Friday, September 01, 2006

An Olbermann Moment

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:


In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised?

As a child, of whose heroism did he read?

On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight?

With what country has he confused… the United States of America?

Answer: The same country that has confused a sportcaster, for a news journalist.

This is why Olbermann's rating are always low, in fact, he is usually dead last. It's amazing to me that MSNBC can afford to keep him, despite the fact that his program is such a poor performer. I cannot imagine that his show is anywhere near the break even point and it certainly cannot be a tax write-off forever.

Don't get me wrong, Keith Olbermann has a right to his opinion and has a right to express it. I will always speak up for that right, no matter how ridiculous it may be. But it is apparent from his ratings that people aren't watching and really do not care about what he has to say, nor do they care about his little war against Bill O'Reilly.

But the thing to consider in all of this is, most shows that come in dead last get the axe in rapid fashion. Yet, MSNBC continues to allow this man's show to embarass both the host, and the network with an incredible display of underperformance. Knowing how competitive this business is, I have to wonder what their justification is for this masochistic act.


Hat Tip: The Daou Report.

6 comments:

All_I_Can_Stands said...

The agenda is more important that profit.

LA Sunset said...

Evidently so :(

Anonymous said...

Please. Put down the Flavor-Ade and pay attention. There's a big chunk of this world that doesn't find Olbermann embarrassing to MSNBC at all, and flooded his network with praise for having the GUTS to say something like this, despite the petty narrow minds of people like you who refuse to face what's really going on here. "Agenda"? Baloney. MSNBC's agenda is to make money, period. You only wish no one was talking about and praising what Olbermann said. You only wish calling him a "sportscaster" and not a journalist would send him running and hiding. It's not going to happen.

The tide is turning in this country, and it's turning against you. Get used to it.

Chip said...

Have you noticed that polls tank about two months before every election but the Republicans pick up seats anyway? I'm not going out on a limb and making any predictions, but I don't see America turning Left.

The media has been using push polls for years now. Measuring opinion is limited to internal, private polling for the most part.

Until the Democrats come up with a plan to win wars instead of creative surrender I expect more of the same. There's a huge group of people who favor more aggressive prosecution of the war. They have no alternative but to fill in the blank for a party that at least shows periodic interest in winning the war.

LA Sunset said...

Anonymous,

//There's a big chunk of this world that doesn't find Olbermann embarrassing to MSNBC at all,//

There's a much larger amount of people that does find him embarassing. Look, I don't care what he thinks or says, I don't care how many people flood the network for praise, it does not translate into ratings and therefore they cannot sell advertising at a premium rate. Therefore he cannot be profitable. Comparing the administration to Nazis won't get the job done either. The Kool Ade left can make a lot of noise, but they aren't paying a lot of bills for anyone.

LA Sunset said...

Chip,

//The media has been using push polls for years now. Measuring opinion is limited to internal, private polling for the most part.//

Polls are good "indicators" when they are used to measure something. But, many times the media uses them to create a false measurement. But even when used rightly, they can be wrong.