Olbermann Fallout Continues …

First, the cheap shots:

How do you allow a misogynistic racist pig to spew his bigotry with professional impunity? Fox zombie retread Don Imus showed the way. Imus doubled down on his former employer by pretending to defend Keith Olbermann as a pretext to viciously smear Rachel Maddow.

First, let’s not forget why this scumsucking bastard was properly fired by MSNBC: He referred to the Rutgers-NJ women’s basketball team as “NAPPY-HEADED HO’s.” Okay?

For this wingnut piece of shit to take issue with Rachel’s guarded response to Keith’s departure is nothing but an ill-disguised excuse to vent his suppressed hatred of women (particularly, I suspect, gay women) in a politically correct repercussions-free context. (Not that there would be repercussions, now that he’s a Fox employee.)

To hurl vicious epithets at Rachel not knowing what she knows or doesn’t know is the classic definition of an Imus smear. Rachel’s reaction was completely understandable. Keith himself signed a nondisclosure agreement. When it comes to such dicey contractual issues, there’s no reason to doubt Rachel. The Legal Dept. probably had a word or two to say about overall confidentiality. Moreover, Rachel has a responsibility to her show, her staff, who depend on her for their livelihood, and lastly the viewers. None of us expected her to go off half-cocked on a tear about Keith’s departure. That’s absurd.

As for Imus and his scummy talentless groupie sidekicks, WHAT I SAID.

Second, THE MAN, ‘TEH STOOPID’:

How STUPID is it for THE MAN upstairs to drop PSYCHO TALK from the Ed Show? Very, VERY STUPID. Despite the irreverent title of the segment, a “cousin” to Keith’s WORST PERSONS, both these segments served an extremely important function: INFORMATION. What they did, night after night, was to shine a light on the most EXTREME statements and actions of the Right wing and condense them down to the three most egregious. Yeah, this information is available to progressives on the net; provided they have the time to surf a half-dozen websites, beginning with Media Matters, through TPM, the Huff Post, Think Progress, Crooks & Liars, Alternet, etc. That's what the MSNBC production research staffs are there for!

If the viewers and listeners aren’t made aware of  the extremism that goes on daily in the Right wing echo chamber, they will continue to view the Republican and Tea Party Right as benign players. Covering stories that go national is nothing CNN isn’t already doing. Just as important is exposing the “psycho talk” of Paul Ryan and his insane scheme to raise taxes across the board on the poor and the middle class, privatize Social Security, and turn Medicare into a a voucher program.

That’s extreme radical. Sure, Paul Ryan’s insanity might be covered, but the psycho talk of lesser luminaries will not. What about Rep. Broun calling President Obama a “NAZI” and a “socialist” and refusing to watch the SOTU speech in the House chamber? There’s a dude who belongs in the now-defunct ‘PSYCHO TALK’, hands down. No doubt, SERIALLY. What about them, the repeat offenders, the SERIAL psycho talkers? These are EXTREMISTS who should properly be marginalized in the minds of the American voter. Now that the segment is gone, that’s the end of it. Finito. Kaput.

The corporate NBC News crowd now running the show, the Brokaw-Gregory-Williams axis, are corporate news elitists who look down their noses at the products of progressive talk radio, such as it is, like Rachel and Ed. They hated Keith because they couldn't control him. The sclerotic Tom Brokaw once referred to Keith, contemptuously, as "he is what he is." Brokaw meddled with MSNBC's excellent  GOP  Convention coverage by getting them to drop Keith as anchor and put teacher's pet David Gregory in his place. It was infuriating. Verne Gay, media critic for Newsday, had it down:

“Steve (Capus) [THE MAN] is very close to Tom (Brokaw). he has Tom’s ear — obviously Tom has great antipathy for the kind of the sort of commentary that Keith’s involved in. There’s a new sheriff in town, and that town just can’t hold Steve Burke, CEO of course, of COMCAST and can’t hold Keith — it’s too small a company, even if it’s gargantuan size.”

Dropping PSYCHO TALK and WORST PERSONS (for a time, until Keith left, then of course, permanently) is a perfect example of this mentality. Brokaw and the new boss man are tight. It was too easy to predict PSYCHO TALK would be deep-sixed. That’s like, Howard Kurz territory. Ed said he doesn’t “call the shots” over there. Very True. We shouldn't get down on him for things he cannot control. Better to have Big Eddie at a subdued 60% (as in the clip below) without the fire, the passion, the fight and combativeness, the in-your-face outrage, than not at all. Or maybe he was just under the weather. Not buying that, though.