You can always count on Keith Olbermann to come up with a reason to write a column.
I've stated my admiration for his broadcasting talents in this space in the past. He's a brilliant communicator, someone who simply commands your attention when he's on the air. But Olbermann also has shown over the years that he doesn't suffer fools gladly, and when you are that smart, there are more than a few fools out there.
That's led to a unique career path, that's includes some sports jobs and some news stints over the years. I lost track of Olbermann when he was on Current TV, Al Gore's channel that wasn't on my cable lineup. I'm told that didn't end particularly gracefully either for anyone involved there.
(Tangent: Someone will have to explain to me where people get the money to guarantee that they are able to watch every possible channel at a given moment. I'd don't even particularly like paying $80 for the basic channel lineup of 2 through 70 - with some of those missing. But I digress.)
We wondered what Olbermann's next step would be, and it was a surprise - a return to ESPN. Someone famously described his departure from that outlet as not just burning bridges, but napalming them. Olbermann's reply about his comeback there was along the lines of, when the bridge is out, take tunnel.
He's in his third week of broadcasting now on ESPN2, and it's been a tough time to debut. ESPN has had the rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament for most of that time, and as we know, no one can predict when such a broadcast will end. So Olbermann has been backed/backed/backed well into the night most of the time.
Therefore, when I've asked a few people if they've seen the show, the answer usually has been no. But thanks to my particular lifestyle, I've caught it a lot. And one word comes to mind when describing it.
Dazzling.
There's a great deal of smarts on display each night, and it comes in a variety of forms. The show often starts with a strong, fairly long segment on a particular issue in sports. A guest frequently turns up to offer opinions on the matter as well. It can be anything from the NCAA's suspension of Johnny Football to soccer in Costa Rica, but so far I haven't seen a bad one.
Then there are the highlights of the night, filled with the attitude and Olbermann and Dan Patrick virtually invented 20 years ago on ESPN. Two other regular features so far are "The Worst Sports Persons in the World," familiar to viewers of Olbermann's "Countdown" show on MSNBC, and "Time Marches On," a newsreel-like group of silly stories.
But there are also good solid interviews along the way, too. The program actually has some authors on the show, and how often do you see authors on television these days? (O.K., I'm biased on this one because of what's in this link, but it's still worth noting.) You can only talk about Tim Tebow's future for so long, and SportsCenter probably has gone past its limit there.
What we've got, then, is Olbermann's old show in a slightly altered form. Tackling sports matters has taken the intensity down a notch at times, and it feels a little less in-your-face. I don't know if the right wingers will ever forgive Olbermann for his nightly liberal viewpoints on the MSNBC show, but that's their problem.
It will be interesting to see if this program evolves in the months to come. Maybe it could become something of a "Nightline," with particularly long segments dedicated to stories that warrant such coverage. No matter how it's done, though, it will be done with plenty of smarts.
Therefore, when I can watch it, I will.
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Showing posts with label Keith Olbermann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith Olbermann. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Monday, January 24, 2011
What's next?
I never told you about my one conversation with Keith Olbermann.
It was back in the early 1980's. Erik Brady of the Courier-Express had written a column about Olbermann. It seemed that Olbermann, then of the RKO Radio Network, like to collect sound bites of athletes saying "you know." Olbermann's current champion was Flynn Robinson, a basketball guard, who had said "you know" six times in one 10-second actuality. That comes out to a you know per second ratio of .6.
Paul Hamilton and I were working at WEBR at the time. Paul read the column like I did and said to me, "I think we can beat that." He had interviewed Dee Hardison, a Bills' defensive lineman in that era, and Dee was obviously a little nervous about speaking into a microphone. We played the tape, and sure enough, Hardison had said "you know" eight times in 12 seconds, including one memorable double clutch ("you know, you know). I called Erik, who wrote another column about how Buffalo was, you know, talking proud about having the record in its midst.
A short time later, the phone rang in the WEBR office. It was Olbermann himself, who had heard about Erik's column and was thrilled to hear about the new champ. We chatted for a couple of minutes, and it was pretty obvious that this was a nice, sharp, funny guy at the other end of the phone. I played the tape of Hardison down the line, and a short time later I received a check for $25 from RKO. I think I bought Paul lunch or something with that check; it certainly was the least I could do.
