Columnist who called Keith Olbermann "the future of news," finds him having a big week

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Fri Apr-20-07 11:32 AM
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Columnist who called Keith Olbermann "the future of news," finds him having a big week

San Francisco Chronicle: It's no news that MSNBC's Olbermann knows how to do news best
Tim Goodman
Friday, April 20, 2007

Keith Olbermann (MSNBC)

You could say this has been a big week for MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, but lately they've all been big weeks. It would be difficult to find an anchor or TV personality who has been on a bigger roll.

Certainly not Katie Couric, to name but one.

In fact, in the last year, Olbermann has emerged as a kind of force of nature on television. His viewing audience has continued to rise -- his show is up about 76 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared with last. His profile, however, is off the charts. Olbermann has been on a late-night talk-show binge; he is credited with almost single-handedly making MSNBC relevant (no small feat); and he has re-upped his MSNBC show, "Countdown," for another four years, through 2011. The deal calls for Olbermann to write periodic essays for NBC's "Nightly News With Brian Williams" and have two "Countdown" specials air on NBC.

It was important for NBC News President Steve Capus to lock Olbermann into a sweet deal not only because Olbermann has a history of getting up and walking out the door (ESPN, CNN, Fox Sports and a previous stint at MSNBC), but also because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the multitalented Olbermann can be used in ways previously unseen with other anchors.

For example, as I noted in November of 2005, "Countdown" would be (or should be) the model for the future of news. The difficulty in making that a reality anytime soon is that people who make these decisions are rooted in old-school notions of what a network newscast should look like, and so when they try to do something revolutionary to it they end up with -- Katie Couric?

No, Olbermann's mix of smarts and snark would soon make "Countdown" one of the few absolutely essential news shows on television. In 2003, when Olbermann agreed to fill in a mere three times on MSNBC's long forgotten "Nachman" show, somebody finally paid attention to the man's myriad talents. Not long after, "Countdown" was born, and it took a turn as a Roman candle once Olbermann started poking fun at the meritless ego and thin skin of Fox showman Bill O'Reilly. Olbermann's star status exploded when he then started eviscerating the dumbassification of this country through the politics of President Bush. Those "Special Comment" riffs caught the attention of what must always be lazily described as "the left wing," and off Olbermann shot as a voice of reason for the left when, prior to that, everyone was sitting mute or meekly inarticulate.

So here television found a polymath who could deliver a news story with authority, skewer idiotic behavior with savage humor (his "Worst Person in the World" segment), be unafraid to have an actual opinion and back it up, and then hit the talk-show circuit and be a witty bon vivant....

(NOTE: The big week? His coverage of Virginia Tech; ranking number 6 in the 10 Most Powerful in TV News 2007, only one of three in-front-of the-camera to make the list; signing on to join "fellow brainiac Bob Costas" for "Football Night in America")

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/20/DDGP1PB97A1.DTL