Thanks to YouTube I've watched Keith Olbermann's Special Comment from earlier this week where he analyzed, and demolished, the President's address to the nation a few nights ago. And as I watched, over and over, the anger Olbermann displayed as he recited, again and again, the failures of President Bush's policies and the implications for a wider war in the Middle East from the escalation, the thought occured to me.
Is there anything really stopping NBC from taking Olbermann's Special Comments and packaging them as a segment on the following night's NBC Nightly News?
The nightly news broadcasts used to editorialize. The nightly news broadcasts used to take a stand.
Consider Walter Cronkite. When Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War, that was a turning point for American public opinion. Partly it was from Cronkite's own stature. But also it was due to the spread of the idea that the Vietnam War was wrong thanks to Cronkite's reporting. When the government lost the networks, it was only a matter of time before the government lost American support.
It's all well and good for Olbermann to speak the truths on MSNBC. But in many ways, Olbermann is preaching to the choir. We know the war is wrong. We know the policy will fail. We already know this.
Does John Q. Public?
The NBC Nightly News has a vaster audience than Countdown. Just running the Special Comments as a five-minute segment during the Nightly News would spread Olbermann's idea to a wider audience. An audience who probably doesn't watch Countdown. An audience who might listen to right-wing radio, who thinks Hannity and Limbaugh and O'Reilly have the right ideas. An audience who could stand to have their complacency shaken. An audience who might not know, or understand, the realities of the situation.
Olbermann's comments, broadcast to a general audience like this, could be this era's Walter Cronkite moment. This could start the process of the President's regime losing the networks.
Can it be done? Olbermann on the Nightly News? Or has the nightly news become so neutered the past few decades that it's not longer possible for them to hold an opinion?