Fair enough, but detractors contend that Olbermann's "honesty" has seeped into every corner of his show. With its opinionated take on the news, its mocking tone and its lack of dissenting voices, Countdown in some ways is a lot like the radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh, who is Olbermann's biggest target after O'Reilly.
Olbermann's saving grace is that he is funny, which covers a multitude of sins, including self-righteousness. From years in sportscasting, trying to pump life into look-alike game highlights night after night, he developed a comic cadence and an arsenal of silly voices (his Walter Cronkite is the best). And Countdown is structured less like a traditional newscast and more like SportsCenter, where he became a national cable star on ESPN in the 1990s.
Yet even with Countdown and the spiffy new digs at 30 Rock, the third-rated cable news channel faces an uncertain future. Millions of dollars are to be lopped from its budget this year. Olbermann can't control MSNBC's fate, only his own. Hence the "lessons learned inside that building" that he and cardboard Bill-O look out on every day.
