show--which was basically spun off from Countdown, and championed by Olbermann--is now without a lead-in. Countdown was the linch pin, and the highest rated program on the channel.

So, however much the mucky-mucks at MSNBC might have personally disliked Olbermann, it would be a crappy business decision to fire him. I know that Comcast's all but assured purchase of NBC could be a factor, and surely will feature in a conspiracy theory or two. But I'm guessing this was Olbermann's decision, and I'm anxious to hear the full story. Provided we ever get it, of course. In the tv and radio business, these sorts of things can be shrouded in mystery, and several alternate "realities" later dribble out from all parties concerned. In any event, I'll miss the program, and I hope that Rachel Maddow gets to keep her job.

Is Rush Limbaugh's Chinese Rant Racist?

Wow. Whattaya do when a person you find reprehensible does something that doesn't seem all that bad, but other people seem to think is awful?  I mean, Rush Limbaugh is a xenophobic, homophobic, quasi-racist, semi-sentient pig. But you know what? When a dialect rings foreign to most of us, we hear gibberish. And when a dialect rings so foreign that it hits you like white noise, your reaction could be a wide-eyed bewilderment. But, if you're a media personality for like--what--25 years or more? Maybe you ought to know that this shouldn't be your reaction. . .

The Ballad of Sarah Palin by Lady Bunny

Is this funny? Yes. Is it silly? Yes. Is it stupid? Mmm, okay. Inappropriate? Yeah, maybe. But here it is anyway. . .

Top 10 Conservative Idiots, January 20, 2011

It's Thursday instead of Monday, but I'll take an installment of Democratic Underground's "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" any time! Yeah, yeah, it's just a special edition, not the regular column, but I'll take it anyway. Enjoy! 

[Excerpt]

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 387

January 20, 2011
Hate Mailbag Special

Now don't get too excited -- the Top 10 Conservative Idiots is still on hiatus. But a brand new Hate Mailbag is long past due, so here we go!

The following are real emails sent to Democratic Underground over the past year, and they have not been edited in any way, although names and email addresses have been removed. . .

And they are doozies. Read them at: Democratic Underground

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Greenlee Gazette does not contend that all conservatives are idiots. Merely that many prominent conservatives are idiots, as this column regularly confirms. So, please, no offense is intended to those of my friends and family who are themselves conservative. In other words, present company excluded!

Glenn Beck: "You're Going to Have to Shoot Them in the Head"

Posted with no editorial comment from me. Make of it what you will.



Longer video with more context here: Toon the News