[emphasis mine]
Not to sidetrack the topic of douchery, isn’t inaccuracy and lying pretty damned important in news?
A lot of ESPN guys are huge assholes from everything I’ve heard. There is a video out there where Chris Berman was recorded by the cameras in between breaks, and he is basically revealed to be a massive, sexist asshole.
I believe Disney/ESPN aggressively DMCA’d all the streaming video on major sites like YouTube of this footage but you can still find it if you dig enough. I found it surprising because the first time I saw it, it was on YouTube. Awhile later, that had been taken down with a copyright notice. You could still find it pretty easily on second-rate streaming sites, but the last time I looked even those had been hit by Disney…I guess they’re really diligent about protecting Chris Berman’s reputation.
I think the assholism of a lot of the big talking heads people is many of them have never really been on anything but the “good side” of life. With the Olbermann types, they typically come from solid middle class or upper middle class backgrounds, went to a standard four year college and then worked a few middle class jobs before making their big break.
A lot of the sportscaster did even less, they basically fell into their jobs because they played college sports but weren’t good enough to make it in the pros. Based 100% on their college fame they get some job in sports-commentary-entertainment and basically play the “personas” that manufacture non-existent drama for the sports-news consuming public’s appetite.
I’m not saying these are all no-talent hacks. I’m just saying the path from A to B was fraught with decent jobs and a big break.
If you compare it to actors, I think the reason a lot of them are down to earth is most successful actors spent time basically living in squalor and not being able to find work before making it big. Obviously the Hollywood asshole actors are well known, but I really do get the feeling most actors are a lot more humble than your average rich/famous person just because they typically had to work at the fringes of society for some time before making it big.
they get away with that by positioning things like the “O’Reilly Factor,” “Hannity,” Olbermann, and Crossfire as equivalent to the editorial page of the newspaper. it’s not “news” but opinion. And that’s one thing that pisses me off about Olbermann. if he has such a problem with the news media in this country, he’s not helping a damn thing by doing exactly what the rest of them do but with a different slant.
my view tends to be even more dim, in that I just assume that anyone who is enough of an attention whore to want to get into that line of work is just a plain self-centered asshole. I mean, the whole impetus for this is “I want to be famous” or “I want to be on TV.” Meaning, “I have to be the center of attention.” I detest people like that.
I do not think that is true of the anchors for the most part.
Robin Roberts played a lot of basketball (small school) and Dan Patrick likewise a lesser amount (also small school), but most of the anchors (Berman, Eisen, Scott, Olbermann) were not jocks (in the case of Berman, obviously so given that he’s always been a tub of lard). Instead, most of them worked at the college radio station covering sports or got journalism/communications degrees. Which makes it all the more annoying when they want to act all jocky and in your face (“Booya!”) as though they themselves were very street and athletic.
I’d also dispute your “couldn’t make it in the pros” line. Out of color commentators (different from anchors), I can’t think of many who didn’t have pretty significant pro careers (sometimes All Pro). Kirk Herbstreit’s the only one who immediately comes to mind as having topped out in college as a jock.
But the other posters characterize Olbermann as NOT a liar, but call him the equivalent of O’Reilly anyhow.
I liked “The Worst Person in the World” (I have the book, it’s pretty funny), and originally he could sort of poke fun at himself a bit. Yeah, he was a douche, but an entertaining one.
After awhile, he just became completely insufferable, again, (especially with the whole “special comments”, and I can’t stand the guy. He can still be amusing, but only in a PALATR kind of way.
I have noticed that on The Dan Patrick Show, he doesn’t mention Keith all that much. Of course, Patrick could be a douche as well, I don’t know, but I haven’t heard any rumors like I have about Olbermann.
My take on him is he’s a good guy, a smart guy who unfortunately keeps getting in his own way. I’m sure he was playing a role on Countdown, same as O’Reilly and Beck do/did on their shows, but Keith has a sincerity and a passion that the others can’t touch. He knew he was playing a role and had fun with it, and even apologized or backed down when he got a little carried away. The others are just in it for the money and fame and couldn’t care less about what they’re saying. And they never back down.
But just why he keeps getting in his own way and burning his bridges and trashing his old bosses, I don’t know. He’s better than that, I’m sure of it.
In news yes, but in narcissistic douchebaggery not really.
