This image is taken from the archives of the University of Ottawa in Canada,
our fine neighbors to the north. How’s it going, eh?
Props to Keith Olbermann for apologizing to Bill O’Reilly on Thursday’s Big Show.
Yeah, it was a joke, but not a good one. And it was one of those that gives me the creeps rather than makes me laugh. I’m glad that Olbermann reconsidered his words and made the apology.
The O’Reilly-Olbermann feud has benefited both men and their networks, but there’s got to be a limit. It doesn’t matter what the other guy says or does. At a certain point you have to decide for yourself just how far you will go to make a point, to get a laugh, to pump up your ratings, to win the game, or whatever. Whether or not the other guy steps over the line is not important. You have to listen when Moral Force speaks, even if no one else is listening.
Drinking with Keith Olbermann mentioned “Antigone” recently. For me the message of that play has always been “Do the right thing.” With no regard for her own status, Antigone buries her brother because it is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do.
I’m sure DP and KO have kicked around the topic of whether or not Ken Griffey, Jr. deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Injuries have certainly diminished his career. Junior was apparently aware of steroid use in the major leagues and perhaps suspected that his friend Barry Bonds was juicing. Yet he decided to not go down that path, even as he saw Bonds’ and Mark McGwire’s numbers go through the roof. If Junior doesn’t make the Hall I hope it’s some kind of consolation for him that real baseball fans know he played clean. But in the end he knows in his heart that he played the game the right way, and I suspect that is all that matters to him.
What makes some people give in — to temptation, to fame and fortune, to the easy way out — while other people stick to the straight and narrow?
I don’t get the feeling that Olbermann will be pulling any punches regarding O’Reilly or any others in the news. It’s his job to be analytical and to have an opinion. But I am glad that at least in this one instance he chose to take the high road.
Thank you, Keith Olbermann.
