From Bloggermann, Keith Olbermann’s blog at MSNBC (what will take the place of the MS part after Microsoft, as announced, completes its pullout?):

All the networks were guilty of [dire suspicions about the fate of missing bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks] to some degree, but, as usual, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly plunged his foot most deeply into his mouth. ‘The epidemic of violence against America’s women and children continues…’ he began, Friday night (it’s not a direct quote – the transcripts aren’t out yet).


Oops.


One of the fun aspects of reading Keith’s blog is that, since I’ve heard him hundreds of times, I hear his voice as he writes. Keith would SAY “Oooops!” in a mock falsetto just as easily as he writes it, accompanied by a grin evidencing the pleasure he’s taking in skewering Mr. O’Reilly one more time. In these embarrassing days for journalism, we at least have Keith to wink at the sorry mess.

More below:
The Bloggermann continues his latest blog entry. “Judging books by their covers”:

In our office, the sentiment, if not the impervious certainty, was similar. What else could’ve happened to this woman? I try never to disagree with my producers – there are more of them than me, and they can cause unfortunate things to happen to me both in the office and on the air. So despite a hunch, I kept an open mind.


And Keith, an experienced observer of people in all kinds of settings, noticed something:

Then I saw the pictures of Ms. Wilbanks, and heard the first report that some hair, discovered along her paths, might’ve been hers – and seemed to have been cut, rather than pulled.


Occasionally, a particular photograph a family releases of a missing relative will not be especially flattering. But all the images of this woman were identical: her eyes were so impossibly wide open that in each, it looked like she was either headed to, or just back from, extreme electrolysis. I said it to my staffers. I said it on the air: This woman looks like she’s about to flee, run, book, or start screaming hysterically. This is somebody on the verge of something in which she exits, stage left.


Keith not only noticed something odd about the woman from the scant information he had, but he also had the moxie to speak to his audience about it.


Keith dared to question, and let us in on his concerns. I cannot express just how refreshing that is. And how important.


And thank goodness, when he gets the chance, Keith also opines on vastly more serious topics. His knowledge of U.S. history is impressive.


The remainder of Keith’s latest entry is about Jason Giambi:

A slight injury took him out of today’s game, moments before Selig’s proposals [about harsher steroid penalties] were revealed? If I’m Jason Giambi, I’m thinking about doing a Jennifer Wilbanks. …


I’ll let Booman, the baseball expert, weigh in on that one.


Thanks, Keith, for your perceptive tea-leaf reading. You’ve got the news experience, the brains, and the honed instincts to deliver.

0 0 votes
Article Rating