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For those of us who spend a significant portion of our days online, we've become quite familiar with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and his series of penetrating, truth-baring editorials calling the Bush Adminstration and its allies on the carpet for their incessant lies, cavils, misdemeanors and incompetence. It seems like every time he opens his mouth, the video clips appear on YouTube, Crooks & Liars, Digg and just about everywhere else almost immediately.
A few weeks ago, though, when I posted about what I think was his best monologue, wherein he excoriated Donald Rumsfeld for likening opposition to the war in Iraq to the behavior of the Nazis, my friend Tony replied with this comment:
This is an incredibly penetrating and compelling essay. The question is, is anyone listening?
His point is valid: Olbermann's show is buried in the middle of the night on a poorly-rated cable network. Even though every word the man is speaking hits like the hammer of justice, his viewing audience is negligible, particularly compared to that of his arch-nemesis, Fox News gasbag Bill O'Reilly.
In the days before the Internet, that would have been the end of it. A voice literally crying out in the darkness, unheard and unnoticed as the wave of right-wing extremism overwhelms this nation. But, as I said, Olbermann is getting plenty of notice from an online culture able to spread not just his message but his actual words more or less instantaneously and to people everywhere on the planet. Six or seven years ago, though, that would still be a small number of people, and the larger culture of people who do not live online still might have missed it.
But the power of his words and the power of the Internet are beginning to have an effect. Olbermann's television ratings are up 69%, and his editorials are discussed, disseminated, and (in the case of the right-wing media) disresepcted in a number of "MSM" outlets as well as major online news sites.
The broader implication of "is anyone listening?" is, of course, whether or not such outspoken sentiments carry any weight with the Bush Administration itself. In that case, all you can really say is that they have encased themselves so completely in a cocoon of denial, deceit and spin that nothing anyone says gets through to them. Ultimately, it's probably not all that important to reach the ears of Chimpy McAWOL and his band of thugs -- they have already cast their fate to the wind. But more and more ordinary people need to hear these things if there is any chance to stem the tide, and it appears like that is beginning to happen.
You meant "flaming gasbag" didn't you? No, wait that was Limbaugh, I mean the Hindenburg... oh, whatever.
Posted by Tony [URL] at 10/12/06
The rest of the world can only hope that someone over there is starting to listen...
Posted by flerdle [URL] at 10/12/06
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