This is pretty weak- Keith Olbermann quits DKos because someone criticized him and accused him of planned fauxtrage:
If I can understand people’s frustration with seeing a speech by a Democratic president criticized in a venue such as mine, why is it impossible for some people here to accept my frustration about the speech? You don’t agree with me, fine. You don’t want to watch because you don’t agree with me, fine. But to accuse me, after five years of risking what I have to present the truth as I see it, of staging something for effect, is deeply offensive to me and is an indication of what has happened here.
You want Cheerleaders? Hire the Buffalo Jills. You want diaries with conspiracy theories, go nuts. If you want this site the way it was even a year ago, let me know and I’ll be back.
But he’ll come back when everyone agrees to wash the royal penis the way they used to.
NobodySpecial
Does anyone care?
Face
How the hell does this sentence not put your whole post in moderation?
Violet
xkcd pretty much sums it up.
Also, Olbermann is a whiner. Too.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
When they start believing their own press clippings, it’s a short ride to Heatherville.
Face
@Face: As my comment goes to moderation due to the blockquote….
slag
The imagery. It burns.
slag
@Face: I know. Cole should do himself a favor and write his prose in moderation-friendly format.
Violet
The man doth protest too much.
res ipsa loquitur
Shorter Olbermann:
Delete my fucking account, Kos!
John Cole
@slag: Never seen Coming to America, I take it.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Face: Moderation is the minion cross to bear.
Cacti
As I said yesterday, Keith-O is a smarmy douche. Turns out he’s also a thin-skinned, smarmy douche.
Just one more rich shit who thinks he has something important to say.
MMonides
While I agree that KO is being a baby about criticism of his remarks Monday, he is correct at the end of that: Dkos has been pretty crappy the past year.
Violet
@MMonides:
Yeah, the diaries are so frequently whines or meta. I still skim the midday news bullets; there can be some good finds there. But the diaries? Sheesh.
Bill Section 147
I didn’t see it as a GBCW diary. Did he tweet specifics? I still find a lot of great stuff on dkos but I cannot see why anyone bothers to get hyper over any meta-diary.
It isn’t like anyone even mentioned Israel.
stuckinred
Hanoi Jane sez Kos is a CIA agent.
slag
@John Cole: Ha! I didn’t even make the connection. There’s a very fine line between love and nausea.
ruemara
It’s all blackwaterdog’s fault. And those supporters of Obama were mean and Not Real Progressives Anyway™. It’s beyond bizarre.
@NobodySpecial:
over 1k comments. I’d say either 1k people care or 1 guy with an espresso iv and carpal body syndrome.
JR
KO + dKos = WATB
Steve
The GBCW acronym was pretty much coined in order to mock whiny people like Olbermann.
Cacti
And what has Keith-O done to elevate the discourse at GOS?
He’s not leaving in principled protest. He’s taking his ball and going home because he got his fee-fees hurt.
kay
Pundits talk about themselves too much.
I like Rachel Maddow. I hope she resists this sort of thing, but I don’t know. She’ll probably succumb to Huge Ego Syndrome.
david mizner
Ha!
KO just noticed that Kossacks slime prominent critics of Obama — Greenwald, Krugman, Huffington, etc. (All of whom could stand to be criticized but not for the fact that they criticized Obama.)
That’s been the case since 2008, when they started calling Obama’s Secretary of State a racist and a sociopath. I guess KO didn’t notice at the time, because he was busy basking in adoration for writing posts expressing outrage that Hillary wished that Obama would be assassinated RFK-style.
Daily Kos is pretty much unbearable right now.
wengler
I’m not going to pile on KO because he is more often right than wrong, but I gotta agree for an open forum DKos sucks.
arguingwithsignposts
Honestly, picking one comment out of the thousands on the GOS to get outraged about?
Where has this dude been?
And, FWIW, I tolerate KO because he gets some pretty decent guests on occasion, and his outrage can be well-placed at times. And the WPIW is usually pretty good.
But KO doesn’t deserve to carry Rachel Maddow’s water in terms of actual journalism. I’ve *never* seen someone from the opposing position appear on KO’s show. Maddow often has people she disagrees with on her program (Rand Paul, anyone?).
Comrade Jake
Olbermann’s right on the merits here, but I mean, come on. It’s a motherfucking comment on a motherfucking blog, for Chrissakes.
ruemara
@david mizner:
“Kossacks slime prominent critics of Obama?”
