As a kid, I wanted to be James Bond. Sneaking into villainous volcano lairs in-between hayloft romps with the likes of Pussy Galore is very appealing to a twelve-year old … and a forty-two year old. For a lucky few, that glamorous life may be somewhat of a reality but as someone intimidated by both violence and pretty girls, the life of a super spy was not to be. However, had the world been my toy box, had the power and influence to shape my environment to my liking been available to me, right now I’d be slugging it out with faceless henchmen on a nuclear sub.
Good thing for me that’s not reality. Because if it were, I’d be a fool unaware the whole world was laughing at the effort that went into my self-important delusion.
Which brings me to Keith Olbermann.
The best way to understand Olbermann is to suffer through George Clooney’s sterile and pretentious docudrama, “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005). David Strathairn plays real-life CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and the film dramatizes Murrow’s confrontation with Hollywood’s favorite cliché whipping boy, Senator Joseph McCarthy. (I know, can you believe Clooney went after Joe McCarthy? Until Sean Penn stood up for gay marriage in front of all those people at the Oscars, it was the single bravest thing ever.)
Not only is Clooney’s film a tired exercise in liberal wish-fulfillment (a black and white “Frost/Nixon”), it’s a dishonest one that tells half the truth and carries a fascist streak down its back a mile wide. Clooney’s theme is a simple but frightening one. He’s telling the media that their job is not to present the facts, not to present both sides of an issue, but to present “the truth.” This all sounds lofty until you realize whose truth he’s talking about, and as we saw during the 2008 presidential election, most of the media took this to heart.
I’m lucky the world is not at my disposal to fulfill a childish James Bond fantasy, unfortunately for Olbermann, MSNBC was at his disposal. I can’t track down when Olbermann started poaching Murrow’s “Good night, and good luck” sign off, it might have been before the film came out, but if you watch Clooney’s fascist little screed followed by a couple “Countdown” episodes, it’s all too obvious – from the camera angles, self-righteous indignation, and use of Bill O’Reilly in place of McCarthy – that MSNBC is Olbermann’s toy box to fulfill his dream of becoming George Clooney’s idea of Murrow.
If I could wish anything on Olbermann it would be the power of self-awareness. Once the embarrassment hit, he’d never leave the house again.
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