Olbermann

[ChicosBailBonds]

olberman makes berman look like pope francis.  and berman is a big fat f*ck piece of sh*t.  just youtube him.

+10 on both counts.   The day the hired Olbermann I reached out to several of my buds at ESPN and just said WTF.  They had just extended Berman and now this...no wonder why so many people hate ESPN.  They mostly just said "I know, I know"

Berman has a lot of pictures of people at ABC and ESPN, it's the only explanation other than "he's an institution"....which is a crock.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Berman has a schtick that was likely useful for an unknown start-up in 1979 but somehow beneath the dignity of a leading broadcast journalism organization. I get that sports writing has always allowed for greater expression than news reporting but Berman's sin is not in being colorful but, rather, in being the story. If you listen to his pieces they are lean on insight but he masks those inadequacies with his insipid banter. I am shocked he has lasted 35 years.

There are many examples of superb sports writing. Here are some of my favorites:

"The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," Hunter S. Thompson

"Medora Goes to a Game," George Plimpton

"The Loser," Gay Talese 

"Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," John Updike

"You Know Me Al," Ring Lardner

"The Natural," Bernard Malamud

"The Curious case of Sidd Finch," George Plimpton

"Magic Act," Charles P. Pierce (MU Grad)

"Distance," Roger Angell 

"Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the world He Made,"  David Halberstam

"Ego,"  Norman Mailer

Anything written by Jim Murray.  RIP

[keefe]

Anything written by Jim Murray.  RIP

Roger, Jim Murray. He could turn a phrase and provide perspective. He knew that sports was meant to be fun and not life and death.

[Skitch]

I really enjoyed Halberstam's "The Teammates" about the lifelong friendship of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom Dimaggio.

Read "The Natural" while at Marquette and really enjoyed it but never checked out any of Malamud's other stuff.

[brandx]

In March '07 we got back to Camp Victory after 10 days schwacking Quds chuckleheads trying to sneak into Iraq from Iran. Our first stop inside the wire was for a long overdue hot meal. It was oh dark hundred and we were the only guys in the DFAC when a jet lagged Bill O'Reilly walks up and asks if he can join us.

O'Reilly spent 3 hours swilling vile KBR Joe with us, never once talking politics or opinion. He wanted to know about us, what we were doing, and how we felt about The Surge. He was informed, engaged, and concerned. O'Reilly has a razor sharp mind and a rapier wit. And he has a genuine interest in the welfare and safety of our deployed men and women. Put his politics aside and you have an American patriot.

Maybe he just felt guilty over all of the dead young men in an unnecessary war that he helped push on the American people and figured this would ease that guilt.

By the way - welcome back. I haven't seen your posts in a while. We disagree a lot, but I always enjoy reading what you have to say.

[brandx]

Anything written by Jim Murray.  RIP

+1

Read him all the time when I was a kid.

[keefe]

Maybe he just felt guilty over all of the dead young men in an unnecessary war that he helped push on the American people and figured this would ease that guilt.

By the way - welcome back. I haven't seen your posts in a while. We disagree a lot, but I always enjoy reading what you have to say.

X

You would be surprised at the numbers within the Officer Corps who would have rather been in A Stan. Iraq was spurious but let me share some perspective.

Our TACP teams in Iraq almost always had terps assigned for missions outside the wire. These were Iraqi nationals who provided language/cultural assistance for any interactions with locals. After a particularly rough week when we lost some ROMADS I burned a Cohiba with one of our Sunni terps on the balcony of The Palace. He could read my emotions and he said simply that eliminating Saddam, his sons, and all of the Ba'athist thugs from power was justification enough for all of the madness erupting outside the wire. His observation was that America stood for something good and that only America had the moral authority to intervene and depose Saddam. I won't share details but Saddam was far worse than Hitler. The systemic institutionalization of evil under his authority defies human comprehension.

The madness of Iraq today is those constituencies sorting out their destiny and correcting the stupidity of Englishmen and French at the beginning of last century. We had our Civil War to make a more perfect Union. Iraq is now having theirs. This could not have happened had we not eliminated Saddam. At the end of the day this is a good thing.  

[Aughnanure]

He is a despicable human being....makes Crean look like Mother Theresa. Too many friends in the industry and the way he has treated people over the years will make you want to puke.  I will never give him one second of viewing to prop up any ratings.

Look who's on the anti-Crean bus now!

[willie warrior]

O'Reilly can be rude, but he is not a mean spirited person.

O'reilly is a huge narcissist who loves his mammoth ego. That is why he slurps Obama. Both fell off the same tree.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

O'reilly is a huge narcissist who loves his mammoth ego. That is why he slurps Obama. Both fell off the same tree.

For more on this see the Stephen Colbert's take-down earlier this week of O'Reilly's ego on the Super Bowl interview. 

[keefe]

For more on this see the Stephen Colbert's take-down earlier this week of O'Reilly's ego on the Super Bowl interview. 

I missed the Super Bowl so I'm not sure what this references. I also don't watch MSNBC or Fox as the shrillness is tiresome so I have only a general understanding of Olbermann's and O'Reilly's political views. But putting that aside, having conversed with the man well beyond the glare of klieg lights I found him to be candid and open. He genuinely wanted to know the reality of our perspective on matters that extended well beyond the battle space. There was no agenda other than wanting our insight. I think that speaks volumes about the integrity of his quest.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

O'reilly is a huge narcissist who loves his mammoth ego. That is why he slurps Obama. Both fell off the same tree.

