We are aware that one of the popular sporting events for a certain class of broadcast pundit is an internecine war of words with others of their own kind. These things can go on forever, as has been the case between MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and FNC’s Bill O’Reilly. Generally, we find it not to be “news” and stay away from it. But we did mention Premiere Radio’s Rush Limbaugh’s recent attempt to get himself erased from MSNBC, so it’s only fair – just this once – to allow Olberman to respond.
Olbermann decided to read the request as a desperate plea by Limbaugh to stop having his errors unveiled. Olbermann said it was his network’s duty to take the record that Limbaugh allegedly distorted and set it straight. “Suddenly, the impact of being accurately called out, day after day, hour after hour, as a faux populist, press-release regurgitating lackey of repressive and regressive political flunkeys has hit bone,” said Olbermann.
Olbermann did offer a trade. He said he wouldn’t mention Limbaugh if Limbaugh agreed not to mention Limbaugh. He would have to go “…30 days on your program without mentioning what has been done or said or boasted about by Rush Limbaugh.”
RBR/TVBR observation: We don’t think this is what is generally meant by the phrase “cross promotion,” but it does seem to be true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and the bottom line is that these guys, in engaging in their war of words, are actually helping each other out.