Your prior posts about critics of critics had some merit, but your statement about Daily Kos posters do not. In fact, you’d have to have a serious blinder on to ignore that most of Daily Kos is critical, hypercritical, in fact, of Obama. What is up with the cross anti-Obama types are on?
The Moar You Know
Fuck Keith Olbermann.
Really.
His on-air histrionics are embarrassing enough – and damaging enough – to the cause of liberalism as it is. For him to come to DKos and post that shit diary, whining because someone hurt his precious feelings in a diary comment is, sadly, exactly the kind of petty borderline stalking bullshit I’ve come to expect from the man.
Does he keep an itemized list of grievances? I’d bet that he does, he seems like that kind of guy.
Allan
Apparently getting criticized for bashing Obama is the same as being lynched, raped, murdered and left in a ditch to die for supporting progressive causes.
I know cuz slinkerwink says so. And she can copy and paste from Wikipedia, so she’s a historian too.
Sloegin
Quelle surprise, Dems fracture when they discover their guy has the occasional wart. Some freak, some go defensive, some say “well duh”.
Teh internets has dummies. Some post on the GOS.
I mostly like Herr Olbermann, but he can slide a lot into hyperbole and the whole butthurt pundit-mode which is unfortunate. Punditry corrupts. Absolute punditry corrupts absolutely.
Comrade Dread
Apparently, Mr. Olbermann is unfamiliar with all internet traditions, specifically the one stating that: 80% of any comments in a thread will consist of anonymous jackholes calling each other tards, fags, and assholes, 15% will be spam leading to porn or pharmaceutical scams/viruses, and 5% will be thoughtful and/or humorous well written posts.
brendancalling
nah man, i see his frustration.
i know a lot of us commenters here at BJ joke that we’re Obots, but at Daily Kos that creature really DOES exist. And if you post there long enough, you begin to get harassed by self-appointed diary police. People like Cedwyn and drache are only two examples of the dkos readers who do nothing but lurk waiting for any criticism of Obama. then you have to fight them off as they abuse the hide-rating system.
I tend to fight them off with youtube clips of caliopes and clown cars, or photographs of the Daleks from “dr. Who” captioned “HOPE AND CHANGE! HOPE AND CHANGE! HOPE AND CHANGE!”, but i kinda get off on antagonizing them.
I can see why someone like Olbermann (or anyone else with a limited capacity for verbal abuse and character assassination) would say “the hell with it.”
on a related note, I’ve been on a bluegrass list-serv for well over a decade and we have the same problem there. a number of people have been simply driven off the list, including some fairly legendary performers, for not being purist enough about the music. On the list, we like to joke, “bluegrass music, we eat our own.”
Same thing at kos.
The Moar You Know
@david mizner: Fixed that for you. That site is a thousand pounds of shit in a five-pound bag, and not even a motherfucking pony under any of it.
david mizner
@ruemara:
I said Kossacks when I should have “some” Kossacks.
Daily Kos is a pretty big place. Right now from what I can tell the place is pretty evenly split between harsh critics and staunch admirers, which in theory could make for an interesting place but in practice makes for endless, circular and often evidence-free arguments in which no one’s mind is changed.
But I stand by my original point. I used to be active there, and I can assure you there were — and are — many well-recced comments and diaries trashing in very personal terms Greenwald (a “douche”) Hamsher (“a deranged racist”) Krugman (“an attention whore”) Huffington, Tavis Smiley, Sirota, Russ Feingold (“a closet Republican”)…
I could do a bookmark dump, but I don’t think anyone cares that much.
AxelFoley
Coming to America reference FTMFW!
Comrade Jake
I’d actually admire KO a lot more if he got himself booted off of KOS. Anyone can pack up and leave. It takes some real talent to have them kick you out.
ruemara
It seems all the Progressives with Credentials have their noses in a snit today. Thom Hartmann is starting an epic rant to justify his criticism of the speech that failed, with a complaint about unnamed talk show hosts that have trashed KO, Maddow and, tangentially, him. He’s such a freaking resource of great info, but I guess I can listen to some music today.
OK, critics, here’s what this Obot cheerleader has against you.
1. insults aren’t criticism, they are insults. shill =/= I disagree with you on this point here’s why.
2. “the president should” =/= “the law, the rules, etc allow for…”
3. “why doesn’t he do it faster.” are you aware no one was doing it at all? Could you maybe organize against those who are impeding the progress, to push them? Why organize against those who want to help?
