Morning Piss: Are Voices Like Olbermann and Gervais in Trouble?

Keith Olbermann’s exit and Ricky Gervais Golden Globes persecution chill the liberal air

By Ted Casablanca Jan 25, 2011 2:10 PMTags
Keith Olbermann, Ricky GervaisMarcel Thomas/FilmMagic; ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

Anybody know what happened to Keith Olbermann? Exactly.

It was like something out of a movie, when Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's resident cranky liberal pot-shot pundit, announced on his show last week that Friday's telecast would be his last—indeed, the silver-haired big head signed off complete with a cryptic reference to Peter Finch in Network, the movie that said it all about politics in ratings-warring TV corporate America.

And since then, conspiracy theories abound as to what happened—but, they're just that, theories. Olbermann and MSNBC are silent as LeAnn Rimes is about her boob job.

This sayonara to one of TV's most outspoken left-wing types comes right on the heels of Ricky Gervais getting killed for killing it at the Golden Globes.

Is something super-conservative in the air?

Oh, yeah. While reigning tea-party queens such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are ranting a mile a minute on every Fox-type electronic transmission they can get their hateful little hands on, the other side of the equation (this is America, remember), seems to be in serious trouble.

True, smart media players like Rachel Maddow may be on the rise, but, that's just not enough in a sea of right-wing sharks.

And what I want to know is why if Olbermann got in such deep doo-doo for contributing to political campaigns (which certainly helped lead to his downfall at MSNBC, who considered it not only inappropriate but against policy), why in the world doesn't Palin at least get her hand slapped for the offensive crap she's constantly pulling, such as contributing to homophobia by encouraging her daughter's anti-gay slurs?

Because that's just what Fox—and its audiences—apparently want.

And when Gervais is hired by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to emcee and entertain its lively Golden Globes show, making jokes part of his job? Yes, but, just not the jokes Gervais selected. Guess he didn't get the booklet that said no Scientology, no Cher and definitely don't say Bruce Willis looks like Ashton Kuthcher's father.

Jeez, that's what everybody else is saying, privately. And isn't that the true job of a comic—to say what no one else has the guts to? (It's a rhetorical question, but, if you're so dense that you don't get that one, just ask Chelsea Handler, she knows the right answer).

Point is it's a colossal injustice when people like Olbermann and Gervais are severely criticized—or worse—when freaks like Limbaugh are allowed to put out for public consumption such unacceptable language as "Feminazis".

So when a man takes people who fight for women's equality—a fair and basic demand—and compares them to one of the world's greatest evil, is he fired?

No, he's made the richest man in the conservative media.

This is so wrong even Ricky Gervais would probably laugh about it.