Dem debate turns to Keith O' as host
August 7, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television critic
Keith Olbermann usually spends his time lambasting Bill O'Reilly as a fact-sloppy dipwad, or calling for President Bush to resign. But he's a sometime sports broadcaster, too, so given the opportunity he weighs in on Barry Bonds' home-run record.
"That's human growth hormone," Olbermann says of Bonds' physique. "Past the age of 20, your head is not supposed to get bigger.
"Five, 10 years from now, he's going to be passed by Alex Rodriguez anyway, so this is a Mark McGwire kind of record: 'Oh, you did? You held the home-run record for a while? What are you doing now?'"
MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" is doing so well -- now with 72 percent more viewers since a year ago -- Olbermann was tapped to host tonight's AFL-CIO debate of Democratic presidential candidates at Soldier Field on MSNBC and WMAQ-Channel 5.
"Countdown" is a hit because its mix of politics and pop culture makes it the most entertaining newscast in America. One minute, Olbermann critiques politicians and pundits in the style of a witty professor; the next he flashes video of a man doing squats on the back of a giant elephant, or some such thing.
Olbermann credits some of "Countdown's" success to O'Reilly, whom he calls a "crazy demagogue" in the vein of Joe McCarthy.
"Good ol' Bill writes half my material for me," Olbermann says. "It's how, to some degree, a virus feels about the host. ... I'll try not to compare myself to any one-celled animals again, but there we go."
Olbermann, 48, has seen O'Reilly in person a few times, but they didn't tussle or talk. At a charity event, Olbermann claims, O'Reilly kept inching away from Olbermann when he walked closer to him.
"As soon as I look over, I'm thinking, maybe we're gonna have a conversation, maybe we're gonna have a fistfight," he says. "And I take one step. He then takes one step further. So he's [still] 25 feet away from me. And I think: This is the damnedest thing."
Conservatives tend to say the media is liberal, but Olbermann heads the only lefty show on broadcast or cable news. (Olbermann once described himself not as a liberal, but as an American.)
"I'm surprised that nobody has tried to come in and snake my turf," he says, especially since "Countdown" earns "a good deal of money."
He disagrees with the theory corporate leaders are too conservative to air more lefties.
"If tomorrow Rupert Murdoch woke up ... and it had come to him in a dream he could make twice as much money by turning Fox News Channel into a liberal operation, he would do it." (I agree.)
As for tonight's debate, some liberal bloggers claim Republicans are fielding less contentious questions than Democrats are in this year's debates. But Olbermann disagrees. Voters are just a little touchy, like sports fans, he says.
"There's no fan watching a sporting event ... who believes their team is being treated fairly by the umpires, by the announcers at the game," he says. "A certain amount of suspended logic goes into being an enthusiast for anything."
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television critic
Keith Olbermann usually spends his time lambasting Bill O'Reilly as a fact-sloppy dipwad, or calling for President Bush to resign. But he's a sometime sports broadcaster, too, so given the opportunity he weighs in on Barry Bonds' home-run record.
"That's human growth hormone," Olbermann says of Bonds' physique. "Past the age of 20, your head is not supposed to get bigger.
"Five, 10 years from now, he's going to be passed by Alex Rodriguez anyway, so this is a Mark McGwire kind of record: 'Oh, you did? You held the home-run record for a while? What are you doing now?'"
MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" is doing so well -- now with 72 percent more viewers since a year ago -- Olbermann was tapped to host tonight's AFL-CIO debate of Democratic presidential candidates at Soldier Field on MSNBC and WMAQ-Channel 5.
"Countdown" is a hit because its mix of politics and pop culture makes it the most entertaining newscast in America. One minute, Olbermann critiques politicians and pundits in the style of a witty professor; the next he flashes video of a man doing squats on the back of a giant elephant, or some such thing.
Olbermann credits some of "Countdown's" success to O'Reilly, whom he calls a "crazy demagogue" in the vein of Joe McCarthy.
"Good ol' Bill writes half my material for me," Olbermann says. "It's how, to some degree, a virus feels about the host. ... I'll try not to compare myself to any one-celled animals again, but there we go."
Olbermann, 48, has seen O'Reilly in person a few times, but they didn't tussle or talk. At a charity event, Olbermann claims, O'Reilly kept inching away from Olbermann when he walked closer to him.
"As soon as I look over, I'm thinking, maybe we're gonna have a conversation, maybe we're gonna have a fistfight," he says. "And I take one step. He then takes one step further. So he's [still] 25 feet away from me. And I think: This is the damnedest thing."
Conservatives tend to say the media is liberal, but Olbermann heads the only lefty show on broadcast or cable news. (Olbermann once described himself not as a liberal, but as an American.)
"I'm surprised that nobody has tried to come in and snake my turf," he says, especially since "Countdown" earns "a good deal of money."
He disagrees with the theory corporate leaders are too conservative to air more lefties.
"If tomorrow Rupert Murdoch woke up ... and it had come to him in a dream he could make twice as much money by turning Fox News Channel into a liberal operation, he would do it." (I agree.)
As for tonight's debate, some liberal bloggers claim Republicans are fielding less contentious questions than Democrats are in this year's debates. But Olbermann disagrees. Voters are just a little touchy, like sports fans, he says.
"There's no fan watching a sporting event ... who believes their team is being treated fairly by the umpires, by the announcers at the game," he says. "A certain amount of suspended logic goes into being an enthusiast for anything."
delfman@suntimes.com
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