Brandweek is the leading marketing magazine in the U.S., and usually covers big-budget marketing strategy involving packaged goods, food, beverage, retail, and so on. They pride themselves on analyzing marketing trends and consumer behavior to help marketers develop the next hot product.
According to Brandweek writer Matthew Grimm (via Poynter Online), Keith Olbermann is probably the next hot product:
See, amid it all, the ex-SportsCenter anchor is gaining deserved buzz and numbers for his MSNBC show Countdown, but not for shouting his own agenda at pointless guests, as do his Fox News and fellow MSNBC peers. No, he weighs the both mainstream newsmakers and -readers exhaustively against hard paper trails, reportage and their own words. He invokes Ed Murrow in his sign-off, and keeps his spirit alive in his eloquent weighing of both O'Reillyan and Disneyfied propaganda and Couric fluff against--what a lark--fact and common sense.
It's interesting that a marketing expert would appreciate Olbermann for the same reasons we do. Apparently, integrity counts, whether your selling soap, or cable news. Grimm also criticizes Disney for promoting pseudo-history, and refers to Bill O'Reilly as "Ailes' self-righteously stupid showhorse."
Grimm's critique is based not on his political outlook, but on how Disney and Fox are losing credibility with consumers, with "utter credulity" toward the official story proffered by those in power. He thinks that Katie Couric damaged CBS's standing with consumers with her softball interview of Condi. He continues:
Water finds its level. Olbermann, even if buried on the cable spectrum, will keep building a niche on the strength of the simple measurement, per the mission, others have abrogated. And like Stewart, soon enough, he'll be, if not big cheese, another one that keeps siphoning off the viewers and trust that Q scores alone can't hold.