In defense of Keith Olbermann

I bet that headline got your attention!

It's no secret I have no use for MSNBC's biggest blowhard – a TV shockjock who lacks the courage and intellectual acuity to debate his political adversaries.

But I would like to take this occasion today to defend his absolute right to make political donations to any candidate or cause he chooses.

It makes absolutely no sense for MSNBC to prohibit the rabid political activists it hires to comment on the news from spending a few thousand dollars putting their money where their mouths are.

Think of how absurd this policy is.

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MSNBC has carved out a little niche for itself as the "progressive" voice on cable TV. It's not a news source. It's a 24-hour commentary network with three points of view – left, lefter and leftist.

The programming MSNBC provides, including Olbermann's, certainly helps Democratic candidates running for office. It's a showcase for them. It's like a 24-hour infomercial for them. It's not news. It's unpaid political advertising. And I have no problem with that – as long as everyone understands what MSNBC is: propaganda, not news.

MSNBC is what you get if you turn the Marxist-oriented Nation magazine into a 24-hour TV network.

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So along comes Keith Olbermann and actually lives out what he preaches every night on TV with the fervor of a fire-and-brimstone evangelist. He puts his money where his mouth is and gives a few thousand dollars to a candidate or two.

Big deal.

What's the problem with that?

He's not a newsman.

He's not a journalist.

He's a former sportscaster turned political pundit.

Why shouldn't he donate some of his money to the political candidates he favors nightly on TV?

Do you suppose those few thousand dollars he donates do those candidates more good than all of Olbermann's screeching accolades on MSNBC?

Of course they don't.

The only difference is Olbermann doesn't have to report his televised screeds as political contributions.

Is MSNBC really trying to suggest, with its policy banning political contributions, that its programming is unbiased and objective?

That is a bigger joke than what comes out of the mouths of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow every night.

None of these people – Olbermann, Maddow and the MSNBC management – have any notion of what journalistic standards and practices are. With good reason: They are not involved in journalism. They are bloviators. They are pontificators. They are shameless practitioners of propaganda.

There's a strong tradition in American media behind partisan hucksterism of this kind. Do the names Hearst and Pulitzer come to mind? These were men and institutions known for, not only partisanship in their editorial and news columns, but even using their newspapers for promoting their own personal political crusades.

Look, Olbermann is a joke. He thinks he's Edward R. Murrow, but he's really Bozo the Clown. Why all the fuss about his political contributions? He's an American, and he has a right to participate in the political system like anyone else – despite his inferior IQ and his inability to discern right from wrong on the simplest matter.

MSNBC has made its bed by holding up Olbermann and Maddow as something they are not – journalists, news people.

They are radicals. They are socialists. They are extremists. They are leftists. They are "progressives," in the worst sense of that word. They are also liars and deceivers who only see the worst in anyone who disagrees with them. They are intolerant name-callers predisposed to ad hominem attacks.

So let's be intellectually honest about it.

Free them to vote. Free them to make any political contributions they want. Free them from any further pretension about who and what they are.