Dec 22 2007

The Two Giants of Truthtelling, One on One

Just in case there may be one or two folks who missed this discussion.

Bill Moyers talks with MSNBC host Keith Olbermann

December 14, 2007

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BILL MOYERS: One of my closest friends always watched your nightly sportscast. And he remembers to this day, just got a word from him this morning, he remembers your saying about hockey is the most boring sport he’s ever seen. And you went on to say, “Nevertheless, here without further comment are the game results for whatever they’re worth.” But you don’t do that with politics. You don’t– you don’t just give the scores. You have some strong things to say about politics.

KEITH OLBERMANN: It became necessary.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

KEITH OLBERMANN: I was sitting on a plane in Los Angeles reading in August of 2006 about Don Rumsfeld talking to the veterans and talking about how every– everyone who was in opposition to the Iraq War policy, the so-called war on terror, even to some degree the Bush administration, was the equivalent in his mind to the Nazi appeasers of the 1930s. And he went on at length about how, you know, here’s the– we’re doing the Churchillian role. And I thought, you know, sir, I took history classes. Your group is not Churchill. Your group is Neville Chamberlain because Neville Chamberlain minimized and marginalized anybody who disagreed with him. Reading this ridiculous remark and waiting to see somebody respond to it. And no one did. I’m thinking, well, you know, somebody with a platform ought to be talking about this. Somebody with a– with an avenue to respond should be– oh, yeah, I have a platform.

Snip

Get rid of the Barbies and Kens, plastic faces and bodies with empty heads, get Back to Real Journalists, like the Two above, and Real Investigative Journalism!

4 comments

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  1. I missed this, so it is much-appreciated, Jim 🙂

     

    • feline on December 23, 2007 at 01:33
    • #

    I’m glad to see it posted here, it’s great.

    Thanks!

    • feline on December 23, 2007 at 01:34
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    this reminds me that I missed last night’s show

    • Edger on December 23, 2007 at 15:20
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    BILL MOYERS: Another question from Gloria. “Yesterday I was scanning some of Mr. Olbermann’s clips and I found one especially striking. He was calling Bush a war profiteer, more concerned about the profits of the defense industry than the lives of the soldiers. Right after he was done speaking, an ad came up for Boeing. Does Mr. Olbermann feel his credibility is at all undermined by the fact that his network is financed by some of the very industries he decries in his commentary?”

    KEITH OLBERMANN: Yeah. If we’re going to try to go corporation-free in any regard, I’m afraid everybody watching would just be prepared for that, you know that old test pattern with the Native American head appearing in the middle of it. ‘Cause we’re all, to some degree, involved in it. It’s a nation of corporations, whether we like it or not. As I said earlier, the fortunate part about broadcasting is if I’m making them money, it doesn’t make a difference to them and I’m on the air, how I’m doing it. And to be fair, many of these people on an individual basis have consciences that cannot be expressed in a corporate sense. Many of the people for whom I work– say, “You are saying things that I cannot say.” So I get support in a different way entirely from my bosses.

    Countdown is an anonymous outlet for people inside the corporations like GE that own MSNBC to “blog anonymously” (in a sense) nationally about their dissatisfaction with and their understanding of a skewed economic system?

    If so, this seems to me to be a “crack in the foundation” – the kind of crack that, in the foundation of a house, especially a house of cards, can bring the whole thing crashing to the ground eventually…

    We asked for signs

    the signs were sent:

    the birth betrayed

    the marriage spent

    Yeah the widowhood

    of every government —

    signs for all to see.

    …

    There is a crack, a crack in everything

    That’s how the light gets in.



    Leonard Cohen: “Anthem”, from the soundtrack of “Natural Born Killers”

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