100 TV Shows #44-Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Last night I responded to this piece of arrant BS, from big name "intellectual" wing-nut John Podhoretz on Twitter:
John Podhoretz @jpodhoretz
I guess I missed all the liberal tweets expressing horror at the shooting at the Family Research Council.
by calling out his hatred and his lies for what they were....hatred and lies. He re-tweeted me so I could be attacked by the minions who can't stand to have the light of truth shone on their crapola.
Like my attempt to engage with Conservacunt Alicia Colon, it was clearly an exercise in futility, but I felt the need to do it, and one reason I felt that need was because Keith isn't on TV to do it for me anymore.
Keith became a hero to my father when he basically walked off MSNBC because he was disgusted with the obsessive coverage of the Lewinsky scandal. I wish I could say I was a fan from that period or going back to ESPN, but to be honest I got interested from reading ansgty Pundit RPS, mostly featuring Keith and Anderson Cooper. THEN, I started watching and it was literally the political show, the political feeling, the passion, the family, I'd been waiting for all my life.
Some of the pundits I knew from loving shows like Washington Week In Review, Capital Gang and even McLaughlin Group, back when the liberals were allowed to get a word in edgewise, such as Howard Fineman, Clarence Page and Margaret Carlson. Others were new to me like Richard Wolffe (WOLFIE!), Chris Hayes, Eugene Robinson and of course, Rachel Maddow.
I fell in love Rachel almost on first sight and I shipped Rachel and Keith like BURNING, both before and AFTER I know that Rachel was gay and had a partner. We can argue the whys and wherefores of why this makes me EEEEEVIL if you like, but if you try and deny the amazing chemistry between those two, then you're just being silly.
Keith was the voice for the way I'd always felt about politics, typified by the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD segments. If someone is acting like an unholy prick, they need to be called out on it, publically and in the most humiliating and humorous way possible. Much as I love Jon Stewart, I think he was dead wrong to claim any kind of moral equivalence between MSNBC and Fixed Noise and I think Keith lost something when he started taking that criticism to heart and backed off on calling the WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD what they were: THE WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
Other things I loved about Countdown:
1. Special Comments.
Especially the one about Prop 8. Seriously. Probably the most amazing statement ever on the topic.
Yes, sometimes he did go over the top and there was hyperbole along with brilliantly crafted rhetoric. So what? We needed (and still need) someone to fight the good fight that passionately.
I did think the one-hour special comment about Health Care reforms was too much and too personal, coming so soon after his father's death, but I'm probably wrong.
2. Howard Fineman letting his hair go white and admitting what he was doing.
3. EARRING LADY a/k/a Melissa Harris Perry (who was then Melissa Harris Lacewell.)
4. That woman is an idiot.
Who else had the balls to simply call the Bitch From Nowhere what she really was?
5. Oddball.
You can never have too many bears on trampolines. Ever. Or any of the other goodies gleaned from around the interwebs.
6. Giving true progressive voices a chance to be heard for more than a single soundbite. Michael Moore, for instance. Michael can be so easily caricatured, but on Countdown, he and Keith would have substantive dialogue about just how bad things really were.
7. *points to Icon* Actually the full quote is "Listen, you fatuous, condescending lunatic" and he was referring to Dick Cheney.
8. Just being there every week night in the run-up to election day 2008, when I was completely sure that the great unwashed masses were about to buy into the race-baiting that McPalin were selling, and somehow Keith (and Rachel) managed to chill me out and keep me more or less sane. Because at least I knew there were sane people in the world. (CNN had long lost the ability to convince me of that.)
9.The night he had John Cleese reading a poem about Hannity (the manatee).
10. Jonathan Turley. Larry Tribe is still my favorite constitutional scholar but Jonathan generally did a good job, although I did feel he was simpering a bit toward Keith, but hey who wouldn't.
Keith and I had our differences. He was on the Obama train when I still a Hillary girl and I felt his reaction to her statement about the possibility of something bad happening to a candidate in June was WAY over the top.
I wish he hadn't given the opposition bastards so much ammo, especially relating to the suspension about the campaign contributions and there had to be some way he could have found to either make peace with MSNBC or work with Al Gore. BECAUSE WE NEED HIM.
I still love Rachel, but Rachel is not enough. It was the Keith/Rachel one-two punch that really made a difference.
I know Keith is fighting in what venues he can, but without his continued presence on TV, I feel like we have one less weapon in our arsenal and I feel more obliged to play the part of provocateur myself. I don't know what I can accomplish, but I know Keith would want me to and I'm doing it for him.
Here are my RPF/RPS stories featuring Keith Olbermann. If you find the idea of RPS/RPF offensive in general, these fics will not appeal to you. If the idea of Keith/Rachel as more than friends is a problem, you may want to avoid those.
We've Got Tonight
Stephen Colbert/Keith Olbermann
The Late Show
Stephen Colbert/Keith Olbermann
All About Rachel
Keith/Stephen, Keith/Anderson, Keith/Rachel, and even Rachel/Ana Marie plus appearances by other pundits and journalists.