4. Anonymous White House Staffer is not the President. If Ben Smith says Obama said unions suck eggs and environmentalists should soak in crude for century, then the President is disparaging unions.
NobodySpecial
@david mizner:
Didn’t you get the message? Mike Kay personally reported that all 200k or so accounts all are part of a sinister plot of the left to make Obama lose the election and block out the sun with a giant pinata. Or something. There is no ‘some’. All GOS peoples hate hate HATE Obama, and if you disagree, well, you’re just a hippie.
Chester the Dog
Surprisingly juvenile response from KO. Really, a handful of diaries makes him go all GBCW? Thicken that skin man.
NobodySpecial
@ruemara:
1 & 2 are quite valid.
3 on this blog ends up with a hardcore group who insist that trying to force LEFTISM on their ‘Center-Right Nation’ is folly and should never be tried. And shut up and take what we give you.
4 “The Buck Stops Here”. Maybe Obama could instead send a positive message about those folks who deeply care about some of these issues instead of letting his hangers-on go slanging what used to be known as ‘the base’ before 2008.
Allan
@brendancalling: Thank you for not contributing to the problem.
joz
Someone on the Internet is wrong!
It’s John Cole for once though.
John, good job taking Olbermann’s words out of context. You conveniently left out the part where he said this:
taylormattd
@david mizner: more delusional shit from John Edwards worshipper number one.
God, what an alternate reality you live in. The people who think everything Obama does is wrong absolutely DOMINATE the wreck list over there, yet you believe you are being persecuted.
AxelFoley
@Allan:
You saw that shit diary of hers, too, huh?
georgia pig
@kay: She was calling herself the fake president last night . . .
Culture of Truth
I was watching and though Olbermann went a little nuts.
I doubt he staged it, he’s just mad like a lot of people are about this horrible situation and is freaking out that Obama is not freaking out more.
Busta
CLAP HARDER, KEITH!
Bill Murray
@Comrade Dread: C’mon there is at least 40% snark in there that doesn’t involve fags, tards and assholes
ruemara
@NobodySpecial:
He can say “the buck stops here” as much as he want. You and I know that an unnamed source isn’t worth much for corroboration. Obama may be President, but being a big mouth with tiny balls will not be phased by that. To then have a crafted meme go round the lefty world that “Obama insults the Unions!” is a bit more of an incendiary bit of bomb throwing that just garners page views, demoralizes the people who really need to see the wins that have happened and, for me, makes me wonder how much propaganda have I swallowed from people I used to trust.
as far as your response to 3, LOLWUT? What does this blog have to do with an aggressive progressive approach to problem solving? It’s fun mixed with news and smattering of organizing in the corners.
Glenn
I stopped reading dkos because it got the point where Kos himself rarely posted, and the quality of the front pagers over there got pretty bad. Bad as in, mostly have no freakin’ clue what they’re talking about.
But the diaries have always been a shit show (sometimes an entertaining one, I admit). For KO to use this as his excuse to leave is pretty weak indeed.
david mizner
@taylormattd:
Persecuted? What the hell are you talking about? I just said it’s evenly split.
The critics may have the upper hand this week, or this month, but that’ll surely change as the election changes and people close ranks. (Or who knows? Obama could even do something great.)
I’m not now nor have I ever been a worshipper of pols. I liked Edwards’s message much better than the other leading candidates, and I still do. I knew he was a flawed messenger. I just didn’t know how flawed.
Of course, what Edwards said about the need to fight corporate power has been vindicated. If by a weird turn of events, Edwards had become president , he would’ve been much better on the economy, I suspect, but on foreign policy and civil liberties, probably the same, and Greenwald and others would be blasting him.
Allan
@AxelFoley: It’s hard to miss when someone is shrieking “I’m being silenced!” from atop the Wreck List.
cleek
dKos has always been chock-full of idiots and conspiracy theorists and hypocrites and rage addicts. it’s like DU with better forum software.
John Cole
@joz: How do you take someone out of context when you link to their words and quote them completely unedited. Jeebus.
Spare me. That was a watb post from Olbermann. Period.
Can you imagine what the internet would be like if everyone stiopped writing because some anonymous commenter wrote bullshit about them?
Christ- Glenn Greenwald, on any given day, has thousands of people calling him a fag, a sock puppet, an anti-Semite, ant-American, and every single day he comes back and speaks his mind, with no thought of quitting.
KO is a pussy.
