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Home Front: Politix
Moonbat Fratricide: Olbermann's "blind devotion" to a "weak . . . flip-flopping" Obama
2008-06-27
Glenn Greenwald
Get your popcorn ready!

On January 31 of this year, Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant voice tone to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA. In a 10-minute "Special Comment," the MSNBC star condemned Bush for wanting to "retroactively immunize corporate criminals," and said that telecom immnity is "an ex post facto law, which would clear the phone giants from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with [Bush's] illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass email."

Olbermann added that telecom amnesty was a "shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of Fascism -- the merged efforts of government and corporations that answer to no government." Noting the numerous telecom lobbyists connected to the Bush administration, Olbermann said:

This is no longer just a farce in which protecting telecoms is dressed up as protecting us from terrorists conference cells. Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich, trying to protect the Krupp family, the industrial giants, re-writing the laws of Germany for their benefit.

. . .

Strong and righteous words indeed. But that was five whole months ago, when George Bush was urging enactment of a law with retroactive immunity and a lessening of FISA protections. Now that Barack Obama supports a law that does the same thing -- and now that Obama justifies that support by claiming that this bill is necessary to keep us Safe from the Terrorists -- everything has changed.

Last night, Olbermann invited Newsweek's Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama's support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill (video of the segment is here). There wasn't a syllable uttered about "immunizing corporate criminals" or "textbook examples of Fascism" or the Third Reich. There wasn't a word of rational criticism of the bill either. Instead, the two media stars jointly hailed Obama's bravery and strength -- as evidenced by his "standing up to the left" in order to support this important centrist FISA compromise . . .

Leave aside the fact that Jonathan Alter, desperate to defend Obama, doesn't have the slightest idea of what he's talking about. How can a bill which increases the President's authority to eavesdrop with no warrants over the current FISA law possibly be described as a restoration of the Fourth Amendment? That would be like describing a new law banning anti-war speech as a restoration of the First Amendment. . . .

What's much more notable is Olbermann's full-scale reversal on how he talks about these measures now that Obama -- rather than George Bush -- supports them. On an almost nightly basis, Olbermann mocks Congressional Democrats as being weak and complicit for failing to stand up to Bush lawbreaking; now that Obama does it, it's proof that Obama won't "cower." Grave warning on Olbermann's show that telecom amnesty and FISA revisions were hallmarks of Bush Fascism instantaneously transformed into a celebration that Obama, by supporting the same things, was leading a courageous, centrist crusade in defense of our Constitution.

Is that really what anyone wants -- transferring blind devotion from George Bush to Barack Obama? Are we hoping for a Fox News for Obama, that glorifies everything he says and whitewashes everything he does? . . .
Just another day in the MSM.
Posted by:Mike

#8  Whirling Dervish Olbermann will have to spin like a top to cover Obama's flipflops and try to get him elected. Olbermann is such an idiot that I wonder who watches or listens to him.
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-06-27 17:42  

#7  I am a patient and tolerant man, but my patience and tolerance is exhausted when it comes to KO. I can't stand the comparison to Bill O'Reilly, either. This whole "Keith Olbermann is the Bill O'Reilly of the Left" talk is pure nonsense.

Comparing BO to KO is like comparing a toddler farting in public with a pool of raw sewage that has been sitting untouched for several months.

Neither of them smell good, in fact one smells far worse by an order of magnitude, but while one makes you chuckle a bit and shake your head at times, the other makes you recoil in visceral disgust.

One
Posted by: eltoroverde   2008-06-27 16:59  

#6  Keith Overbite = sanctimonious douchebag.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2008-06-27 14:21  

#5  Yep. 5-4 on a 2nd Amendment right? WAY too close for comfort.

NOBAMA!
Posted by: ReaganLives   2008-06-27 12:55  

#4  For all those who are reluctant to support McCain, remember that the next President will appoint two SCOTUS Justices. If you want more Stephens and Suter and Ginsberg then don't send money to McCain and think how happy you will be with a twenty year rule of Liberal-dominated Supreme Court. Just sayin.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T.   2008-06-27 12:49  

#3  Hate to admit it but i feel the SAME way about McCain. Just when I have calmed down enough to go to hsi website and contribute money he spouts off some glaobal warming or emulating europe and I just can't do it.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2008-06-27 08:59  

#2  Glenn this is who you swim with. Soul sold.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-06-27 08:39  

#1  Olbermann is playing the old "It isn't fascism when we do it" trick.

Posted by: DarthVader   2008-06-27 07:23  

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