Is Keith Olbermann the Next Edward R. Murrow?

[cal04]

Evening news shows, with ratings going down the toilet, need less "objectivity" and more analysis. Luckily Olbermann, like Murrow, understands that objective journalism doesn't exist.

The launch of Katie Couric a year ago as the anchor of the CBS Evening News was hailed by CBS as the biggest thing in news since, well, the invention of denture fixative commercials. It was also the biggest flop. The CBS Evening News Without Dan Rather or Bob Schieffer had its lowest ratings since Nielsen began tracking evening news shows in 1987. This turn of events stunned CBS executives -- who had given her the famous "Kiss Me Kate" contract, which paid Couric $15 million a year -- and the news consultants who thought she was the answer to CBS being mired in third place in the network news race for the past ten years. The news doctors who have been paid millions trying to fix the show for the past year have only made it worse. It didn't matter how many times the consultants got it wrong. Remember what they did to poor Dan Rather? Smile, don't smile. Wear a sweater, don't wear a sweater. Stand up to deliver the news, sit down. It is a law of the news consultancy/network relationship: If we are paying so much money, it must be right. Otherwise, why are we paying so much money?

So, as a TV critic who has logged millions of hours of viewing to help save one of my three favorite commercial networks, I decided to volunteer my services to the Save CBS Campaign. Here's what I would do: First, I would dump the Walter Cronkite school of reporting, of which Katie Couric is the latest practitioner. The objective that's-the-way-it-is style they use at all the network evening news shows is so old, so over. No wonder all the network news programs are falling in the ratings. Katie Couric is just the hardest hit.

What the evening news shows need is less "objectivity" and more analysis. The problem with objective journalism is that it doesn't exist and never did. Molly Ivins disposed of the objectivity question for all time when she observed in 1993, "The fact is that I am a 49-year-old white female, a college-educated Texan. All of that affects the way I see the world. There's no way in hell that I'm going to see anything the same way that a 15-year-old black high school dropout does. We all see the world from where we stand. Anybody who's ever interviewed five eyewitnesses to an automobile accident knows there's no such thing as objectivity."

What I'm proposing is nothing new. Before Walter Cronkite became the model "objective" newsman, there was Edward R. Murrow. In the late 1930s Murrow started the tradition of reporting the news and analyzing it, giving his opinion of what it all meant. The Murrow legend was built on his opinionated analyses on the CBS Evening News.



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http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/63464/

[PCIntern]

1. He would like to be...

he has synthesized Murrow and Jean Shepherd and His own persona.

I'm a giant Shep fan from the 50's 60's and 70's and must tell you that so many of Keith's asides and commentary are quite reminiscent (if not verbatim) of Shep's observations. I have no problem with that of course...he allows that Shep was his inspiration often and even uses the Bahn Frei polka for his segments at times.

"Keep your knees loose".

[KittyWampus]

2. It's nice that Keith seems to be having fun with it too. Yes, he displays outrage

when the news warrants it. And indignation.

But I LIKE the way he does the fluff too!

[90-percent]

3. Also

Isn't Keith a fan of the 50's and 60's radio team of "Bob and Ray"?

-85% Jimmy

[KharmaTrain]

4. Olbermann Is The Current Olbermann

Murrow operated in a broadcast world far different than the one we live in now. He didn't deal with a 24/7 spin machine nor a corporate media hellebent on controlling the flow of information for political gain or profit. News, in Murrow's day, was a necessary evil...a public service, not an entertainment division.

While Olbermann surely channels the best of a Murrow, his time and place is a far more perilous place than Murrow was. Olbermann spoke out in an atmosphere where doing so was far more dangerous to his career than anything Murrow ever faced. Bill Paley wasn't Sumner Redstone nor had competitors like Murdoch...and it was Paley who encouraged Murrow...Olbermann's never had such an angel on his shoulder.

When we look back at these times, Olbermann will stand on his own...and his courage will be recognized on a level beyond a Murrow.

[90-percent]

7. Very very good points

Very very good points, Kharmatrain!

Keith's very existence on the air is very fortuitous. And his courage in the face of obstacles barely noticeable in Murrow's era is a Monday through Friday inspiration for me.

How quaint, that news outlets would have a responsibility to their public trust and would provide significant checks and balances on excess governmenting. That is so 60's thinking and is obviously of no use to America now.

-85% Jimmy

[madokie]

5. I think he is making a name for himself to be later identified by none other than Keith Olbermann

He's the man as far as I am concerned.

[Gman]

6. Olberman IS the new Murrow

[backscatter712]

8. It's no accident

that Keith Olbermann closes his special commentaries with "Good night, and good luck."

[Nimrod2005]

9. We love KO