Keith Olbermann has stepped down from his post at MSNBC. The split was announced Friday on Olbermann’s show, “”Countdown”” and has been reported as a contract buyout. Olbermann gained notoriety for aligning himself as the liberal equivalent to Glenn Beck, and according to The New York Times, his fiery rhetoric helped MSNBC to sky-rocket to the second most watched news channel, behind Fox News. With Olbermann’s departure, and reports that his buyout prevents him from signing with another network, it looks as though Olbermann will be on hiatus for some time, leaving behind Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell to hold down the fort at MSNBC.
If you don’t recognize those names it’s OK, almost nobody does. What’s important to take away from Olbermann’s departure is that there is that no one remains on the left in the hardcore borderline crazy corner. The fact of the matter is that Maddow and O’Donnell aren’t wacky enough to go head to head with Tucker Carlson’s “”Mike Vick should be hanged for killing dogs”” rhetoric, let alone Glenn Beck’s tears on the chalkboard. Without Olbermann, who is letting loose on seriously violent rants, deeming people the worst person in America? Who will ignite the fire beneath the “”tree-hugging,”” “”pot smoking,”” “”bleeding heart liberals?”” What’s even more concerning is that Fox News is the number one watched news network. Really? Fox News is the number one news station? Even Fox News knows how incredibly ghastly their coverage is. I mean how can you possibly broadcast “”Fox and Friends”” and still believe you’re a quality network? If Fox News is the number one news source then one thing is clear: the crazies are winning.
If you couldn’t already figure that out on your own, this past election season should have been evidence enough. The Tea “”Party”” was “”mad as hell”” and suddenly Republicans were turned on by their own supporters. Something tells me we’ll soon see that the Tea Party people are ineffective as hell, too. Nonetheless, the solution is apparent; those aligned on the left in this country have got to become absolutely nutty. I mean really insane. Legalizing gay marriage and medicinal marijuana? That’s child’s play. The liberals better set their sights on full recreational use. I want to see an athlete light one up during a press conference. Better yet, I want to see a senator teaching the entire Senate how to roll a joint as part of a filibuster tactic. An easier path to citizenship for immigrants? Please. Better change that to citizenship and full benefits for every citizen of Mexico all the way down to Ecuador. Universal health care? I don’t think so, universal Sierra Club membership.
You see, craziness is just what’s trending in politics today (it’s true, I checked it on my Twitter), and if the left-wing liberals want to compete, they’re just going to have to become the stereotypical epitome of a liberal and then far exceed that constraint. If worst comes to worst, at least Fox News may actually report factually for once.
— Storm Byrd is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
