Current TV Has Been K.O.'ed

from "The Mouth That Roared Begins a New 'Countdown'" on nytimes.com

Keith Olbermann returned to cable television on Monday mad as hell and pointedly madder than other self-described liberal anchors on his former channel, MSNBC.

“This is to be a newscast of contextualization,” Mr. Olbermann told viewers on his new channel, Current TV. He promised to posit “that the weakest citizen in this country is more important than the strongest corporation.” His first guest and contributor was the muckraking filmmaker Michael Moore, who joined him in bemoaning President Obama’s decision to not seek Congressional approval before attacking Libya. At the same time on MSNBC, Mr. Olbermann’s successor, Lawrence O’Donnell, asked a longtime Obama confidant, David Axelrod, to respond to the president’s critics on the issue of same-sex marriage.

For more, check here.

I must admit, Keith's looking pretty good. It was endearing to see him back on television doing what it seems he absolutely loves to do.

I will say this. Keith is now the Chief News Honcho at Current TV in addition to hosting Countdown. And judging from the programming that book-ended his show, there's a lot of content there that's being overlooked due to our addiction to what Jon Stewart calls the "sensationalism and laziness" of the mainstream media (See CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc.). I hope Keith realizes that his presence on Current may possibly bring attention to many areas of social concern presently being tackled on his new network. However, that's no excuse to get carried away. No one needs yet ANOTHER 24-hour cable news network full of over-zealous pundits and polarizing shouting matches between the left and right. Fighting the urge to re-populate the place with more "contextualization" could, with a little luck, breath a little life back into the bewildering state of journalism.

Good luck, Keith. I'm glad you're back.

peace.

Thoughts on Japan

Have a look at these images.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html

I was going to make this post about something I thought was substantive. I was going to rant about how I felt that even though the Japan earthquake/tsunami tragedy is nothing short of catastrophic, it would have been orders of magnitude worse if it happened in California, given the lack of attention that's been paid to United States infrastructure. I had planned on identifying all of the nuclear power plants in seismically active areas of the country and highlight their vulnerability. I had planned to use this event to be tough on us...again.

But after looking at these pictures and seeing the level of absolute devastation in the affected areas of Japan, all of that seems a bit frivolous now.

And it's not as if I don't believe in those things. I do. But the events occurring now in Japan are of such scope and gravity, I don't feel comfortable using them as the filter through which I may disseminate my political beliefs; not while 1,000 bodies have washed ashore in Miyagi Prefecture.

I commend the media for its coverage of the tragedy. They've conducted themselves with integrity and professionalism. I will continue to take in as much of their reporting as I can to keep myself abreast of the progressing events.

And god helps those cats at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

peace.