Via Expose the Left, Robert Cox at Olbermann Watch has discovered that left-wing activist group MoveOn.org has started a campaign to get its members to watch MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.
Cox looks at the low ratings, the hapless publicity campaign, and Olbermann’s increasingly bizarre rants and concludes:
If this sounds familiar maybe its because you’ve seen the movie. James Berardinelli, in his film review of the movie Network, describes the setting for the film, UBS-TV, as a “fictional, last-place network…struggling, coming in way behind ABC, NBC, and CBS. In an attempt to reverse its fortunes, UBS decides to…bring in someone new.” You know the story (or should) but the end result is that the news division at UBS is turned over to the entertainment division which rushes to put a mentally disturbed man on the air and turning what was a legitimate news broadcast into a “cross between a variety show and an evangelical program”.
Ominously, Berardinelli concludes his review, written in 1998, by noting “the movie works better when viewed in the ’90s, because things that seemed far-fetched 20 years ago aren’t nearly as unbelievable today. One wonders if, in another few decades, a future generation will look at this film and guess whether it was ‘based on a true story.’”
At MSNBC, that day is here.
One look at this video clip from tonight’s broadcast is enough to convince you that Olbermann is playing more and more to the MoveOn demographic. His opening segment — based on David Shuster’s thinly-sourced reporting — implied that the leak of Valerie Plame’s employment status has created the biggest national-security crisis since the Russians parked their missiles in Cuba.
Video here.
UPDATE: Expose the Left has more video from Olbermann’s show tonight.