I remember thinking he was kind of a douche when he was a local sports anchor (KTLA-5/ Los Angeles). His douche-osity has grown correspondingly with his national exposure and sense of self-importance
A while back I remember reading some allegations that he is not very good in bed. Probably fits with the narcissist thing.
Hey, it’s COUNTdown, not GOdown!
Bolding mine.
How’s that different from anyone else on the face of the planet?
Please share the joke with the rest of us.
They are so eager to seem objective politically that they fail to make meaningful distinctions. Very common. For the record, MSNBC is MUCH more respectful of truth than Fox News.
Maybe I read it wrong … was the writer saying that liberals need an alternative to their other liberal outlets?
… or was he saying that liberals need liberal alternatives to all of the not-liberal outlets like MSNBC?
Nobody is saying that Olbermann doesn’t bend the truth, only that he’s not as egregious about it as the ass clowns on Fox News.
I figured he was saying that there was no liberal alternative available, including MS-NBC. I concur. MSNBC is not all that liberal … it is center-left, at most. For example, it stands foursquare behind Obama, who is frankly closer to being a Regan Republican than anything else.
I think any middle class American who gets a big break into being a famous millionaire will probably turn into a huge asshole along the way.
It’s the rare person who can make that transition with humility…and I think if you’ve had to live off ramen noodles and/or try to eke out an existence on a minimum wage income at some point in your life it might make you a little more likely to become a millionairei sports caster without becoming a flaming asshole.
Actually, a LOT of excellent ex-jock commentators weren’t particularly good players at the professional level. And, over the decades, I’ve seen several FANTASTIC former pro athletes fall on their faces as commentators.
Trent Dilfer was a mediocre pro quarterback (yeah, he won a Super Bowl, but he was widely seen as a bust of a first round draft) and Todd Blackledge was a TERRIBLE pro quarterback. Both have turned out to be MUCH better broadcasters than Roger Staubach and Joe Montana, who are Pro Football Hall of Famers.
And Mike Golic, one of ESPN radio’s most popular commentators, will freely admit that he was nothing special as an NFL defensive lineman. Indeed, in a discussion of “leadership” in the locker room, I’ve heard Golic admit forthrightly that he COULDN’T have tried to be a leader in the locker room, because he just wasn’t that good! When the Eagles were slumping, a Reggie White of a Seth Joyner COULD try to deliver a rah-rah, inspirational speech… but Golic knew that, if HE tried to do so, his teammates would have growled, “Shut up.”
**
Back to Keith Olbermann… now I admit, I’ve ALWAYS hated him, even when he was just a sportcaster and I didn’t know anything about his politics. That said, don’t pretend to know what ANY television personality is “really like.” I have nothing to go on but superficial impressions and second-hand show biz gossip.
I mean, I’ve NEVER met Allen Colmes, but I’ve heard him doing radio and TV commentary for decades (going back to when he was a late night talk show host for WABC-AM radio in New York). He always struck me as an insufferable jerk… but I happen to know several people who worked at WABC radio, and all swear that both Colmes AND Sean Hannity are exceptionally nice and decent guys, and that they genuinely liked each other off the air (which is rarer than we think- a LOT of successful media/show biz teams, including some that ACT like pals, barely speak to each other off the air).
For all I know first-hand, Olbermann could be a genuine jerk or a swell guy. It’s worth remembering that “The Worst Person In the World” was originally a joke by the old radio comedy team of Bob and Ray.* So, even conservatives who were given that dubious title should know better than to take it too seriously.
I mean, Olbermann has named Sean Hannity as “Worst Person in the World” numerous times, but Hannity and Olbermann have been seen together at Yankee Stadium many times, goofing around together like a couple of kids.
Does that mean that either man is a fraud and doesn’t really believe in the causes he espouses on the air? No, not at all- but it DOES mean they’re both in show biz, they BOTH exaggerate for entertainment’s sake, and they BOTH know better than to stay mad at each other off the air.
- When Bob and Ray spoke of The Worst Person In the World, it’s generally believed they were referring to film/drama critic John Simon… now THERE’S a bigger douchebag than even Olbermann could ever hope to be!
He was the first guy on TV to point out (in no uncertain terms) just how naked the emperor really was. Once he found success with that, he kind of turned it into a schtik. Then he drove that schtik into the ground. Still, he has a lot of earned credit from me for having been (for a while) a lone voice crying in the wilderness.