"Levi Johnston, a Sarah Palin whistleblower!" Keith Olbermann, MSNBC
Tomorrow night, Countdown with Keith Olbermann will air a not-so "special," entitled "Countdown Favorites 2009." Taking up 5 minutes of wasted space in this unrecoverable hour of a too short life, is a segment on an essential public figure.
Levi Johnston.
That's right, the high school hockey player whose only accomplishment in life is knocking up Sarah Palin's oldest daughter. Someone who would not be a media figure, no matter how hard he tried, if he had fathered a son with anyone else on the planet's daughter.
And in fact, even in a media world of Palin-haters, Levi really only got about 15 seconds of fame. Vanity Fair extensively used him in their Palin hit piece, but not as their centerfold. Those hard-hitting journalists Larry King and Tyra Banks gave him respectful air time, but Dylan Rattigan on MSNBC dismissed him as a "hockey stud," and even celebrity tabloid shows mocked Levi's various attempts to get attention.
But on Countdown, he was a truthteller. and worthy of his own segment on a "best of the year" show.
On the last Countdown segment before breaking for Christmas, snarky regular guest hostLawrence O'Donnell made a lame, transparent attempt to make the clip segment relevant and worth of the "Number One Story of the Day" ranking by bring up singer Tori Amos as the latest "A-list celebrity" to attempt to seem relevant by taking a Sarah Palin cheap shot.
Yes, the world is abuzz now that we finally know what Tori Amos (half the audience just asked, "Who?") thinks (to use a word carelessly) about Sarah Palin.
What Levi Johnston thinks was given not given credibility anywhere more than on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, who breathlessly repeated each charge as though it actually reflected on the most hated woman on his long list of hated people.
Here are a sampling of Countdown reviews of Levi's performances:
"The A-list smackdowns will come and go, Levi Johnston is forever"—Lawrence O'Donnell, Huffington Post
"Levi Johnston, a Sarah Palin whistleblower!" Keith Olbermann, MSNBC
It may be headache-inducing, but the video is instructive. (click the NewsReal link above) For as it plays, Levi Johnston does not gain in credibility—except in comparison to Keith Olbermann. By the end of the four minutes, it becomes obvious. These two anger-driven and arrogant attentions seekers are muy simpatico. One of them just gets nightly airtime.
When Olbermann says things like, "Whether the engagement was real, or just a stunt to spare her from having to run for Vice President as the mother of an unwed mother…" it's really hard to make the case that Levi Johnston is any more outrageous sleazy—or less personally credible than Keith Olbermann. Each takes pleasure in using the troubles of a teenager for personal gain and out of sheer spite.
In short, Levi Johnston and Keith Olbermann are made for each other. And Olbermann's end of the year love letter to the former "hockey stud" proves it.
"Meltdown With Keith Olbermann"
by David Forsmark
Note: With all due apologies to James Stewart and Carole Lombard, two of my all time favorites.