Ever since then, and it's been almost 30 years, I've been watching Olbermann's career from a distance because of that brief connection. He eventually made his way into television and earned a job as an anchor at ESPN. There Olbermann revolutionized the sportscasting business with his co-host Dan Patrick on SportsCenter. The two were smart and hip, and brought a certain attitude to the show. It not only attracted millions of viewers, but a legion of young imitators who carry on the tradition today without the smarts Olberman and Patrick had. As Olbermann once said, he knows that the show will be in the first paragraph of his obituary no matter what he does with the rest of his life.
I've talked to a few people who knew Olbermann in those ESPN days, and read about others. All agree that Olbermann was brilliant, talented, and not particularly missed, mostly because he didn't suffer fools gladly. And, apparently, there were a lot of fools out there. He seemed on his way to nowhere-ville, in terms of broadcasting, when he left ESPN and landed with MSNBC to do news -- right in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- and later jumped to to jump to Fox for sports work.
Olbermann came back to MSNBC in 2003, and -- low and behold -- carved out a new niche for himself. At a time when his new network was generally nondescript, Olbermann slowly turned himself into a raging liberal on the air. MSNBC became something of a counterpoint to Fox's right-wing tilt, at least during prime time, and gave it an identity. Olbermann's style wasn't exactly in the news tradition of impartiality, but it was tough to look away when he was on. His special comments were filled with rage and big words that were rarely heard on national television.
He also took delight in pinpricking (that might be far too light a word) the actions and statements of people like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. It did look a little like the upstart trying to raise himself by taking aim at the big kids -- not that those four don't deserve some criticism. I learned that he was starting to make an impact when people started telling me that I looked like him, depending on his hairstyle and glasses at a particular moment.
If anything, Olbermann's major problem on the air was that he was too intense, too committed. Guests who were on the conservative side were almost never booked, and questions were sometimes so loaded that it was difficult for the guests to respond with anything but a repetition of Olbermann's viewpoint. His reputation got to the point where some people didn't know or forgot about his days as a sportscaster. In other words, this American life certainly had a second act.
Olbermann was suspended last year for making campaign contributions to candidates, a decided bad move for most people in the business. Then on Friday, he resigned suddenly and without warning. I always figured it might end badly, particularly after the suspension, and it sure looks like it now.
Many journalists enter the news business because they want to help change aspects of life. When they can't, they often turn quietly cynical. Olbermann was never that, and his exit certainly was right in character.
I'm not sure what's ahead for Olbermann. He has tweeted something vague about baseball, a first love for him. I'm not sure if he'll have a Third Act, but I'm not going to bet against him either.
It was back in the early 1980's. Erik Brady of the Courier-Express had written a column about Olbermann. It seemed that Olbermann, then of the RKO Radio Network, like to collect sound bites of athletes saying "you know." Olbermann's current champion was Flynn Robinson, a basketball guard, who had said "you know" six times in one 10-second actuality. That comes out to a you know per second ratio of .6.
Paul Hamilton and I were working at WEBR at the time. Paul read the column like I did and said to me, "I think we can beat that." He had interviewed Dee Hardison, a Bills' defensive lineman in that era, and Dee was obviously a little nervous about speaking into a microphone. We played the tape, and sure enough, Hardison had said "you know" eight times in 12 seconds, including one memorable double clutch ("you know, you know). I called Erik, who wrote another column about how Buffalo was, you know, talking proud about having the record in its midst.
A short time later, the phone rang in the WEBR office. It was Olbermann himself, who had heard about Erik's column and was thrilled to hear about the new champ. We chatted for a couple of minutes, and it was pretty obvious that this was a nice, sharp, funny guy at the other end of the phone. I played the tape of Hardison down the line, and a short time later I received a check for $25 from RKO. I think I bought Paul lunch or something with that check; it certainly was the least I could do.