Culture of Truth
He blasted a Democratic President and hangs out on a liberal blog. What did he expect? Even if he was right – and I think he was way over the top, with some legitimate critiques – of course people are going to take issue with it.
Culture of Truth
The Internet does have a way of making powerful self-important people crazy.
Heh heh.
MMonides
@Allan: @AxelFoley: It’s not like she went Godwin. Just accused anyone who criticizes her of being McCarthy-esque. No the same thing at all…
kay
@georgia pig:
Was she kidding, though? That could be funny, depending.
I don’t watch that often, but I do like her, so I hope she doesn’t get Professional Pundit Disease.
I think if she makes an appearance on Morning Joe it’s probably all over between us. I have to draw lines.
Comrade Dread
Yes. It was stupid of him to expect more from Democrats than Bush supporting til the end Republicans.
That said, he’s still a douche.
Allison W.
There are far more critics of Obama at Dkos than there are supportive diaries so i don’t know what anyone is talking about.
And if KO, Greenwald, Hamsher, etc. can’t take the amount of the criticism that they throw at Obama then they need to shut down their blogs or get over it. Dish it, be able to take it. Why are those commentators expected to not criticize the critics? And they get teased for blind loyalty?
Anonymous
Keith isn’t the only whiney blogger over there who says something a lot of people disagrees with and then when people disagree threatens to take his/her ball and go home.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay:
I was kinda surprised to see Rachel and Ezra Klein giving into “why didn’t Obama reach for the stars!”, especially Klein, since he’s written about the gap between our president-centered political media and our legislative-centered political process. But I do get the frustration and I’m willing to cut Rachel some slack, since she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Olberman needs someone, a strong-handed producer, or just a friend, to talk him down from the top of his outrage bubble.
Bill H
I now find that the only way I can watch Olbermann is to record him on the DVR and have the control in my hand with my finger on the “fast forward” button so I can skip his more obnoxious parts. Wait, I mean the more obnoxious parts of his program. The average time for me to watch a show is now down to about twenty minutes.
I am, however, eagerly anticipating the show coming up hosted by O’Donnell.
frankdawg
@joz:
Exactly! I have problems with KO & with GOS but lets make sure we do not fall victim to the same faults we hate in others.
As for how KO could trash the speech before it was televised COME ON PEOPLE! THE WH ISSUES A TRANSCRIPT BEFORE THE DAM SPEECH IS MADE. This has been going on since at least Nixon.
Someone here yesterday made the same charge.
If you play in the comments section you are playing in a lot of shit, get used to it.
KO was right but once again over reacts
Midnight Marauder
@brendancalling:
This guy is a multi-millionaire veteran
journalistinfotainment professional. He has been in the trenches as a vociferous critic of the some of the most despicable forces of malignancy this country has ever seen. We are talking about a blog post, son. A blog post. A blog post.The outrage is just incredibly disproportionate.
ronin122
@david mizner: That’s pretty much how I see the GOS: evenly split mostly by those who think Obama can do no wrong, and those who think he can do no right.
MMonides
@Allison W.: Indeed, seconded, and how.
NobodySpecial
@ruemara:
The disagreement about tactics on this blog has morphed into a hardcore group of people who are all about beating up on ‘the left’ or ‘hippies’ or whatever they want to call it. You might recognize them from the spittle left on the other side of your monitor when they mention the names ‘Hamsher’ and ‘Greenwald’, frequently unprovoked. A lot of them also keep spouting that Reaganesque nonsense about America being a ‘center-right nation’, and how trying to push liberalism in parts of the country is stupid and unproductive and why oh why are you beating up on the poor ol’ Blue Dogs, who are the best we’ll ever get. I’m sure you recognize it.
arguingwithsignposts
@joz:
I don’t think he took it out of context, but when you put it in the “context” like you just did, it makes KO look like even more of a wilting flower.
It was a freakin’ *comment* on a *diary* on a *weblog,* one of millions on teh intertubes!
If that’s all it takes for KO to take his ball and go home, he deserves the scorn he gets.
It just makes the SNL skit with Ben Affleck look prescient.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t read it that much (disclaimer!) but kos is sort of selectively gloomy, as an information gathering site.
They really trumpeted the generic ballot heading in the GOP direction ( because that went to their argument that Democrats are not being liberal enough, I think ) but have ignored that it’s going in the other direction.