Just Enough
Keith/Rachel
Happy Hour
Characters: Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Chris Hayes, Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Kent Jones, Anderson Cooper, Ana Marie Cox, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, The Doctor
Pairings: Rachel Maddow/Ana Marie Cox, Keith Olbermann/Anderson Cooper
24 Hour News Cycle
Keith Olbermann/Rachel Maddow (mostly gen, but maybe more if you squint)
Last night I responded to this piece of arrant BS, from big name "intellectual" wing-nut John Podhoretz on Twitter:
John Podhoretz @jpodhoretz
I guess I missed all the liberal tweets expressing horror at the shooting at the Family Research Council.
by calling out his hatred and his lies for what they were....hatred and lies. He re-tweeted me so I could be attacked by the minions who can't stand to have the light of truth shone on their crapola.
Like my attempt to engage with Conservacunt Alicia Colon, it was clearly an exercise in futility, but I felt the need to do it, and one reason I felt that need was because Keith isn't on TV to do it for me anymore.
Keith became a hero to my father when he basically walked off MSNBC because he was disgusted with the obsessive coverage of the Lewinsky scandal. I wish I could say I was a fan from that period or going back to ESPN, but to be honest I got interested from reading ansgty Pundit RPS, mostly featuring Keith and Anderson Cooper. THEN, I started watching and it was literally the political show, the political feeling, the passion, the family, I'd been waiting for all my life.
Some of the pundits I knew from loving shows like Washington Week In Review, Capital Gang and even McLaughlin Group, back when the liberals were allowed to get a word in edgewise, such as Howard Fineman, Clarence Page and Margaret Carlson. Others were new to me like Richard Wolffe (WOLFIE!), Chris Hayes, Eugene Robinson and of course, Rachel Maddow.
I fell in love Rachel almost on first sight and I shipped Rachel and Keith like BURNING, both before and AFTER I know that Rachel was gay and had a partner. We can argue the whys and wherefores of why this makes me EEEEEVIL if you like, but if you try and deny the amazing chemistry between those two, then you're just being silly.
Keith was the voice for the way I'd always felt about politics, typified by the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD segments. If someone is acting like an unholy prick, they need to be called out on it, publically and in the most humiliating and humorous way possible. Much as I love Jon Stewart, I think he was dead wrong to claim any kind of moral equivalence between MSNBC and Fixed Noise and I think Keith lost something when he started taking that criticism to heart and backed off on calling the WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD what they were: THE WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
Other things I loved about Countdown:
1. Special Comments.
Especially the one about Prop 8. Seriously. Probably the most amazing statement ever on the topic.
Yes, sometimes he did go over the top and there was hyperbole along with brilliantly crafted rhetoric. So what? We needed (and still need) someone to fight the good fight that passionately.
I did think the one-hour special comment about Health Care reforms was too much and too personal, coming so soon after his father's death, but I'm probably wrong.
2. Howard Fineman letting his hair go white and admitting what he was doing.
3. EARRING LADY a/k/a Melissa Harris Perry (who was then Melissa Harris Lacewell.)
4. That woman is an idiot.
Who else had the balls to simply call the Bitch From Nowhere what she really was?
5. Oddball.
You can never have too many bears on trampolines. Ever. Or any of the other goodies gleaned from around the interwebs.
6. Giving true progressive voices a chance to be heard for more than a single soundbite. Michael Moore, for instance. Michael can be so easily caricatured, but on Countdown, he and Keith would have substantive dialogue about just how bad things really were.
7. *points to Icon* Actually the full quote is "Listen, you fatuous, condescending lunatic" and he was referring to Dick Cheney.
8. Just being there every week night in the run-up to election day 2008, when I was completely sure that the great unwashed masses were about to buy into the race-baiting that McPalin were selling, and somehow Keith (and Rachel) managed to chill me out and keep me more or less sane. Because at least I knew there were sane people in the world. (CNN had long lost the ability to convince me of that.)
9.The night he had John Cleese reading a poem about Hannity (the manatee).
10. Jonathan Turley. Larry Tribe is still my favorite constitutional scholar but Jonathan generally did a good job, although I did feel he was simpering a bit toward Keith, but hey who wouldn't.
Keith and I had our differences. He was on the Obama train when I still a Hillary girl and I felt his reaction to her statement about the possibility of something bad happening to a candidate in June was WAY over the top.
I wish he hadn't given the opposition bastards so much ammo, especially relating to the suspension about the campaign contributions and there had to be some way he could have found to either make peace with MSNBC or work with Al Gore. BECAUSE WE NEED HIM.
I still love Rachel, but Rachel is not enough. It was the Keith/Rachel one-two punch that really made a difference.
I know Keith is fighting in what venues he can, but without his continued presence on TV, I feel like we have one less weapon in our arsenal and I feel more obliged to play the part of provocateur myself. I don't know what I can accomplish, but I know Keith would want me to and I'm doing it for him.
Here are my RPF/RPS stories featuring Keith Olbermann. If you find the idea of RPS/RPF offensive in general, these fics will not appeal to you. If the idea of Keith/Rachel as more than friends is a problem, you may want to avoid those.
We've Got Tonight
Stephen Colbert/Keith Olbermann
The Late Show
Stephen Colbert/Keith Olbermann
All About Rachel
Keith/Stephen, Keith/Anderson, Keith/Rachel, and even Rachel/Ana Marie plus appearances by other pundits and journalists.
Just Enough
Keith/Rachel
Happy Hour
Characters: Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Chris Hayes, Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Kent Jones, Anderson Cooper, Ana Marie Cox, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, The Doctor
Pairings: Rachel Maddow/Ana Marie Cox, Keith Olbermann/Anderson Cooper
24 Hour News Cycle
Keith Olbermann/Rachel Maddow (mostly gen, but maybe more if you squint)