Shovel Your Ratings, Keith

By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 06:59 ET

"Shovel your ratings" appears to be Morning Joe's subliminal message to Keith Olbermann today. With the latest ratings showing Rachel Maddow's new MSNBC show beating Olbermann's Countdown, the MJ panel went out of its way to congratulate Maddow on her success, repeatedly mentioning what a "good person" she is and how nice it is to see such people do well.

The crew was riffing off the Drudge headline "Move Over, Olbermann, Rachel Maddow Tops MSNBC Ratings." As seen in the Drudge screencap [after the jump], on Tuesday Maddow beat Olbermann--the perennial MSNBC ratings leader--by a count of 1.8 million to 1.63 million. She also bested CNN's Larry King, among others. Scarborough & Co. never mentioned Olbermann by name. But the invidious-comparison-by-omission in their pointed praise of Maddow's good-personhood left little doubt that the wounds opened by Olbermann's open-mic slap at Scarborough, in which, during the Dem convention, he told Joe to "get a shovel" for remarks too GOP-friendly for Keith's liking, have yet to heal.

View the video, and be sure to stay tuned to the end. Mika tries to move the show along, but Scarborough pointedly persists, basking in the times when "good people do well." Got, it, Keith?

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A Drudge headline about the hacking of Sarah Palin's email got the group started.

WILLIE GEIST: There's not much to the emails, but somebody did hack into Sarah Palin's--you were doing the story--private emails. It's on the top of Drudge right now. And our friend Rachel's on there.

MIKE BARNICLE: Look at that: Rachel Maddow!

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Have you heard about this, Mika? Rachel Maddow: she beat Larry King, I think last night. She's the top-rated show on MSNBC.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: We have a little work to do!

GEIST: We're happy for her, she's on fire.

BARNICLE: She's a good person.

GEIST: She is.

SCARBOROUGH: You know what? TV folk are some of the craziest folk I know, as Krusty the Clown might say. But she is a good, good person. We probably don't agree on anything politically. But she's respectful of people, and it's great.

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: This is one of, file this under, one of those good people doing well.

GEIST: That's right.

BRZEZINSKI: Well, it is time now to check on the forecast, Joe. Now you take it: throw it to Jackie [Meretsky, the Weather Wonder Woman].

Joe wasn't quite ready to move on, punctuating his parting shot with emphatic hand gestures

SCARBOROUGH: One of those times when good people do well.

Note: There is a delicious [to quote Noel] irony in Maddow's success. Olbermann is widely credited as having been Rachel's "rabbi," so to speak, championing her at MSNBC and working to get her a show. What if Keith turns out to have created a monster, one that ultimately devours him?

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

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Mark, the video doesn't come

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:12 ET by motherbelt

Mark, the video doesn't come up; blank page.

Don't you get it? That was

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:14 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Don't you get it? That was the whole point! An existential statement about the nothingness of --- just kidding. Fixed it; please try again.

I especially like Joe's

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:19 ET by motherbelt

OK, it's working now, thanks!

I especially like Joe's remark about her being "respectful of people."

Ouch! Keith must be spewing his corn flakes!!!

That Ray Maddow is one

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:23 ET by Hero Squad

That Ray Maddow is one handsome fellow!

*****

"People only insist that a debate stop when they are afraid of what might be learned if it continues." - George Will

Aww man....

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:30 ET by HeavyChevy

you beat me to it Hero Squad!!! Curse my slow cognitive skills first thing this morning!!!!

:-)

"9 out of 10 doctors agree that flag burning is the number one killer of liberals."

I always wondered what

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:37 ET by Hero Squad

I always wondered what happened to Wil Wheaton.

*****

"People only insist that a debate stop when they are afraid of what might be learned if it continues." - George Will

The similarities are...

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:53 ET by HeavyChevy

uncannny!

Maybe he should have stayed on board the Enterprise.

the Wheat like that!"9 out of 10 doctors agree that flag burning is the number one killer of liberals."

Finally, the most masculine

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:29 ET by Roger the Shrubber

Finally, the most masculine person at MSNBC is #1.

Remember, every Thursday is Flannel Thursday!

I guess this Maddow's fella...

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:27 ET by HeavyChevy

is a better man then Mr. Olbermann...but just like the other guy I still won't watch him.

"9 out of 10 doctors agree that flag burning is the number one killer of liberals."

deleted comment?

