Good Question

So I was talking to my niece today, and she mentioned that her husband wondered why it was a problem that Keith Olbermann supports Obama. It isn't a problem that/if Olbermann supports Obama, or Ron Paul, or Ralph Nader, or you -get-the-idea, in his PRIVATE life. That is his business. To what I object is for a news journalist to so BLATANTLY endorse a candidate on a NEWS program is unacceptable. Perhaps it is because my niece and nephew are in their 20's and don't remember (or did not experience) when journalists were actually OBJECTIVE in their reporting (which did not mean they gave equal time to unequal perspectives. You know, sometimes a fact is a fact, and there IS no flip side. Like John Kerry WAS a war hero, no matter how much credence the media gave to the Swift Boat Veterans for Tarnishing.). They did NOT hint at their own personal preference, much less hammer it home night after night. It used to be considered highly unprofessional, and a violation of journalistic ethics.

It is particularly problematic for me personally with Keith Olbermann because he was one of the FEW truly good journalists we had left after Fox Noise insidiously affected cable news (and even network news) with its partisan hackery. Olbermann was a journalist in the mold of Edward R. Murrow, who helped shine light on the reprehensible McCarthy trials and expose them for what they were - politics taken to a fearmongering and dangerous level destroying the lives of those who were targeted.

So the problem is not who Olbermann supports - the problem is that I know who he supports from watching his news show.