If they’re going to rely on polls, they can’t just highlight those that ratify the stance they are pushing. I don’t even mind having a stance (“Democrats are too conservative”), that’s what advocacy is, but just come clean about it.
I think advocates should stop pretending they are The Last Honest People. They aren’t, nor should they be. They’re pushing a very particular argument on that site. Nothing wrong with that, but stop pretending it’s “fair and balanced”, or that people who disagree with them are “ignoring evidence”.
Culture of Truth
It’s the Internet – if you don’t expect that at a liberal site at least some commenters are going to take issue with a vehement critique of a speech by a Democratic President, then yes, you’re stupid.
Having said that, I would say KO is fully justified himself in pushing back on the same website against accusations the he’s faking it for ratings, which is questioning his honesty and intergrity.
If he’s quitting in a huff it suggests he’s too used to being on tv, where no one talks back.
ruemara
@NobodySpecial:
kthxbai.
None of that has anything to do with, you know, doing something. But if you want to get into a piddle turf war with people who may disagree with you on specific interpretations on some subjects, but do agree with you on broader, lifetime goals for the country, then by all means, let that be the main thing to you.
williamc
@brendancalling:
I can cosign that sentiment, but I really just wants deets on this bluegrass listserv!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@arguingwithsignposts:
Heh. It was frighteningly on the nose, wasn’t it? To his credit, Olberman played that on his show. Compare that to Tweety, whose SNL doppelganger is far more intelligent and coherent than the real thing, and Tweets acts as if he’s being a good sport for acknowledging it (and you can tell he gets a stiffy from being That Famous).
Culture of Truth
If Olbermann read the comments on YouTube he’d probably move to Antactica.
Chyron HR
@NobodySpecial:
You. Don’t. Say.
AxelFoley
@Allison W.:
Fuckin’ A right!
Hell, they troll blackwaterdog’s diaries because she has the audacity to post diaries that support a Democratic President on a supposed Democratic blog.
NobodySpecial
@ruemara:
Thing is, Rue, with some of them, I can’t tell if they really DO agree on the broader goals.
That and it would be nice if they didn’t clutter up every single politics post with attacks against people who haven’t even opened up their mouths on the thread.
@Chyron HR:
Ouch. Good one.
Dave
I think the frustration that supporters of the president have (at least it is for me) is that his critics give him credit for nothing. NOTHING.
He gets a health care reform bill passed that is sweeping in scope and more than anyone has done in decades. And the left-wing critics say “Not enough.”
He gets a stimulus bill passed that pretty much kept a massive recession from getting worse and all the left-wing critics said was “Not enough.”
He’s on the verge of getting DADT repealed through law as opposed to using a reversible executive order and all the left-wing critics say is “Not enough.”
He gives a speech that talks about peak oil, points out how government corruption played a role and begins to lay out the way forward towards an alternative energy future and all the left-wing critics say is “Not enough” while having orgasms to Rachael Maddow’s satisfying-but-completely unrealistic “Fake President” speech.
Never mind Lily Leadbetter, killing the F-22 (something BUSH couldn’t do), expanding SCHIP, credit card reform, tobacco regulation…but no, it’s not enough. It’s NEVER enough with some people.
There is legit criticism to be made when it comes to President Obama, especially in the civil rights arena. But to hear the WATBs on the left tell it, he hasn’t done a damn thing. And that is simply not true.
Admiral_Komack
“If I can understand people’s frustration with seeing a speech by a Democratic president criticized in a venue such as mine, why is it impossible for some people here to accept my frustration about the speech? You don’t agree with me, fine. You don’t want to watch because you don’t agree with me, fine. But to accuse me, after five years of risking what I have to present the truth as I see it, of staging something for effect, is deeply offensive to me and is an indication of what has happened here.”
-What the fuck have you risked, you whiney-ass titty baby?
What a self-important snot-nosed punk-ass bitch.
I stopped watching this asshole in April 2009, and my blood pressure is sooo much better for it.
ricky
@John Cole:
Seen it. Wish I hadn’t.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sometimes I think it’s just nerves, and fear of losing. I wonder if there would have been such concern for Obama’s emotional and political reaction to the spill if there hadn’t been a mainstream media meme that he was somehow lacking. The focus on the speech mirrors the conventional media focus on the speech, it didn’t predate it.
They completely freaked the hell out after the losses in Virginia and New Jersey, which, of course, was the whole point of Republicans making such a big deal out of it.
