This is my day to let the bloggers at our NY headquarters (AKA The Death Star) do all my work for me. Over at Tuned In, Jim Poniewozik takes a look at the possible motivations and implications of Keith Olbermann’s blistering commentary last night about Hillary Clinton.:
I’ll let you and/or Swampland argue the merits of Olbermann’s argument, but it’s an interesting step for him and MSNBC in a couple ways. First–well, if MSNBC felt any pressure after the David “Big Pimpin’” Shuster incident and the ongoing criticism of Chris Matthews to prove that it’s not the anti-Hillary network… this is not exactly going to help.
Second, it’s a bold move for Olbermann, not just editorially but branding-wise. It’s not exactly a secret that Olbermann’s show has been successful because of a strong (not to say exclusive) liberal and Democratic fanbase, who see him as the anti-O’Reilly. They’ve loved his outspokenness when it’s been directed at the Bush administration, but now he’s speaking out on a Democratic primary in which, presumably, a lot of his viewers back Clinton. (Yeah, I know, he said his commentary was not an endorsement of Obama. I’m sure that’ll make the Clinton camp much more cool with it.) Are they going to applaud his Edward R. Murrow turn now as much as they did when he was calling on Bush and Cheney to resign?
(You can also see the video at his link.)
UPDATE: See post above. Shorten mine to: What Ana said.