The Power Of The Special Comments

The Cornell Alumni Magazine‘s profile of Keith Olbermann, online now, is well worth the read. An interesting excerpt:

The door of Olbermann’s office at the MSNBC studios in Secaucus is decorated with a few telling artifacts of his new station in life. Next to a picture of Kent Brockman, cartoon anchorman of “The Simpsons,” there’s an Olbermann trading card, trimmed in blue, with his team affiliation (“Liberal”). And there’s a chummy snapshot of him with a beaming Bill Clinton, who asked Olbermann to attend the first meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative in September. “I’ve had fans among political figures before, “Olbermann says. “But I hadn’t been invited to those things until the Special Comments occurred. It’s interesting. It’s also useful to remember that bandwagons leave every quarter hour in politics.”

> Also: Olbermann’s EP, Izzy Povich, is quoted in the piece. She points out that Countdown is more than Special Comments: “I’m the pop culture person. He thinks I’m crazy. But, you know, at a party you’re not always going to talk about the war. You’re also going to talk about ‘American Idol.’ Our job is to give the right mix.”

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