Keith Doesn't Lie, He's Merely Egomaniacal and Hysterical

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Mickey Kaus has posted some liberals chatting privately at the secretive e-mail list JournoList. "This is not a parody! It's the real thing. I don't know whether or not it is representative." The topics were hatred for New Republic owner Marty Peretz, the craziness of Michael Savage, and how that compares to the blather of Keith Olbermann. Jesse Singal of Campus Progress tried a rather qualified defense of the King of MSNBC:

Everyone I know who likes Olbermann also acknowledge that he is egomaniacal and has a penchant for hysterical drama. The main difference, which is glaringly left out by anyone who conflates him with the Savages and O'Reillys of the world, is that Olbermann doesn't tend to, you know, lie about stuff regularly.

Katha Pollitt predictably judged Olbermann by how he treated Hillary:

Olbermann is funny sometimes but insufferable. He was really unfair during the primaries  — like calling Katie Couric the worst person in the world when she made some quite mild remark I think about sexism in the media (?).

This recalls some very humorous moments. Last June, Olbermann brought his "penchant for hysterical drama" to bear on Couric for attacking NBC's Lee Cowan as an Obama booster, as if (a) Katie Couric could lecture anyone about objectivity, and (b) Olbermann could defend Cowan's comments about his knees quaking in Obama's presence:  

Speaking at a Washington luncheon in her honor, the CBS anchor saying, "However you feel about politics," or her politics, rather, "I feel that Senator Clinton received some of the most unfair hostile coverage I`ve ever seen." She added that sexism "contributed in part to the Senator's defeat."

A little Kool-Aid-ish, but her opinion and she`s entitled to it. What followed she was not entitled to. Couric referred to one, quote, "prominent member of the commentariat" who had said he found it hard to be objective when it came to Obama. "That's your job," she says. Then she suggested he "find another line of work."

....I probably saw literally 90 percent of Lee Cowan`s reporting in this campaign, and it was utterly objective and accurate. It is sad that Ms. Couric could not have emulated him and separated the hype from the news in her own promulgation of the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism.