Olbermann: Too Good For Prime Time?

Some incidents provide such compelling lessons on appropriate public behavior that an advice columnist just can't turn away. Bad etiquette? Touchy ethical and moral ground? Life and death themselves hovering just offstage? Baby, that's where Mr. Irresponsible eats. And so to the flap over MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann's graphic commentary on his recent cancer scare. (It's here; scroll down to the bottom.) Reasonable people may disagree over whether Olbermann's remarks were self-promoting, or his imagery dialed up too high. Never having had the experience myself, I'm reluctant to tell someone who has that he ought to tone things down. If you're inclined to believe, though, that Olbermann needs to provide a rationale for his text, the one he expressed in a posting to media columnist Jim Romenesko's web site seems perfectly legitimate:

My point in putting the audience through all that was to emphasize that even when the biopsy results are good, that experience alone can be nightmarish and frightening enough to tip the balance irrevocably away from any sense that there are any positives to smoking -- a sense that I can assure you, as a recovering smoker, a lot of us cling to as the basis of our rationalizations.

Initial broadcast, subsequent debate, reasoned response -- this is all is good, and healthy. Somewhat less healthy and more... What's the word I want? Oh yeah: Nuts... is the reaction of Olbermann's boss, as reported by Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News:

Olbermann... is said to have looked stunned as [MSNBC president Rick] Kaplan raced onto the set and shouted at him after he signed off....

I'm told that Kaplan erupted angrily and at length, calling Olbermann "out of control" and "not to be trusted," and accusing him of driving away viewers from the 9 p.m. debut of Kaplan hire Rita Cosby's show, "Live and Direct."

Here's the thing: I've been called names. I've been called "cynical" and "Machiavellian" and "dangerous." But it would never occur to me to use a brush with cancer to sink a co-worker. The implication that Olbermann would reveals in Kaplan a depth of paranoia that strikes even me as excessive, and I sleep with a Glock under my pillow. Besides, if Olbermann really wants to doom Cosby, a new MSNBC hire in the Camera-Gobbling-Scary-Lady mold of CNN's terrifying Nancy Grace, all he's got to do is urge people to watch her. Cosby is too bewilderingly spooky to last for long, even on MSNBC, and seems so unhinged by the presence of the bright studio lights that a run on prime time could induce a debilitating freak-out.  Olbermann, meanwhile, is a born broadcaster, which probably means he's on borrowed time in the floundering, trend-happy world of cable news. In any event, he deserves better than to be called out in front of his colleagues for injecting passion and personality into a commentary -- one whose aim, let's not forget, was to get people to quit smoking and live a little longer. Although, to paraphrase the old joke, people who quit smoking and watch Rita Cosby may not actually live longer. It may just seem that way.