In a weird way, they end up buying whatever Republicans are selling, even starting with the best of intentions. They seem to get caught up in the theme ‘o the day.
arguingwithsignposts
@Dave:
True that.
Some people never remember the phrase “politics is the art of the possible.” To which Galbraith added: “It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
inkadu
@slag:
No, the burning is from the chlamydia.
Brachiator
Not much of a criticism, and an abysmally lame lame accusation. I mean, really,
This is Richard Gere gerbil level stuff, lower than chain emails.
Since the dawn of the InterTubes, comments and feedback often pose challenges to pundits and reporters. Where letters to the editor were often rigidly filtered, here writers can see how smart their audience often is. And how stupid.
I can’t say whether KO is insufficiently thick-skinned. I rarely find much of value at Daily Kos or Huffington, so I don’t much care one way or another about this pseudo-controversy.
ricky
@Dave:
It is not enough! Use your imagination. Think how much Dennis the K or Raphie Nader would have made of the glorious opportunity we gave this inexperienced man based on our projections of what could be.
inkadu
@slag:
No, the burning is from the klamydia.
[and I tried spelling it right, but it went to moderation. go figure.]
inkadu
@slag:
No, the burning is from the klamydia.
Cerberus
Ok, I’m seeing a lot of Olbermann hate, but I think people are forgetting something really key.
KO is an internet newbie. He’s like your grandma when it comes to the internet. He resisted twitter forever because he didn’t know how it worked and is generally pretty Web unsavvy though he’s been trying to branch out.
So having the rookie freakout over “someone is wrong on the internet” makes a shitload more sense for him than the constant drama-queen flouncing shown by people who have fucking grown up with the world of internet communication.
So, no, this doesn’t lower my opinion of him because frankly it’s what I would expect from someone who was very recently petrified by the idea of using twitter.
inkadu
Since my witty comment went to moderation, I think I’ll have to say something substantial, and not reference penii or diseases thereof.
I don’t like KO. He’s always seemed operatic. I always thought he was on to the joke — the “how dare you, sir” theatrics of it. Apparently, no, he takes it seriously. The GOS commenter is actually giving him more credit than he deserves by accusing him of staging the outrage.
arguingwithsignposts
@Cerberus:
KO’s been on DKos for quite a while. At least two years. If you can’t figure out that there are anonymous assholes lurking in the comments section in that amount of time, n00b is not the term for you.
kay
Why not just give Obama credit for the BP agreement? It is good. It’s better for taxpayers than litigation, and it doesn’t even foreclose litigation, down the road. Only an idiot says they’ll take money down the road over money in their hand. He gets both. It’s a great deal.
The whole idea of “nationalizing” assets was silly. Even if we could “nationalize” assets, I don’t know how we do that without nationalizing liability, and we know BP has a terrible safety record. We were just going to seize assets? Where does that leave all those other places that have some duct-taped mess of a BP facility operating? We were going to tell them “tough luck, our well exploded first“?
Calouste
Did Olberman
‘s staffersever post on Kos except to advertize his show? Not that I noticed anyway.inkadu
@Cerberus: You are wrong, and on the internet no less. KO has been on DKos for at least 4 years. And it doesn’t take four years to figure out the multivariegated nature of comment threads. Heck, YouTube comments instantly make DKos threads look like a choir of angels.
arguingwithsignposts
@inkadu:
Except when the meta-police start a threaded flame war over hide-rating. FSM, some comment threads there read like a second-grade “am not!/are too!” fight
Ailuridae
@kay:
Because to admit the that the escrow fund was a good idea might expose people who advocated receivership to the scorn and ridicule they deserved.
Karen in GA
I got sick of the GOS when the whole Nephew series started. A couple of people questioned whether it was true, and the “who cares, it’s a great story” responses were disappointing. It felt good to accept the story, and that was all that mattered. Truthiness at work.
I irked KO once when I said, in a nutshell, “whoa, take a breath and calm down for a second.” It was like waving a red flag at a bull.
Oh, well.
kay
@Ailuridae:
I was understandably a little concerned about taking on BP’s whole operation.
We couldn’t even regulate the one facility in the Gulf. Obama was going to run an oil company?
Christ. We’d be on the hook for every BP failure, world-wide.
I supported the GM bail out, and I will (quite frankly) be amazed if it works as planned and they get out even, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think he should nationalize GM. The legacy health care costs alone would kill us.
inkadu
@arguingwithsignposts: I like the PC police when someone makes a mainstream comment that is construed as horribly sexist. Those always make me happy I’m not in college anymore.