Ever since then, and it's been almost 30 years, I've been watching Olbermann's career from a distance because of that brief connection. He eventually made his way into television and earned a job as an anchor at ESPN. There Olbermann revolutionized the sportscasting business with his co-host Dan Patrick on SportsCenter. The two were smart and hip, and brought a certain attitude to the show. It not only attracted millions of viewers, but a legion of young imitators who carry on the tradition today without the smarts Olberman and Patrick had. As Olbermann once said, he knows that the show will be in the first paragraph of his obituary no matter what he does with the rest of his life.
I've talked to a few people who knew Olbermann in those ESPN days, and read about others. All agree that Olbermann was brilliant, talented, and not particularly missed, mostly because he didn't suffer fools gladly. And, apparently, there were a lot of fools out there. He seemed on his way to nowhere-ville, in terms of broadcasting, when he left ESPN and landed with MSNBC to do news -- right in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- and later jumped to to jump to Fox for sports work.
Olbermann came back to MSNBC in 2003, and -- low and behold -- carved out a new niche for himself. At a time when his new network was generally nondescript, Olbermann slowly turned himself into a raging liberal on the air. MSNBC became something of a counterpoint to Fox's right-wing tilt, at least during prime time, and gave it an identity. Olbermann's style wasn't exactly in the news tradition of impartiality, but it was tough to look away when he was on. His special comments were filled with rage and big words that were rarely heard on national television.
He also took delight in pinpricking (that might be far too light a word) the actions and statements of people like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. It did look a little like the upstart trying to raise himself by taking aim at the big kids -- not that those four don't deserve some criticism. I learned that he was starting to make an impact when people started telling me that I looked like him, depending on his hairstyle and glasses at a particular moment.
If anything, Olbermann's major problem on the air was that he was too intense, too committed. Guests who were on the conservative side were almost never booked, and questions were sometimes so loaded that it was difficult for the guests to respond with anything but a repetition of Olbermann's viewpoint. His reputation got to the point where some people didn't know or forgot about his days as a sportscaster. In other words, this American life certainly had a second act.
Olbermann was suspended last year for making campaign contributions to candidates, a decided bad move for most people in the business. Then on Friday, he resigned suddenly and without warning. I always figured it might end badly, particularly after the suspension, and it sure looks like it now.
Many journalists enter the news business because they want to help change aspects of life. When they can't, they often turn quietly cynical. Olbermann was never that, and his exit certainly was right in character.
I'm not sure what's ahead for Olbermann. He has tweeted something vague about baseball, a first love for him. I'm not sure if he'll have a Third Act, but I'm not going to bet against him either.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
From that good-looking guy...
Keith Olbermann is something of Rorschach test on the political scene. Liberals watch him and pronounce that he's a voice of sanity on cable television news, while conservatives, well, they don't watch him because they are too busy cursing him. I could tell, though, that he was making an impact because people started to come up to me and said, "Anyone tell you that you look like Keith Olbermann?"
But at a time when we need a little less partisanship in our political outlook, we can all agree on one point about the MSNBC broadcaster: The man knows his baseball. He wrote a book with Dan Patrick during his ESPN days called "The Big Show," and it was pretty obvious that Olbermann was very familiar with baseball history. He's done plenty of writing for a variety of publications on the subject, including Sports Illustrated.
Now he's doing a blog for the MLBlogs Network, which I hadn't heard about until tonight when Olbermann talked baseball with Rachel Maddow on her show. I've checked it out and found it worthwhile; you can read it by going here.
I don't know if he'll have time to keep the blog up over the course of the season, but it will be fun to see him try.
But at a time when we need a little less partisanship in our political outlook, we can all agree on one point about the MSNBC broadcaster: The man knows his baseball. He wrote a book with Dan Patrick during his ESPN days called "The Big Show," and it was pretty obvious that Olbermann was very familiar with baseball history. He's done plenty of writing for a variety of publications on the subject, including Sports Illustrated.
Now he's doing a blog for the MLBlogs Network, which I hadn't heard about until tonight when Olbermann talked baseball with Rachel Maddow on her show. I've checked it out and found it worthwhile; you can read it by going here.
I don't know if he'll have time to keep the blog up over the course of the season, but it will be fun to see him try.
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