A commentary on Keith Olbermann's commentary

Stephen D. at Boomaan Tribune:

In reaction to that diary, a member of our community, someone I respect a great deal though we do not always agree on issues of substance or of style, Arthur Gilroy, posted his own diary, entitled Olbermann And The Marginalization of Effective Dissent. His diary is, at present, on the recommended list. I urge you to read the piece that he wrote in its entirety. I'll quote just a brief section of it here now, because it's important to what I will have to say later:

Now make no mistake...I think that Mr. Olbermann is serious, attentive, and honest in his efforts. And overall, pretty near correct in his positions as well. As correct (as far as I am concerned, anyway) as he can possibly be and still manage to regularly appear in any mass media capacity on the public mediaspace. [...]

[Olbermann] is just not heavy enough...and/or he is not in a "heavy" enough position. In this case, the chicken and the egg are mutually dependent. You cannot GAIN that kind of weight while stuck in a dependent, marginalized position, and you know damned well that Mr. Olbermann is not presently in the running to overthrow Baby Doll Couric or any of the other Barbie/Ken doll blathering heads and most likely never WILL be in that position. Not so long as the PermaGov runs things. The Corpserate Media simply will not ALLOW someone like Murrow to gain commanding position over a career. Not today they won't. And the balkanization of TV...5000 stations instead of 7, innumerable networks instead of 3...makes that sort of commanding position almost impossible to attain anyway.

Having read Arthur's diary this morning (I confess for the first time) I realized that while I agree with much of what Arthur has to say about the marginalization of dissent in our major media these days (for reasons too numerous to get into now), I felt he deserved a reply from me. Or maybe I just felt the need to express the thoughts that ran around in my brain while reading his quite perceptive analysis of the current media landscape in our country, one dominated by the voices of corporate interest, right wing hatred and bullying and shameful kowtowing to the dark power that rules in the White House (rules over us but does not govern, I might add).

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