Say Goodnight, Keith

I shall refrain from expressing my outright glee about the indefinite suspension of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC. Although I am pleased with this development it has no personal impact on my life as I refused to set my eyes on him, his colleagues or his network a long time ago. Fox may be Fox but MSNBC is paid advertising at its worst. I would rather watch a continuous 24-hour loop of Oreck Vacuum Cleaner ads than view 10 seconds of ‘news’ from any of these abrasive, biased loudmouths. However, I must say that I do not find Olbermann’s political donations nearly as offensive as the smug, arrogant, discourteous, elitist, unprofessional and unraveling antics of Chris Matthews on election night. No, I am not surprised that he acted out in such an adolescent manner as he was witnessing his precious lefties going down in flames. This has always been his brand of ‘reporting.’ What surprises me is the powers-that-be at this ad agency have yet to realize how unlikable this guy is to the general public. Everybody wants to kick his ass. I would not think this to be a preferred response-trait for broadcast television personalities. What further elevated this dark moment in broadcast ‘news’ history was the sound of mindless cackling emanating from the other members of the MSNBC team while Chris was losing his mind in front of the handful of citizens who were watching. Really funny folks, those lefties! Laughing while a colleague is losing touch. The lovely cackling chorus included Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson. Mindless.

Finally, here’s the thing: let’s look at the numbers. Here are the viewing statistics for election night as compiled by Nielsen Media research: MSNBC – 1.957 million; CNN – 2.424 million; Fox News – 6.957 million. Whoever makes the decisions at MSNBC must be hypnotized.