For your numerous and, as usual, erudite comments.
I’m assuming you were snowed in on Saturday and had nothing better to do but peruse Olbermann blogs. But seriously, your input is appreciated.
On Great Expectations:
As regards the MacLeod book, Alibris is a great site for searching for old books.
You wrote:
… I realize how much this book informed my political beliefs as an adult today. …
I have also been thinking about how I have come to believe the things I believe in. Not to sound flippant, but Dr. Seuss and Peanuts have had a lot to do with the development of my personal philosophy. “Horton Hears a Who” taught me that “A person’s a person no matter how small.” In Peanuts, life hands Charlie Brown a whole lot of challenges — he’s treated so poorly by some of his cohorts! — but he survives and remains a good kid; I guess the message here is “Don’t give up.” And these messages didn’t exist in a storybook, comics page vacuum. My parents, relatives, and teachers all acted in ways that reinforced these ideas. It wasn’t like they beat us over the head and told us “BE GOOD.” We were immersed in a positive atmosphere and it was expected that we would behave appropriately. It’s kind of amazing the amount of stuff that sticks with you from childhood.
On Napalm Keith Olbermann:
I don’t believe the Dow ad has aired on Countdown; I might be wrong on that, though. Yes, he has no control over what ads air during the show. The first thought that comes to my mind when I hear “Kerr-McGee” is “Karen Silkwood.”
You wrote:
I think Keith is well aware of the compromises he’s had to make in life. In order to be on the air saying what he’s saying, he essentially needs money from The Forces of Evil. If The Forces of Evil don’t realize they’re giving him money to counteract all their values, too bad for The Forces of Evil.
What’s that old joke: A capitalist will gladly sell the rope that will be used to hang him. Anything for a buck!
(The line is attributed to Lenin.)
It’s a numbers game, both with the ads and the power of Olbermann and Countdown. The greater his audience, the greater the ad revenue for MSNBC, and the more power he gets. Power in terms of influencing public opinion and in terms of gaining more creative control over the production. But as he mentioned on Monday’s Big Show (he and DP were discussing which band is better, U2 or the Beatles, and DP was running down a list of bands that had the greatest number of albums sold; this is in the “Schiano Staying Put” segment of the podcast): “We’ve gotten to be a society in which ‘How many’ decides whether or not something is any good.” He also repeated the joke “800 billion flies can’t be wrong,” which he has used in the past to describe Bill O’Reilly’s larger audience share. Hence I think he understands the numbers game.
Yes, this is a democracy, majority rules, yada-yada-yada. But, hmph. I just don’t feel that numbers mean everything.
(Not that it’s similar to the business model for news media, but there is an interesting article in this week’s New Yorker regarding numbers and market share in the game console industry: In Praise of Third Place. Occupying a niche isn’t necessarily a bad thing.)
On This Moment Contains All Moments:
You wrote:
Ah, but you miss the point of Keith’s Special Comments. Keith’s value is not in being a visionary, but in saying what has needed to be said for a long time–and more eloquently than many could ever say it.
That, alone, in this country as it is now, makes him stand out.
True dat.
On Thank You, Keith Olbermann:
I agree with Keith. Rove is a genius…an evil genius.
But he is not perfect, and he is not indestructible. Time has already proven that.
Yup. Rove did not adapt.
Hey! Adaptation! That’s Darwinian!
So much for Intelligent Design ….
Sorry, Karl.
On We Might Look Dumb, but We’re Not Stupid:
I agree with you that Friedman comes off as very wonky and unaware of the human factor.
You wrote:
I disagree that Keith is a blowhard, because I tend to believe that blowhards have no substance behind what they say and no intelligence; they just like to shoot their mouths off. And that ain’t Keith.
Right-o. His en fuegoness is not blowhardedness. You are correct. My bad.
Although when he whines about the Yankees and becomes an apologist, he comes close. Thank you. Thank you also for realizing that due to accident of birth, he apparently can’t help it. Oh well–it’s like the guy said in “Some Like It Hot”–”Nobody’s perfect!”
My favorite line from that movie is when Jack Lemmon, on seeing Marilyn Monroe for the first time (she is sashaying down the train platform), says “Look at that. It’s like jello on springs!”
I know I’m late (only have time to read you once in a while), but thank you for the compliments!
By the way, I learned more about Alison MacLeod in the interim through using The Google. She is still living today. Her books were very much informed by her politics and it was interesting to read about them. She was once a devout communist, but was eventually disillusioned by Stalin to the point where she diverged from that branch of politics. I can see now how her writing was affected by it. No doubt she initially turned to communism as the solution to the oppression of the powerless by the powerful, but eventually learned that it was just another way for one group of people to justify oppressing others.
Comment by Scoop — 20 January 2007, Saturday @ 13:51:40 |