Olbermann's "Moral Force" and why he speaks out now. From 1998

[madfloridian]

Our local PBS did not carry the Moyers interview with Keith Olbermann last night, but I watched it online. Here is the link to the video and transcript

I remembered that Keith had enough of the manipulations by Starr and the constant coverage of the Lewinsky matter....and he either did walk off his MSNBC show then or nearly did...can't be sure.

Here is a speech he gave to a group of Cornell graduates in 1998, and the Moral Force he refers to is guiding him now. It was evident in that powerful interview last night. Just a few excerpts:

1998 Cornell Senior Convocation Speech
by Keith Olbermann '79

Saturday, May 23, Barton Hall

WVBR alum Keith Olberman is the host of "The Big Show with Keith Olbermann," the top-rated program on MSNBC cable. He is a former co-anchor of ESPN's "SportsCenter," and has been sports anchor and reporter at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, WCVB-TV in Boston and for Cable News Network in New York.

http://www.news.cornell.edu:80/campus/Olbermann_speech.html

He tells a lot about his own graduation from there. Then he gets into the issues of what the media had become then, though he does not use the word circus. But it was a circus.

I am doing now what I hope to convince you not to do. I am pointing fingers at other people and saying, "You failed to use your moral force," when what I want is for you to look in a mirror and point at yourself and ask yourself if you have used your Moral Force. Not every time, not at the sacrifice of everything ... Even only if you do it because doing it the other way is only one percent easier or one percent more profitable or one percent more in your self-interest.

So let me point the finger at myself instead.

And he does so very strongly. And at all of the TV discourse.

Since Jan. 21 the news program I do for the MSNBC cable network has been devoted to what we have euphemistically called "the Clinton-Lewinsky investigations." Virtually every night, for an hour, sometimes two, I have presided over discussions about this stuff, so intricate, so repetitive, that it has assumed the characteristics of the medieval religious scholars arguing for months and even years over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

At first I genuinely believed this was a relevant matter for fairly constant discussion. I used my moral force to keep sex out of it whenever possible. I didn't allow the word "scandal" or even "affair" to be used. I tried to be non-partisan and skeptical about both the accused and the accusers.

But as the weeks have gone by, it has become more and more clear to me that there is no moral force at work in this process, whatsoever. Nobody is doing the right thing.

He tells those graduating to "keep your Moral Force intact just sufficiently so that you can stand up once or twice in the rest of your life and say, "You know what? This is wrong for me and for people I know and for people I don't know and i'm not going to do it," you will have improved the world."

I like the way he ends the speech.

I do know without fear of contradiction what the definition of life is and it is 12 words long. "Life is defined by how much you improve the lives of others."

And he is surely doing that right now.

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Thank you for this post, madfloridian -- K&R!

[madfloridian]

2. He was right when he said "Nobody is doing the right thing."

From his speech:

But as the weeks have gone by, it has become more and more clear to me that there is no moral force at work in this process, whatsoever. Nobody is doing the right thing.

[The Wizard]

3. It was the media circus

surrounding the Lewinsky/Clinton/blue dress witch hunt that I realized the media was under the control of the dark side, and it was at that time I tuned out forever. Keith Olbermann answered the call. The others did the bidding of their corporate masters. Long live Keith Olbermann.

[madfloridian]

4. I did not know this...Murdoch bought out his contract at MSNBC

This is from a right wing site from 1998...so not sure all the details are right.

"On the bright side, we won’t have Olbermann to lecture us must longer. That evil conservative Rupert Murdoch has bought out the last two years of Olbermann’s $600,000 a year MSNBC deal. In December Olbermann will jump to Fox Sports where he’s expected to anchor the 11pm ET highlights show for the Fox Sports News show on cable. Just how much did Monicagate annoy Olbermann? In the November 10 New York Post Michael Starr relayed:
"Insiders say Olbermann was so angry at the constant Sexgate coverage that he demanded to be let out of his contract, ripped his nameplate off his door in frustration and often showed up for work just minutes before airtime."

I think this is Brent Bozell's site, so I won't link.

[RavensChick]

6. Good grief!

Brent needs some serious counseling! Thanks for not posting the link. I guess moral force has its critics.

[L0oniX]

5. I wrote an email to PBS about them not airing the Bill Moyers Journal last night.

I told them that they will never see another dollar from me. I am also dropping the local tv station access ($5 a month) from my sat connection. I also watched it on the net as well as the other very worth while segments of the show. Normally I get most of my tv news from Freespeech tv and LinkTV which carry Democracy Now, Mosaic and INN. PBS is controlled by the ex head of the RNC. Of course they want to keep Bill Moyers off the air. What else would you expect?