Lisa K.
Keith is such a drama queen.
D-Chance.
What the fuck did Bathtub Boy ever have to risk? He’s a failed sports jock who was fired from every other job he ever had because he was a jerk off-stage and all of his co-workers and bosses hated his guts. It’s not like he had much on the table when he took the gig.
MMonides
@Dave: Excellent.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
Fuck Olbermann.
He is now just like all those other coifed heads on tv, just another asshole who thinks it’s all about him. Thinks that politics, news, foreign affairs and oil spills are all just tv shows.
Thinks that the world should revolve around what HE THINKS about anything. He crossed that line a long time ago, and his show sucks for it now. And he sucks for it, and he has gone a long way toward losing the audience that used to back him. He is now just a lefty version of Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Not as crazy or vile or obnoxious, but just exactly as self-centered.
News flash Keith: It’s not all about you. Go away, go back to sports where your kind of bighead shit plays better.
asiangrrlMN
@Dave: Yeah, pretty much this. I enjoyed Rachel’s speech, but I spent much of it thinking, “No way in hell Obama could say all that.” Even on this blog, mistermix wrote, “Hey, yeah, 20 B is awesome, but…” But but but. And, it’s been completely glossed over by the press and criticized by the Republicans.
I stopped watching Keith a while back because I just couldn’t take the theatrics and the self-importance any more. He always seemed like a thin-skinned person to me.
As for O’Donnell, I am torn. I think he’s yummy, and I really dug him when he subbed for Keith, but he seemed to go off the rails during the healthcare reform debate, and I am not sure he’s back on track.
ronin122
@Calouste: He comments on his and some other entries. To be fair though, others are guilty of what may be considered self-promotion (Cenk Uygur for one)
Admiral_Komack
@D-Chance.:
-I surprised that Keith didn’t faint after uttering that gem.
Lawnguylander
@arguingwithsignposts:
Complete with,
MOM, METEOR BLADES,TIMMYAL GIORDANO CALLED ME APOOPYHEADSTALKER, PUNISH HIM!mapaghimagsik
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
I’m inclined to agree, but I think its hard not to be that successful and get a bit of a big head, and blogs like GoS and this one tend to puncture that bubble pretty quickly, and at the same time help with the hyperinflation
Hopefully, he’ll keep reading and reporting. I think he gets a lot of good ideas from GoS, or at least have a thick-skinned staffer cut through it.
At the same time, challenging Obama to do more is fine, as long as you put the blame squarely where it is — a spineless congress that gives up before its even challenged and WATB can hold their breath and Dems will give up key items.
But yeah, it would be nice to cut the poor bastard some slack once in a while.
mapaghimagsik
@Culture of Truth:
I did want to point out that I have read the comments on some YouTubes, and it makes me want to ship those idiots naked to Antarctica.
I have so little tolerance for the fucking stupid.
mapaghimagsik
@mapaghimagsik: Antarctica. Goddamnit, why did the editor fuck up? This blog would be a piece of shit sometimes if the content wasn’t so good.
Admiral_Komack
Did I say how much I hate “delete” ?
General JAFO Willibro
@arguingwithsignposts: What you said. Exactly why I don’t even go there anymore. Utter waste of time.
Detlef
@Calouste:
Did Olberman
’s staffersever post on Kos except to advertize his show? Not that I noticed anyway.Actually yes.
I do remember some diaries a few months ago describing the horrible situation in several Indian reservations. You know things like people freezing to death in winter. They normally used gas bottles for cooking and heating but couldn´t afford enough of them last winter.
KO wrote a comment in that diary thanking the diarist for writing about it and IIRC promised to bring it up in his show.
Don´t know how often that happened since I don´t read that many comment threads. But since you asked only for one example….
Justin Runia
I’m fine with KO quitting, what I take issue is the suicide-note that he left. Just quit and leave dude, don’t try to guilt everyone into begging you to come back.
kindness
I’d be curious to see how long Keith would last if he set up an account at RedState. I lasted almost a month. I didn’t go there to troll the place but to talk. They didn’t like honest talk.
I like Keith though. Still think he & Maddow are good. maybe he has found fdl more to his tastes. To each their own.
Detlef
@D-Chance.:
What the fuck did Bathtub Boy ever have to risk? He’s a failed sports jock who was fired from every other job he ever had because he was a jerk off-stage and all of his co-workers and bosses hated his guts. It’s not like he had much on the table when he took the gig.
