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Keller @ Large: Who Watches This Stuff?

BOSTON (CBS) - Just in the nick of time, Keith Olbermann is returning to his cable TV program tonight after serving a two-day suspension for violating a network rule against giving money to political candidates.

I don't know if I could have lasted another day without Olbermann's elegant wit, reasoned argumentation, and careful attention to facts.

OK, just kidding, I almost never watch Olbermann, and the few times I have seen him have been depressingly horrible.

I'm not much of a knee-jerker, so Olbermann's left-leaning dogma does little for me. Nor are his patty-cake interviews with favored Democrats of any interest. Watching Olbermann, in fact, is every bit as unedifying as watching Glenn Beck dish his semi-coherent hash of religious and political jargon and kiss up to the conventional wisdom of the right.

Who watches this stuff and takes it seriously?

No offense if you do, but please, help me understand.

In my many years of observing politics, I have never, ever known one side of any dispute to have the market cornered on wisdom and truth.

More often than not, I've found the two major parties locked in a photo finish for which is the most self-serving and obtuse.

It doesn't surprise me that staunch partisans would want to scratch their particular itch with a dose of the partisan cheerleading that Olbermann and Beck provide. But I do wonder and worry about normal folks who watch some of this stuff and consider it credible.

Our fragmented, polarized modern media environment has not made intelligent news consumption an easier task.

It has made it harder.

It is now so easy to construct a media diet that feeds you only the ideological gruel you're used to and nothing else, that I fear we're breeding generations of readers and viewers who won't know what truth looks like it if they trip over it, will never be exposed to diversity of thought and won't even feel they're missing anything on either front.

In other words - if Olbermannism wins, we'll all be big losers.

Podcast

Listen to Jon Keller's commentary here:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:55 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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