Keith Olbermann returning to ESPN

Anyone catch the debut? I watched about the first 15 minutes and was thoroughly unimpressed.

The first segment was a piece-by-piece review of Manish Mehta's reporting on the Jets' quarterback situation. Keith took the view that Rex Ryan was right and all the controversy was caused by Mehta. OK, there was some acknowledgement that maybe putting his starting quarterback in at the end of a preseason game was not the wisest decision by Ryan, but that he didn't deserve all the media slings and arrows for that. And then it just turned into a big old thing about how reporting is dead because of this.

Next segment was with Jason Whitlock, and they agreed that because the media done 'em wrong, the media done everyone wrong on everything ... and then you know The Media, and afterward The Media, and The Media mediaed and then there was some of The Media. So, you know, The Media.

I guess maybe Olbermann is going for what Stewart does best on The Daily Show, making fools of reporters with their double-talk. But Stewart does it with nationally known reporters on nationally discussed issues, so people might actually care. Looks like Olbermann and his producers are opening with an entirely New York-centric view of the world and one that is quite uninformed.

All in all it appears there is no new Keith to watch, only the old Countdown Keith transferred over to the sports world -- a world that it is obvious he doesn't much care for anymore in the first place. Reminded me a lot of Joe Buck's "I'm too good for this" attitude.

 

Your Media's happiness is all that Medias.

 

Happy to ignore KO wherever he appears on my HDTV system.

 

You should have kept watching LTL as the segment later with Mark Cuban talking sbout PEDs in sports and Bud Selig was very good. So was the "Worst Person In The Sports World" bit. I liked the show and will watch it again.

video of the Mark Cuban segment:

 

I will take your word for it, but I'm really tired of Mark Cuban.

 

I am, too. And I like some of the guy's ideas. He's a challenging thinker. But I think he's so used to grating against conservative sports figures that he goes for provocative every time.

 

I love this show.

It doesn't compete with SC. As an old guy, I care about issues and not games. This is a show I will probably make moderate nightly viewing.

 

I think sports media has gotten so far into the weeds, who is hurt/questionable for the next game, who might be demanding a trade, where some player might want to play - that it is somewhat refreshing to see a show that sees the forest from the trees (to mix a metaphor).
While it is true the media world is a 24/7 thing - it is nice to realize there will be a show that remembers what was being said yesterday and last week. A show that is more macro than micro.

 

As a (sort of) young guy, I care about both.

A reporter calling out Rex Ryan doesn't qualify as either. Not only was it the first thing discussed, it took up the entire A-block.

 

What's macro about the Mehta/Jets thing though? Seems very much like a mirco, make a huge deal out of something meaningless that is big today thing to me.

 

I think the larger point was that the Mehta thing was an example of what a lot of sports news has become. Someone says something, someone comments on what that person has said, someone responds to what was originally said.
How many times has "former NFL QB says current NFL QB is (or isn't) X" become what passes for a story?