Friday night, watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann I heard and saw him announce it would be his last show.

“There were many occasions, particularly in the last two and a half years, where all that surrounded the show, but never the show itself, was just too much for me,” -Keith O

Mental double take.

Then a half triple. I was only trying to keep my cat’s butt away from my drink.  That’s all.

I first discovered Keith Olbermann six or seven years ago on the internet, before the birth of brainspank.  Youtube I think.  Special Comments if I remember right.

I was in awe of his ferocious conviction and adroit articulation.  This guy says what I think better than I can, I thought.

Since then, people have said the same to me and about me and it’s always occasion for my own humility.

There has been no greater influence on my writings and style than Mr. Olbermann, save for the somewhat more existential specter of Hunter S. Thompson.

It goes without saying that I am saddened and dismayed.

I’m kinda pissed off.

I bet he would have said fuck a lot if he could.

I was fond of thinking of Keith as Edward R. Murrow but understood it was intellectually dishonest because Murrow was, out of necessity and protocol, far more impartial and absent an agenda.  Yet Murrow didn’t have a faux new agency like Fox News to contend with.  Indeed, the rise of MSNBC was doubtless possible in a big way because of Fox News.  The appropriate analog might be of Walter Cronkite in the context of the Nixon administration and the Vietnam war.  I’m old enough to remember the the musty smell of vacuum tubes and the visage of Cronkite on the black and white Zenith console television.  I’d like to think I remember Cronkite declaring that the Vietnam war was “unwinnable”.  I remember Apollo moon shots.  It coulda happened.

Lies propagated by the the media now are on a scale that Murrow and Cronkite would not have even been able to comprehend.  Prolific, profligate and insidious.

According to Politico, Lawrence O’Donnell will be filling the slot.

Rachel Maddow was on Real Time and had nothing to say.  Bill Maher didn’t hesitate calling bullshit on it.

I hear there was a four year contract two years still fresh.  They fired him.  Anyone seen Zucker?  They fired him.

Yes, Keith Olbermann was ostentatiously guilty for various forays into hyperbolic invective.  Still, he never failed to illuminate.  He never failed to tell the goddamn truth.  The fucking truth.  And with a confident hand, established the identity of what was a callow flailing would be cable news network.  America was in need of it.  Fearless, daredevil courage with unmitigated honesty and some sloppy catcalls were the fuel for his rocket.

I’ll bet he’s a dick.  I’m sure he is unless he likes you.

It should be noted that he was suspended in November in part for his campaign contribution to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; she of the remarkable recovery so far of a bullet through the head.

“The man who sees absolutes where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning is either a prophet or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.” -Keith O

Don’t doubt for a minute that it was the fight he fought that led to his walking away.  He probably tipped out the door as he was getting axed.  Out the door of a house that he built.

The very vacuum of intel or reason obviates events as they are being described.  Comcast’s acquisition of all things NBC is a cheeseburger and a road map to Keith Olbermann’s departure.  COO of Comcast Stephen B. Burke, a ‘Bush Ranger’, raised at least $200k for Bush in ’04.  -Democraticunderground.com

Burke is definitely a dick and we all may be in trouble.

Keith Olbermann spoke truth to power.  It was his specialty.  He took obvious delight in it.  I crap you negative when I tell you that’s why he’s gone.

I am sad.  He was by no means perfect.  But he filled the holes left gaping by progressive passivity with righteous anger and he will be missed.  We needed him and we still do.  He’s a champion.  I’m waiting to see how MSNBC intends to do better.  O’Donnell is quite good but it’s hardly the show or the spectacle that Olbermann masterminded over the last eight years.  Respect him much for the firebrand he is but understand that he’s pretty damn funny and an intuitive master of ceremonies.

This is stupid.  It was my favorite show on television.  I hated it when he had guest subs.  But I like them all now.

Crap false equivalency between the O’Reillys, the Hannitys and the Limbaughs as opposed to the Olbermanns, the Maddows or the O’Donells these days.  Bullshit.  The difference is elementary.  The former pursues an evil agenda with lies and obfuscation and the latter pursues an agenda with truth and clarity.  Yes they both get carried away.  Get over it.  I mean, they shoot horses don’t they?

“Moral? It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers,” -Thurber via Olbermann

“Good night and good luck,”

Drinks for my friends.

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