Last Thursday's edition of Countdown will be my last until I learn from some grapevine that Keith has returned to doing something other than pandering to us "liberals'" lowest common denominator: disgust and disdain for the members of the right-wing fog machine. I think an entire show dedicated to observations about Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly,Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and various other assorted nuts of the right is nothing more than taking the easy way out to putting together the kind of show Countdown had previously been.
And it wasn't just Thursday's show, this has been a constant and expanding format for months now, in fact, since Obama's inauguration. I'm certainly not going to read anything more cynical into this nor would I say that skewering the likes of Limbaugh in terms of the asinine critique of Sotamayor, etc. isn't justified. But not for sixty minutes, please. Thursday Keith could have talked about General Taguba and torture, the congressional healthcare debate, the state of the economy, etc. Even his piece on General Motors was presented as a criticism of a Repug Congressman's illogical charge about Dems closing Republican car dealerships. In the context of Countdown's incisive critiques during the Bush years, this is plainly unworthy.
Further, this serves to distract attention from the continuing failure of the administration and the Dems in Congress to honor their promises on civil liberties, healthcare, financial system reform, ending the war, etc. etc. Sitting there watching Thursday night I felt like a liberal version of the clowns who watch Fox News and cheer every hit of a liberal politician or Democratic spokesman. It's just feeding us red meat without nutrition and blocking any real criticism of the failure of our Democratic majority to enact the mandate the country gave them. We are being shortchanged, so I'll stick with Rachel only for the moment. At least she made the immediate point that Sotamayor's nomination actually moved the court more to the right than where we were before; Keith just attacked his usual suspects for their attacks on the judge. Unworthy Keith, do some real journalism again and please get the word out when you do so that I'll know to come back? Thanks!
And to the KOS monitors, sorry for the brevity, if there were a diary to have appended this as a comment I would have done so, if I missed one then I'm really cheered by that, but I actually think this is a shade above just a rant. I'm really disappointed at what I perceive to be happenning with Countdown and if Rachel succumbs to the same I would feel there was nowhere to turn for a simple nightly news' show. Oh and Keith, if you're out there, feel free to respond with a Special Comment.