5 years ago?
You mean when you Americans just reelected GW Bush?
Hmm.
How about:
Criticizing the President (CIC Bush) equals criticizing the troops equals anti-American, terrorist supporter, not a patriot.
You remember perhaps?
I don´t remember that many (prominent) Bush media critics back then. Most of them were studiously “neutral”.
Except of course the “Daily Show”. :)
But I´ve read that Jon Stewart too criticized President Obama in his show?
Nate Dawg
@Kay
Yah, I’ve been done with Daily Kos after I got called a homophobic troll for questioning the Nephew series. A few of us followed it closely, pointed out discrepancies and the frantic editing that occurred when those discrepancies were called to light. It ended with the gay brigade calling me a troll and literally threatening to track me down and give me problems if I continued. Beyond ridiculous.
I’m a skeptic, and I’ll never piss on another skeptic even if they’re wrong. Skepticism is good. And in that case, we skeptics were right.
Rob721
Right! How dare KO stop doing something he was voluntarily doing after he gets a ton of crap dumped on him for having an opinion!
Seriously, what is with the liberal blogs’ need to crap on KO? He’s not the liberal BO, anyone can see that.
Apparently criticizing Obama makes you ungrateful but kicking KO, you’re a fair-minded liberal.
Karen in GA
Nate, was it proven to everyone’s satisfaction that the nephew thing was a hoax? I thought it was obvious, and I was amazed by how vicious some of them got if anyone questioned it.
I’ll say this, though — I found the mob psychology aspect of it pretty riveting. I’m weird like that.
Sheila
I read a little of Olbermann’s post and then moved on. If I want silly, I’ll listen to the inimitable Jonathan Richman and have fun.
CalD
Keith Olbermann used to be a lot of fun to watch but ever since he saw Good Night and Good Luck, he became completely full of himself. I doubt anyone has been that damaged by a movie since George C. Scott became convinced that he really was Patton.
At first I thought maybe it was just a phase but it went on so long that it was actually one of the final straws that prompted me to just swear off cable “news” completely, two years ago and counting. I guess maybe I owe him a certain amount of gratitude for that though.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@D-Chance.:
How much does Keith get paid? And how many tears am I supposed to shed for him?
Word on the street is that get gets $4m a year. That is over $300k per month, on the order of $11k a day.
Good bye cruel world? I would sooner believe something as ludicrous and dishonest as that from Limbaugh before I would believe it from Olbermann. I sincerely mean it, Fuck Him Very Much. With prejudice.
Nate Dawg
@Karen
No it wasn’t proven to everyone’s satisfaction, as he still posts there.
And his “aunt” still manages to work some weird story about him into every one of her diaries. So, you know, he’s still changing flat tires for old ladies, gathering the football team to rake the leaves and pull weeds for an elderly neighbor, etc.
She got really quiet after exposed and took a few weeks off, but is back.
I think many people figured it out, because the posts are largely ignored now.
The group mentality aspect of it is frightening, but DailyKos seems to attract a certain type of person. Foaming-at-the-mouth true believers….until they turn on you and then their foaming-at-the-mouth dissenters. And then they argue amongst themselves.
/meta
JMY
For someone who criticizes people on a daily, he sure can’t take it.
Mike Kay
TOOOOOOOO FUNNY
How many times have I said these guys can dish it out but can’t take it.
There is something wrong with these people. Glen for example can take a baseball bat to politican like Al Capone to a snitch, but make the slightest criticism about him and he freaks out and breaks down.
It’s the same way with all the big mouths (save Markos).
Mike Kay
If you can’t stand the heat, stay outta da blogosphere.
PanAmerican
@stuckinred:
Kos is running a honeypot for cranks, crackpots and trolls.
Mike Kay
@stuckinred: you’re shitting me. where did she say that?
A Ghost To Most
Well, he (and the GOS) may have gone off the deep end, but remember the valuable services he/it performed in the second half of the Cheney-Bush maladministration. He/it provided rallying points for a lot of people in those dark days.
Doesn’t mean they are still relevant now, however. Everything/one has a sell-by date, I guess.
handy
Maybe KO can turn the lights down, stare into the camera all Edward R Murrow like, and deliver a Special Comment on blogger ethics. That would be great liberal TV.
Mike Kay
@kay:
You are a golden goddess.
Sly
The VP’s response to this nonsense was pretty outstanding.