Over at the Plank, Isaac Chotiner argues that my piece on Olbermann ”undermines one of the right’s constant harpings about the ‘liberal’ media”:

The reason Olbermann sticks out like a sore thumb (and I assume the reason that NR wanted to run a piece on him) is that he is really the only major television host who espouses explicitly left opinions. His significance–the very thing that makes him worth a hatchet job in National Review–is his uniqueness. Spruiell almost acknowledges this, but he can’t quite get himself to make the point explicitly. It’ll be interesting to see if Olbermann can keep his ratings on the rise if Dems take back Congress, and liberal frusturation with, well, everything starts to ebb. My hunch is that as long as troops are in Iraq, the left will be furious, and Olbermann’s brand of Bush hatred will still manage to score viewers.

Not quite. What makes Olbermann remarkable is that, while most old-media journalists subscribe to the mainstream, establishment liberal politics of, say, The New Republic, Olbermann is a paranoid, Bush-hating leftist whose politics are closer to the Daily Kos’s. Of all people, I would expect a writer for TNR to know the difference.

UPDATE: Tantrum-throwing lefties are giving Chotiner a beating in the Plank’s comments section for calling Olbermann’s recent rants “shrill and weird.” So case in point, my moderate friend.