This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
-- stiff-arming budget-strapped states, and freezing out millions trapped by poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair;
-- militarizing Haiti, opposing democracy, and backing the Honduran coup, ousting a democratically elected leader;
-- supporting banker bailouts and bogus financial reform for Wall Street, not main street;
-- endorsing preventive detention, police state surveillance, and plans to assassinate US citizens named terrorists, with or without proof; and
-- bogus health care reform, for many weeks the top Countdown story; Olbermann shamlessly promoting Obamacare - a destructive scheme to ration care and enrich corporate providers, making a dysfunctional system worse.
For months he was staunchly one-sided, revealing flawed progressive credentials for a pro-business agenda when not jousting with Fox News or his nightly buffoonery, acting more like Bozo the Clown than a newsman. It's why critic David Forsmark called his program "Meltdown," nightly "public ravings," not real news and information. Too often, it was evident by topics chosen, preferred guests, and discussions, supporting Democrat party politics, not good governance and public needs.
Georgetown history Professor Michael Kazin called him "O'Reilly on the left - completely predictable, unfunny, and arrogant." University of Chicago Professor Harold Pollack said he "can be smart and funny, but I've basically had my fill. My life is full of shticky and rude blowhards already. Why add another?" Harper's editor Luke Mitchell described him as "irritating and his obvious sexism is reprehensible," despite some positive attributes, putting him head and shoulders above his Fox and CNN counterparts.
On June 23, 2008, New Yorker writer Peter Boyer called him "One Angry Man," saying:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
