One of the few progressives on cable news willing to kick up a fuss, Keith Olbermann, returned to television last week, just five months after being fired from MSNBC.
The
former king of MSNBC hasn't skipped a beat. In his first two nights alone of
“Countdown with Keith Olbermann” he opened up a can on Democrats, Republicans
and his former bosses on MSNBC. However, we've seen this game before - the
comeback of a beloved television star who starts hot and then fades over time.
The question is will Olbermann's comeback follow the same path as a Tavis
Smiley's or will he be able to maintain his mojo once the honeymoon of his
return wears off?
Since the
elections of 2008, Olbermann became the face of the MSNBC. He was one of the
first cable network hosts, white or Black, to come out in support of Barack
Obama during the Democratic primary, and had no problem calling out the racist
coverage of the first Black president before during and after the campaign.
With
Olbermann leading the way MSNBC's primetime news is the highest rated in
African American households beating out CNN by over 10,000 viewers a night and
out doing Fox News by over 100,000 viewers a night. His sense of humor and penchant for calling out wimps on the
left and liars on the right made him a ratings leader.
At his
peak he had an on-air Tupac and Biggie level feud with Fox News resident bad
boy Bill O'Reilly that made Olbermann the only non-Fox News cable show to crack
the top 10 in ratings. But in the end, network execs couldn't control him so he
was fired and has resurrected his same show on former Vice President Al Gore's
CurrentTV - which hasn't gotten this much action since it launched in 2005.
So far
Olbermann's career trajectory has been eerily close to another favorite son of
the news watcher, Smiley. They were both the highest rated hosts on stations
that were losing to competitors. They were both respected for bringing the
truth on politics, class and race to the airwaves when no one else would and
they both were fired from their respective stations for being “out of control”
and had to start somewhere else. But here is where the two careers might
diverge. If the left in America has any hope of keeping a strong voice on cable
news heading into 2012 let's hope Olbermann doesn't make the same mistakes as
Smiley.
When
Smiley left Black Entertainment Television he could've gone anywhere and done
anything and the nation would've followed him. But instead of really
capitalizing on that power he has in many ways steadily disappointed.
He phoned
in his NPR radio show until it was cancelled. His PBS show is a shadow of the
passion of his former BET program. His greatest accomplishment - turning the
topics of his shows into the State of Black America conferences - was ended
prematurely when he canceled the conferences in a huff after Obama bruised his
ego.
If you
had told me 10 years ago that Smiley's star would flicker as dimly as it does
today I would never have believed you. All that potential, all that power and
you have to squint to see his star power today. If Olbermann isn't careful he
could make the same mistakes and cable news and the African American
progressive movement will be worse off for it.
Smileys'
biggest post-BET mistake was thinking that all of the fame and adulation that
he earned over the years was about him and not about the people whose beliefs,
dreams and politics he represented every night on the air. He got brand new on
Obama and made it about him, not politics, and he's been crawling out of that
hole ever since.
Olbermann
has a chance to take the disaffected progressives of 2008, and those
disappointed with Obama's policies, and turn them into a force for change
through his show - a long as he realizes it's about their politics, not him or
his personal retribution against his former bosses. If he does the former he'll
accomplish great things. If he wants to see what happens when you do the latter,
he can just take a look down the dial, way down the dial, for a real life and
disappointing example.
Jason
Johnson is an associate professor of political science and communications at
Hiram College in Ohio, where he teaches courses in campaigns and elections, pop
culture and the politics of sports.