I must be misunderstanding this but I have never seen an instance where O'Reily has agreed with Obama on everything. Besides the point. Getting back to the thread ill definitely check out his show. Ive been really trying to avoid ESPN since MU made the switch to FoxSports1.

[keefe]

I really enjoyed Halberstam's "The Teammates" about the lifelong friendship of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom Dimaggio.

Read "The Natural" while at Marquette and really enjoyed it but never checked out any of Malamud's other stuff.

I always enjoyed Halberstam. The Best and The Brightest is a good read.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Look who's on the anti-Crean bus now!

I've called him a prick for 6 years, you just haven't been paying attention. 

[brandx]

Halberstam's baseball books were outstanding.

[ChicosBailBonds]

For more on this see the Stephen Colbert's take-down earlier this week of O'Reilly's ego on the Super Bowl interview. 

Colbert....you don't say.





Personally, I thought it was funny watching two of the biggest egos in the world only 5 feet from one another, and then realizing one did nothing to get there...and the other one is named Bill.

[keefe]

Colbert....you don't say.

Saucy!

[reinko]

Colbert....you don't say.





Personally, I thought it was funny watching two of the biggest egos in the world only 5 feet from one another, and then realizing one did nothing to get there...and the other one is named Bill.

I wonder if the mods had the stones to ban people for a month who get political it might stop posts like this.

[keefe]

Colbert....you don't say.

This is one of cinema's funniest scenes. Colbert and Gable in It Happened One Night. Directed by Frank Capra. Sheer brilliance.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Getting back to the thread ill definitely check out his show. Ive been really trying to avoid ESPN since MU made the switch to FoxSports1.

I'm not sure if you're talking about Olbermann, but his show is on ESPN.

[brandx]

Colbert....you don't say.

Personally, I thought it was funny watching two of the biggest egos in the world only 5 feet from one another, and then realizing one did nothing to get there...and the other one is named Bill.

Bill worked hard to be the top punter in college football. Very hard. Just ask him.

Oops - Marist didn't have a football team until 7 years after he left.

[keefe]

Bill worked hard to be the top punter in college football. Very hard. Just ask him.

Oops - Marist didn't have a football team until 7 years after he left.

I know he went to the Kennedy School for his Master's but I recall him saying he went to BU undergrad and was a classmate of Howard Stern's. He didn't mention Marist.

[Coleman]

I won't share details but Saddam was far worse than Hitler.

Quite a statement.

Keefe, I don't disagree with you that some good may eventually come out of American intervention in Iraq. I hope it does, for the sake of Iraqis and the brave Americans that fought and died there.

But none of that changes the fact that the original justification for the war was a lie.

[keefe]

Quite a statement.

Keefe, I don't disagree with you that some good may eventually come out of American intervention in Iraq. I hope it does, for the sake of Iraqis and the brave Americans that fought and died there.

But none of that changes the fact that the original justification for the war was a lie.

Not arguing that our basis for entry was questionable. All I am saying is that for the Iraqi people the fall of Saddam, his sons, and the Ba'athists was the best thing to happen. Saddam, unlike Hitler, took personal pleasure in torturing not just his victims but their extended families. Is he worse than Hitler or Stalin? I can't measure that but at the end of the day Hitler was irrelevant to an Iraqi populace terrorized daily under Ba'athist rule.

The internecine warfare convulsing Iraq is comparable in some ways to our own Civil War. Iraq is an artificial state created by the western powers when they carved up the world after Versailles. I personally believe the sectarian violence will ultimately end with Iraq being partitioned into several independent states. Sunnis in Anbar will never follow Muqtada al-Sadr or Sistani who, in turn, despise secular Shia political leaders as al Maliki. Factor in several external actors exerting significant influence (AQI, Iranian Quds, et al) and the prospects for stability as a political union are dim.

For those who question the dissolution end game I would point to the Kurdish zone as proof that Iraq has already begun to break apart. The Kurdish region is free of violence and the Peshmerga stand as the best trained, equipped, and most cohesive fighting force in Iraq. Mosul has begun referring to the region as Kurdistan, almost daring Baghdad to do something about it. Political stability and control of a large share of Iraq's oil reserves has led to investor confidence; Kurdistan enjoys a significant flow of capital investment that has spurred economic growth and a surge in standard of living.   

Yugoslavia had Tito and Iraq had Saddam. Both states were amalgamations of dissonant parts that never belonged together but were forged by the western Powers in the aftermath of the Great War. Saddam held Iraq together through the application of sheer force that was ubiquitous, insidious, and ferocious in its barbarity.

I will not argue our justification for invading Iraq. But I did two tours there and have seen what was going on in that country under Saddam. There are no words that can adequately describe the evil. And many Iraqis have told me that America was justified in overthrowing one of the most grotesque dictators in history.

[rocky_warrior]

I wonder if the mods had the stones to ban people for a month who get political it might stop posts like this.

I'm not promising anything, but I should mention something...I read almost zero posts in the the superbar (vs. nearly 100% in the Al).  So, if you see something that you think mods should know about, you need to report it. 

I know this thread started ok, and likely drifted.  I'll just lock it at this point, and move on.