Latest must-see: Donahue's Body of War

Phil Donahue was on Real Time With Bill Maher last night to talk about his new film, Body of War, which he executive produced. In short, it's an absolute must-see; this one just vaulted to the top of my movie list. By all accounts I've heard and read, it's an extremely moving movie - last night, even Maher said, without humor, that he teared up watching the movie. A brief description of the film:

Body of War is a 2007 documentary following Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran paralyzed from a bullet to the spine, on a physical and emotional journey as he adapts to his new body and begins to question the decision to go to war in Iraq. From soldier to anti-war activist, the film takes an unflinching view of the physical and emotional aftermath of war through the eyes of an American soldier.

A pretty poignant description of the movie comes from Donahue himself, who last night was speaking about the fallacy of the GOP Supporting the Troops and about the war in general:

...[Young] is paralyzed from the chest down, and he wants his fellow soldiers to come home; he is a full-time anti-war voice, you can't take your eyes off him when he speaks, he's out there with his mom, and he thinks that one more death in this war is morally indefensible.

[Snip]

[On Democrats and the GOP regarding the Iraq War] Thomas Frank, who wrote the book What's the Matter With Kansas, offers us an explanation as to why the core of the Democratic Party has rushed to the Republicans - because the Republicans have convinced [Democrats] that they are the party of values. They've got God, and no one else does. The party of values has been a trojan horse that has concealed an economic agenda that has allowed wealthy people to become more wealthy, reduce taxes during war time, which doesn't oblige us to pay it, but will give the bill to our children.

Those last few sentences just about had me jumping out of my chair in agreement.

By the way, Donahue knows just a little bit about getting screwed in a time of war, too. Mind you, not nearly on par with the subject of his movie, Tomas Young, but Donahue knows the cost of war in a different way. His former political program, Donahue, was canceled in 2003, despite being MSNBC's highest rated show. The reason? The New York Times revealed an internal NBC memo that stated Donahue should be fired because he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."

Example 8,955,411 of how our so-called media has morphed into a talking piece for this administration; it's also turned into a virtual cheerleading squad for John McSame. Yes, I know, there are exceptions, but far too few dissenting voices are being heard today, about the war, the economy, and the disgraces and outrages that have become so commonplace in the federal government under Bush that they've almost become cliché. Abuses of power by a rogue administration should never become cliché, they should become impeachable offenses for all the world to see.

Democratically controlled Congress, you incomplete me.

Anyway, see Body of War - support Tomas Young, one of many Ron Kovics from our latest military disaster, and also support Donahue, who certainly deserves it after being railroaded by a network for having the temerity to stand up to a government that had lost its mind in 2002-2003. Sadly, things are worse than ever. I really do wish MSNBC would give him another shot - a time slot right after Olbermann would be just about right.

A great Olbermann interview, & his top 5

Earlier today, I read a pretty good interview of Keith Olbermann in Rolling Stone, "The Most Honest Man in News," by Mark Binelli. It's a pretty good insight into the man behind the anger. For the entire interview, click Here.

Keith Olbermann is my favorite broadcaster on television today. I don't have a short answer why that is, but there are a number of reasons:

• Even his detractors have to admit that the man has a pretty big set of cojones - he's not afraid to take on President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or, most bravely of all, Bill O'Reilly.

• He certainly seems real to me. I realize that we essentially only know about celebrities and broadcasters what they want us to know, as well as what we see and hear on the air, but there's just something about KO that resonates with me and rings true. And I'm not saying that just because of his politics.

• He's unafraid of feuds, and in fact he seems to welcome them, and it doesn't matter where his opponents come from - e-mail, other networks, etc. This includes Bill O'Reilly, and most recently, Geraldo Rivera. To wit, recently Rivera challenged him to a fight, to which Olbermann responded in the Rolling Stone interview, "Geraldo, you should not give me a hard time. I can still remember when you were a big deal . . . when I was a kid."

• Olbermann is utterly fearless about what he says and who he says it to. I read recently that he attributes this fearlessness to his résumé - "I can go back and do sports any time I want to," he said. He sure can, but with his ratings rising over 85% in one year, he will only have to if he wants to. Olbermann recently signed a four-year contract extension with NBC, so Countdown with Keith Olbermann isn't going away any time soon. Sorry, Bill-O (as Olbermann refers to his chief nemesis).

Although, to be fair, Olbermann has a long way to go before he catches up to the 2o million viewers who take in O'Reilly's pseudo-outrage every week. (Yes, it's truly amazing and frightening that this many people listen to blowhard Bill's screeds every week.)

Anyway, Rolling Stone came up with a top five of Olbermann's rants, so here they are (with descriptions from Rolling Stone). I'm not sure that I agree with the order the magazine puts them in, but the list is about right.

5. Think another speech attacking Republicans for compulsively lying about their Democratic opponents would be predictable and boring? Not from Olbermann. (10/5/06):

Part One



Part Two



4. After controversial comments from Colin Powell, Bush spat that it was “unacceptable to think” that there could be any similarities between the terrorists and America, Olbermann demanded that President Bush apologize to the American people. (After careful consideration, Bush decided not to.) (9/18/06):



3. The night before election day, Olbermann did his part to get out the vote by showing how Bush had hypocritically started using oil as a campaign tool (11/6/06):



2. Taking President Bush to task for soaking habeas corpus in gasoline and setting fire to it, Olbermann himself made the not-at-all-inflammatory statement that President Bush has done more to hurt America than the terrorists (10/18/06):



1. Was staging his Bush corrective in sight of the holy hole at Ground Zero gratuitous and heavy-handed? Sure. But perhaps no Olbermann comment was more powerful than this one, calling President Bush out for using September 11th as just another political gimmick (9/11/06):



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Anyway, if you haven't checked out Olbermann's show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, I urge you to check out a few episodes. It airs on MSNBC weeknights at 8 p.m. with a repeat at 12 a.m.

KO has come a long way since his days on CNN & ESPN. I still miss him on SportsCenter, but he's much better in his current profession. He really is the left's answer to Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and all the rest. He's got a way to go until he catches up with Bill-O, however; although Countdown's ratings were up 85% in Jan. '07 vs. Jan. '06, he's still millions of viewers away from O'Reilly's impressive 20 million viewers per week. Actually, scary is probably a better word for O'Reilly's audience - for the life of me, I can't believe that there are that many people per week who listen to O'Lielly's bluster, lies and distortion.

Probably the biggest difference between Olbermann and those who have failed (Hi, Phil Donohue) is that Olbermann isn't afraid to get down in the gutter and slug it out. Some probably say that "Olbermann shouldn't lower himself to the level of Limbaugh and O'Reilly." Nonsense. Democrats and liberals must lose their fear of being labeled as hateful or nasty - Republicans have been doing it for years. Olbermann (and Al Franken before him) isn't afraid to state his point of view in particularly harsh language if he feels that what it takes.

Some will also say that Olbermann is participating in petty, childish and sophomoric name calling. True, but again, Republicans have been doing it for years. Keith's merely fighting fire with fire.

Olbermann's gaining on O'Reilly, and it's great to see Billy feeling the heat. He's practically issued a fatwa against NBC, which lately I've been watching with great enjoyment (I'll blog more on that later).

With the 2008 election now on the horizon, we'll soon find out if Olbermann has appeal beyond liberals.

So far, his formula seems to be working.