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:28 ET by Mica the Magnificent

Joe, continued: Yeah, she's one of those good people. Very un-keith-like, she is keith-attitude-free, and has high ratings, or as we say in the business, 'higher than Keiths' ratings.'

I started laughing when I

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:24 ET by kg

I started laughing when I seen she had beat Keith.

Did you all see Shepard Smith yesterday? He was on a roll; and was not accepting campaign slogans when asking questions. He was cutting them off the stump speech and forced to try to answer his questions. Good job Shep!!

"Forget change, I want improvement!"

Heh, anyone see who had the

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:28 ET by sshuffield70

Heh, anyone see who had the top 4 shows in that list? And Shep wasn't off by much either.

Well Keith is probably happy

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:48 ET by motherbelt

Well Keith is probably happy that Matthews is in the cellar.

Good point, MB. It'll be

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:51 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Good point, MB. It'll be interesting to see if Matthews makes mention of the ratings on this evening's Hardball. He'd probably like to point out Maddow topping Olbermann, but wouldn't want to draw attention to his status as ratings caboose.

FOX NOISE...

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:09 ET by danybhoy

The elephant in the room, the top 4 were all FoxNews programs. But that ain't news, they are supposed to win, & that's what they do. BSNBC really needs a makeover, but it will never happen under it's current management.

"...it's still We The People, Right?" Megadeth

"I always wondered what

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:02 ET by suzycreamcheese

"I always wondered what happened to Wil Wheaton."

I knew she looked familiar! She's really grown up since her movie debut, Stand By Me.

Rachel Maddow

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:07 ET by DEHIII

I will say this about her, she presents her views in a tolerable manner.

Keith spews out his opinions with such hate and vile it is scary. Maddow says things I disagree with 100% but at least doesn't bring the hate and venom to the table it appears Keith has.

I can at least respect her for that, even if she is completel wrong.

I like Joe...

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:33 ET by jawebster1

even though I no longer watch him since he moved to the mornings. I think this is the beginning of the end of the Keith Olbermann stranglehold over MSNBC. No one likes a hater except other haters. Jim Webster

Now you know why Mica's response.....

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:51 ET by connman

was what it was.

The elephant in the room, the top 4 were all FoxNews programs. But that
ain't news, they are supposed to win, & that's what they do. BSNBC
really needs a makeover, but it will never happen under it's current
management.

She saw Mancows pic and the ratings next to her and you could almost here her say ewwwwwww.

Speaking of which I'm surprised at some of the comments regarding her "respectful" show. Has anyone actually watched this progressive drivel? She's just Olbie with a yam sack! It's knock McCain Palin for 60 minutes. Nothing "Fair & Balanced" there.

Connman, You are tougher than I if you last 60 minutes

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:08 ET by JTP

watching her. But I agree, I see little difference between the two other than breast size and her deeper voice.

"I need more cowbell!" SNL

I haven't watched Maddow

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:57 ET by Mark Finkelstein

I haven't watched Maddow regularly, but have noticed she had Buchanan on her inaugural show and perhaps again since then. That is a contrast with Olbermann, who famously refuses to have any guests who disagree with him.

apparently she has more

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 10:53 ET by TruthMonger

apparently she has more balls than olbermann

Journalism is the opium of the liberals

Rachel Mancow and Keith Olbermann are in a vulgar race...

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:10 ET by CT

...to the bottom of the cesspool of far-leftwing anti-American Marxist propaganda. I predict the poison these two will conjure in competition with one another will take down the NBC network by the end of this year.

I didn't see this, so thanks

Thu, 09/18/2008 - 10:32 ET by marpel

I didn't see this, so thanks for writing about it. But, what I did see was Sally Quinn making the statement that 90% of women who know they are having a Down's Syndrome baby, abort. Someone needs to slap that woman.

When I lost my 3 day old daughter to a genetic defect, and got pregnant with my son (who is now 28), I went to a doc for a recommended amniocentisis. The doc wanted me to sign an agreement that stated that I agreed to abort my child if the results of the test showed there was a problem. I told him where to stick his agreement and walked out. After losing my daughter, if my second child had even Down's Syndrome, I knew I would adore him or her as much as if they were normal. I went through my second pregnancy not knowing, and lo and behold, I had a perfectly normal little boy. But, Ms. Quinn, even if you think you need to kill a Down's Syndrome infant, I bet there are more Moms than you think, like Sarah Palin, who will love and care for any special needs child they have. I just wanted my next child to live. I bet there are a lot of women out there who feel the same way. Screw you, Sally Quinn!!