First, before anyone flames me for even suggesting that anyone that currently works in Media (print, video, or online) is even remotely in the same class of reporter as Edward R. Murrow, know this is not my intention. What I'm presenting is my opinion about what real reporters should be doing... and not be afraid of... when it comes to covering ANY administration, public servant, congressman, mayor, or citizen. What is it they should do?
Hold them accountable and hold them up as either role models or ingrates. And do it regardless of the backlash that will come in these turmoil filled times. Along these lines, I have come to admire a former Sportscaster by the name of Keith Olbermann. Mr. Olbermann does a nightly show on MSNBC called Countdown and for the past month he's been on a tear. He doesn't scream or yell at the camera. He doesn't call people names, or curse, or spout hate filled monikers at his targets, or his critics. What he does is very similar to what Mr. Murrow did in the 1950's with the McCarthy Era... He holds the current administration and their lackeys responsible for their words and actions and inactions. Although I wasn't around when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was calling people communists and ruining the lives of good and honest Americans, from what I know and have read, right now Keith Olbermann is the closest thing we have to him.
What do I use to even start to make the comparison? Try the Special Commentary that started this that aired on August 30, 2006 where he takes Donald Rumsfeld to task without name calling or slander or swearing. He holds Rumsfeld's actions up not to a microscope but to a wide angle lens and exposes his retoric in a way that I find myself incapable of doing without wanting to throw something or hit someone. It was at the end of this commentary that Olbermann stole from the great Mr. Murrow. He closed his comments and the show with a line that Murrow first used in 1954, "Good Night and Good Luck," and has used it sometimes since and I think he has good reason.
What caused me to finally speak my mind and share his tidbits of wisdom? Two things really. One is his commentary from last night, October 18, 2006. The other was my growing fear that I'm losing my rights, my constitutional rights, not those imagained ones like smoking or welfare or happiness (you did know that happiness is not guaranteed), but those that were written for everyone by Thomas Jefferson (but mostly James Madison) in our most sacred non-religious document.
What made his comments so important that I had to write this long tirade about it? Simply that a few weeks ago, on the very day that the Foley Scandal was breaking, the US Congress, yes both houses, voted into law the Military commissions Act. Did I know about it? No. Why not? Nobody covered it... Everyone was more worried about the Senators homo-erotic IMs than the fact that we now can hold people, citizens as well as non-citizens, without due cause, without reason, without evidence, and without Habaes Corpus. Don't know latin... try the link. Basically, rights that have been a standard of governments in what is ever considered the "Modern World" since the 1300's is now denied to anyone the US Government chooses. That's a BIG deal and it makes my blood boil.
Keith does a much better job at explaining the reasons this Administration was wrong to ask for it and why this Congress was wrong to grant it so I'll leave it to you to read what he has to say but remember these things when you go to vote in a couple of weeks. I will be.
And while I'm sure that the right has their fair share of people that speak up and hold the harsh light of their views on the left, I wouldn't know many of them other than the ones that blow hot air and go by the names of Hannity, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly. The ones that tend to see things my way... well... they are starting to speak up. Its hard to be heard above the din of the Neo-Cons as they like to be called, but they are starting to speak up.
Keith Olbermann is a start... Maybe we should join him?
Technorati Tags: Rant, Murrow, Olbermann
Hold them accountable and hold them up as either role models or ingrates. And do it regardless of the backlash that will come in these turmoil filled times. Along these lines, I have come to admire a former Sportscaster by the name of Keith Olbermann. Mr. Olbermann does a nightly show on MSNBC called Countdown and for the past month he's been on a tear. He doesn't scream or yell at the camera. He doesn't call people names, or curse, or spout hate filled monikers at his targets, or his critics. What he does is very similar to what Mr. Murrow did in the 1950's with the McCarthy Era... He holds the current administration and their lackeys responsible for their words and actions and inactions. Although I wasn't around when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was calling people communists and ruining the lives of good and honest Americans, from what I know and have read, right now Keith Olbermann is the closest thing we have to him.
What do I use to even start to make the comparison? Try the Special Commentary that started this that aired on August 30, 2006 where he takes Donald Rumsfeld to task without name calling or slander or swearing. He holds Rumsfeld's actions up not to a microscope but to a wide angle lens and exposes his retoric in a way that I find myself incapable of doing without wanting to throw something or hit someone. It was at the end of this commentary that Olbermann stole from the great Mr. Murrow. He closed his comments and the show with a line that Murrow first used in 1954, "Good Night and Good Luck," and has used it sometimes since and I think he has good reason.
What caused me to finally speak my mind and share his tidbits of wisdom? Two things really. One is his commentary from last night, October 18, 2006. The other was my growing fear that I'm losing my rights, my constitutional rights, not those imagained ones like smoking or welfare or happiness (you did know that happiness is not guaranteed), but those that were written for everyone by Thomas Jefferson (but mostly James Madison) in our most sacred non-religious document.
What made his comments so important that I had to write this long tirade about it? Simply that a few weeks ago, on the very day that the Foley Scandal was breaking, the US Congress, yes both houses, voted into law the Military commissions Act. Did I know about it? No. Why not? Nobody covered it... Everyone was more worried about the Senators homo-erotic IMs than the fact that we now can hold people, citizens as well as non-citizens, without due cause, without reason, without evidence, and without Habaes Corpus. Don't know latin... try the link. Basically, rights that have been a standard of governments in what is ever considered the "Modern World" since the 1300's is now denied to anyone the US Government chooses. That's a BIG deal and it makes my blood boil.
Keith does a much better job at explaining the reasons this Administration was wrong to ask for it and why this Congress was wrong to grant it so I'll leave it to you to read what he has to say but remember these things when you go to vote in a couple of weeks. I will be.
And while I'm sure that the right has their fair share of people that speak up and hold the harsh light of their views on the left, I wouldn't know many of them other than the ones that blow hot air and go by the names of Hannity, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly. The ones that tend to see things my way... well... they are starting to speak up. Its hard to be heard above the din of the Neo-Cons as they like to be called, but they are starting to speak up.
Keith Olbermann is a start... Maybe we should join him?
Technorati Tags: Rant, Murrow, Olbermann
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