The Special Comment Video

[jesidres]

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on the violent rhetoric in politics and the media.


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EDIT: Transcript here.
I am impressed that he apologized for his own mistakes and rhetoric in this. Only 9 minutes long, and a good watch. Thanks to WillAtWork for the video

Comments

[salienne]

Still dislike him for being a petty sexist douche, but this was a very powerful and spot-on commentary, and good on him for acknowledging and apologizing for his own contributions to this culture of violence. I'm just really saddened that the people who really need to listen to this and take it to heart won't.

[pragmatic_chimp]

Okay, so I know that I'm going to be told that I'm out of line.

But.

Why the FUCK is he apologizing? Because he made one misstatement two years ago, relating to a member of his own party, which he promptly apologized for then?

Um, no. The Tea Party had been DELIBERATELY engaging in violent and extremist rhetoric from the get-go. They didn't apologize for it then, and - if you look at the post directly below - they aren't apologizing for it now. Meanwhile, Keith is going out of his way to avoid laying the blame where it so obviously belongs.

This sort of moral relativism is unacceptable. By pretending that this is *everyones* fault, it effectively makes excuses for the people who incite this type of violence. Accidentally implying that a candidate should be beaten is in NO WAY comparable to intentionally creating and distributing a graphic - complete with gun sights - advising others to "take aim" against political opponents.

[ladypolitik]

I dont see him making that equation/relativism at all.

He used his own moment of failure, and the fact that HE immediately took responsibility for an unintentional fuck up, to cast rightful shame on right-wing reactionaries for not only taking that angle far more frequently, but also deliberately and with no remorse. He's admitting to his failure, and at the same time, drawing a clear distinction between how someone like him recognizes even the dangers of something presumably unintentional, vs. people like Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity who openly perpetuate it.

[pragmatic_chimp]

But this isn't about Keith's past failings. This is about a very

There's something about this that gets to me, I'm sorry if I'm communicating it poorly. It's the same thing as the Rally to Restore Sanity, you know? The leaders on the Left stand up and tell us that we need to chill out and calm down. And a whole much of Dems and liberals take that to heart, and resolve to be more reasonable.

But the Tea Party doesn't. The fans of Rush and Beck and every other hate monger out there don't listen either. And a growing percentage of the Republican party simply aren't interested in peaceful solutions to our collective problems, either (if they ever were).

No, those on the Right are being told to fight, and to fight hard, and to give no ground. And meanwhile the Left gives no resistance, because we're far too busy examining our own small sins to pay any attention to the fact that we're being run roughshod over by people who aren't afraid to use violence.

[haruhiko]

we're far too busy examining our own small sins to pay any attention to the fact that we're being run roughshod over by people who aren't afraid to use violence.

Fucking thank you for this and your other comments here. I've been away from news for most of the past twenty-four hours and it's still stuck out like a sore thumb the way certain people are using this tragedy as another excuse for more jonstewartian "look we ALL need step back and take a deep breath and calm down~" bullshit. It's ridiculous. I mean, good on Olbermann for apologizing for his problematic shit in the past, but he doesn't need to in order to point out the dangers of violent rhetoric on the right. The fact that he made it a part of his ~speshul commant~ is another in a long line of "look, people on the left aren't perfect either" type of rhetoric from "liberal" media types who want to show how balanced and nonbiased they are--to which I say, "No fucking shit, but that's not even the point here."

[tryxkittie]

win

[calidreamin08]

"to work to change the minds of them and their supports"
i'm not optimistic of that working

[pragmatic_chimp]

And Jesus Christ the comments here.

This isn't about the many ways in which Keith has fucked up in the past. Everyone here knows Keith is prone to fail.

We don't need a call for those of us who already know better than to incite violence to step up and take responsibility. What we need is for those who are actually responsible to be held responsible. If they won't accept that responsibility themselves (and considering the fact that Palin scrubbed the "Take Aim" image from her site without comment, and several of the Tea Parties have already said that this changes nothing, this seems unlikely at best) then we need to hold them accountable

[tanya1976]

There's no way they can possible spin this fuckery. No fucking way! We know they incited it. They won't live this down.

[jesidres]

They already are- "It's a liberal plant. He liked the communist manifesto. He's a socialist Obama fan. It's not our fault."

[pragmatic_chimp]

Look at the post below this one.

Keith's taken responsibility (if only a small fraction, while condemning Palin and her ilk). Obama's told us that we all need to come together as a nation in the face of this (highly predicable) tragedy. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame exactly where it belongs, the vast majority of the Left is behaving as those this is systematic of some collective falling on the part of our entire country and culture.

And the Right? They going to keep on doing what they been doing. Ain't no body going to stop them. Ain't no one going to hold them accountable.