Keith Olbermann & My 15 Minutes

Think back to 1995.  Are you there?  There was no ESPNews network.  I did not own a cell phone and the internet was a foreign concept to me.  Each Sunday, I would speak with one of my best friends who lived across the country.  Remember long distance calls?  Yeah, me neither.  We deftly titled this conference call the "Sunday Convo."  We would chat for an hour or two about the day's games, events, oddities, and any other hilarity which would garner our attention.  Without shame, it was inspired by ESPN's Sunday Conversation from "The Big Show" with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.  It should be noted that ESPN executives balked at that title and forced Patrick and Olbermann to refer to the show by its proper title: SportsCenter.   Fast forward to today...or, December 30, 2010 to be exact.  What, you didn't hear?  Then you aren't on Twitter...

If you are not on Twitter, you are missing out.  It forces concise and pithy comments and interactions between multiple individuals.  It's also a great vehicle to interact with people with whom you have commonality.   The same holds true for opining with those in which you do not see eye to eye on certain matters.  Enter the modern day @KeithOlbermann.  For the record Keith, I wish you stuck with sports.  You were very likable in that role.

I have "sparred" with Keith on more than one occasion via Twitter.  He's snarky, a bit of a braggart, and would take out the Fox News Channel's headquarters with a meteor if he had superhero powers.  It's an understatement to claim he loathes FNC and Bill O'Reilly.  He's had legendary spats with O'Reilly over the years.  Keith claims he is not a liberal (you can quit laughing now), but that he is an American.  That's sweet and Utopian, Keith.  The people at FNC are Americans just like you.  So, if that is really what it is all about, your disdain would be directed at appropriate targets.  Apparently, an appropriate target is me.

It all started innocently enough on December 30, 2010.  I was perusing Twitter under my former handle "@TonyProck."  I've since changed my handle to "Tony_Five_O."  Let me get this out in the open right away:  the name change had nothing to do with my interaction with and subsequent blockage by one @KeithOlbermann.  I'm still blocked even with a new handle.  The change was simply inspired by a friend, @SeanCablinasian who, on his sports talk radio show, referenced me as "Tony-Five-O" since I live on Kauai.  The rest is history and the change was made before I learned about the following:  from Glynnis MacNicol of Business Insider:

"Olbermann went off on a Twitter tantrum last night in response to someone named Tony Prock who responded to Olbermann's Tweeting out a Daily Kos link: "@KeithOlbermann It is highly ironic that you support Daily Kos, yet think Fox News is slanted. Keep it real, Keith."

Well that was enough to unleash a flurry of 'Fox News is bullsh*t' tweets from the MSNBC anchor.  Behold.

Well, that was all encapsulating.  I'm one of those "truth is usually found in the middle" type guys.  I'm not a Fox News honk.  But, they are no more 100% bullshit than MSNBC and the Daily Kos are 100% truth.  If you want to find an entity in the news business, look no further than the Associated Press.  Not being the AP, Fox News Channel, CNN, and MSNBC are only interested in ratings.  Furthermore, they are in the entertainment business.  The news is quite boring so it must be delivered in today's "entertain me now world" with style and panache.  If you fail in this capacity, you lose viewers, listeners, and hits on your website. 

The bottom line is corporations take on the personality and culture of their leadership. This can also be found in any subset of these corporations.  For example, Bill O'Reilly absolutely despises all judges that release convicted child molesters prior to their sentence completion.  His show "The Factor" routinely covers such releases complete with confronting these judges in their very own driveways at times.  Now that is good TV.  Try to explain to America how and why you let a convicted child molester free after serving less than their court appointed sentence.  Nevertheless, these judges want nothing to do with the FNC producer who is hounding them for an explanation.  According to Olbermann, this is 100% bullshit.  O'Reilly rarely mentions Olbermann's network except in the ratings comparison.  One could surmise that Keith is as obsessed with O'Reilly's success as he is at arguing with people like me on Twitter.  Here is my response to Keith's brazen salvo:

"@KeithOlbermann 100% BS? So, EVERYTHING they report is made up. OK. Got it. The Kos is 100% legit. So Markos Moulitsas is neutral? Ha!"

The above got me blocked apparently.  If you don't know, the Daily Kos is a progressive, left-leaning blog created by Markos Moulitsas.  Here is a list of his political donations dating back to 1994.  I don't care that Moulitsas is a staunch left-leaning liberal.  That is his personal choice and right.  However, if you cannot see the hypocrisy in Olbermann lambasting FNC as bullshit while quoting the Daily Kos as a legitimate news source, then I can't help you.  This was the spirit of my comment.  And it must have struck a nerve as Keith unleashed a volley of assaults on anyone who dared disagree with him. 

For the record, never once was I insulting or offering behavior reminiscent of any juvenile ass-hattery.  Yet, Keith cannot handle intelligent debate about something in which he is hellbent on proving his righteousness.  He does not want cooperation between the left and right.  Olbermann seeks out to discredit anyone and everyone who employs a differing point of view.  He comes across as a narcissistic elitist, yet he cannot help himself when it comes to engaging commoners such as myself.  I'll quote MacNicol once more in closing:

Here's what fascinates me about Olbermann's use of Twitter: This is a man with an enormously powerful media platform who is completely unable to rise above the nitpicking of a handful of Tweeters who themselves have a handful of followers. Instead of responding like a professional grown-up he continually sinks to their level of discourse: Namely, name calling.

This fascinates me as well.  Let us not forget, Olbermann represents the party of tolerance.  More irony:  I am not aware of a more intolerant participant in the Twitterverse and I've got the means to prove it.  With that, good night and good luck.