Looks like thin-skinned Keith Olbermann is getting defensive about his policy of banning show guests who disagree with him. An MSNBC Countdown promo features Olbermann advancing an absurd non sequitur to justify his echo-chamber approach.
Claiming to be "misunderstood" over his guest policy, Olbermann says he asks questions "to find out if I'm wildly incorrect" about something. Olbermann thereby ignores the obvious: he's unlikely to find out if he's wrong if he hand picks guests who think he's right!
KEITH OLBERMANN: The premise of the guests is often misunderstood as some sort of political reinforcement, or a "Keith gets only the guys who agree with him." I ask a lot of these questions to find out whether or not I'm wildly incorrect about something. The point of the show is to illuminate. It is not to throw off heat; it is to throw off light.
Notes:
- The guests whose images flash in the promo are Keith's big "gets": Hillary, Pelosi, Pres. Obama himself, rather than the parade of liberal pundits who are the show's mainstay.
- The point of the show is to throw off light, not heat? This from the man whose histrionics are the stuff of SNL parody?
- Interesting that Keith doesn't display the courage that even fellow MSNBC libs like Matthews, Schultz and Maddow do in regularly inviting on guests with dissenting views.
- In recent times, Olbermann's stifling of dissent reportedly extended to seeing to it that Donny Deutsch was fired from MSNBC after including Olbermann in a list of "angry talkers" along with Rush and Beck.
- So now we know why Johnny Carson chose Ed McMahon as his sidekick: he wanted someone who would challenge him if ever he was wrong. Hey-o!
