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ERIC DEGGANSKeith Olbermann says newscasts as we know them can't survive. He wants his serio-comic MSBNC show to be the model that keeps serious reporting alive.
Since so many of us are smart alecks ourselves, it's easy to see why TV critics might like MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
After all, this is the guy who noted that porn star-turned-California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey "might be guilty of sexual harassment against herself." Upon reporting the engagement of diminutive actor Verne "Mini Me" Troyer to a woman at least 3 feet taller than he is, Olbermann cracked the pair were "registered at Cartier, Crate and Barrel, and Woody's House of Fur-lined Stepladders."
And on a list of other actions that also could be the work of the al-Qaida group claiming responsibility for this summer's blackout, he included as his No. 1 entry: rival Fox News Channel.
"The one I hear about the most continues to be my line about (the death of Saddam Hussein's sons) Uday and Qusay: "Say that about 100 times and eventually you'll start talking pig latin . . . Uday and Qusay are eadday,' " said Olbermann, speaking by telephone from New York City. "I'm still hearing about this. (And) with all great lines, it's something sitting half-formed in the viewer's mind. That's the only skill involved with this."
Combining razor-sharp sarcasm with unerring comic timing and a finely tuned taste for the absurd, Olbermann has created a news show for the 21st century in his latest MSNBC program, Countdown.
On the surface, the show is a tally of the day's most compelling, buzzworthy news items. But in Olbermann's hands, it also becomes a tool for slicing through the absurdity of the day's events.
While Bill O'Reilly hyperventilates on Fox News and Paula Zahn searches for the big "get" interview on CNN, Olbermann deftly vaults from a discussion of continuing unrest in the Middle East to an item on an ob/gyn who botched a sterilization procedure on a woman named - wait for it - Concepcion.
"The newscast that people have been watching for the last 20 years really doesn't have a future," Olbermann said. "Something needs to be devised now to preserve the elements of serious news. There's some sense of mission here. . . . We have to try to create some vessel to save the arc of serious news. Otherwise, it will be completely overwhelmed by trivial news."
Just past the show's six-month anniversary, Countdown has become this critic's favorite MSNBC program, proving Olbermann one of the smartest hires for a network that thought it was a good idea to hand shows to talk-radio nutcase Michael Savage and wrestler-turned-ex-Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
At first, it may not have looked that way. Once called the Gary Sheffield of broadcasting - sportstalk for a talented performer who has prickly relationships with colleagues - Olbermann was coming back to a cable network he had quit five years ago over conflicts with coverage of the then-unfolding Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Brought to national prominence by his work with partner Dan Patrick on ESPN's SportsCenter, he left the sports network for MSNBC in 1997. Since then, he has also worked for Fox Sports Net and CNN. And though six months may not be long enough to judge whether he's in the chair to stay (though he has been named NBC Sports' primary cable host for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece), Olbermann said he has learned how to moderate his legendary passions to preserve harmony with his latest employers.
"I know what not to do to really tick them off, and if it's not important, I know how to let things go," said the anchor, who once broke part of a wall with a door in a fit of anger over a story. "There were no efforts to shove Michael Savage down my throat as a commentator, and I don't go in complaining about some guy in the control room who isn't paying attention."
Unfortunately, the show's ratings haven't caught up to its execution, with Countdown attracting an average of about 200,000 viewers during August, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Comparatively, Zahn earned about 593,000 that month, and top-rated Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor averaged 1.9-million.
Olbermann said his show's best shot at success lies in attracting new viewers to cable news, rather than trying to compete with his bigger rivals.
"You're not going to get the people who find CNN exciting broadcasting . . . (and) the people who watch Fox - the modern-day version of people who liked Leni Riefenstahl films - you're not going to get them, because they think everything is a conspiracy," he said.
"Some shows, you can see it on the first day: This (host) shouldn't be on television, he probably shouldn't be allowed to own a television. There is a surprising rush to put something on the air, and most of it looks like a pizza that was taken out of the oven too soon. But I think this idea of trying to be very silly and very serious in the same show has worked."
Sometimes that can be a tough line to negotiate. Olbermann recalled an interview with the parents of a little girl who had nearly died from monkey pox. As he quizzed the adults, the child ran up and sat back in a chair quickly, falling over on her back on live television.
Concerned for the impact on the family, he wondered if they should air the segment again. Then the girl's mother called for a copy of the tape.
"She thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen on TV and wanted to see what it looked like," Olbermann said, laughing. "That's the definition of serious news that turned crazy. At the moment, it was funny, and the family saw it that way, too."
Even as comics such as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart earn compliments for illuminating the absurdity of news events through their comedy, Olbermann works the issue from the other side, tweaking his news reports with just enough humor to make the whole process more palatable. (My recent favorite: a Wednesday montage of nostalgic clips from interviews with California gubernatorial candidates after the recall election, aired as strains of Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were played in the background.)
"In times of media timidness, comedians are often the only ones telling the truth," Olbermann said. "I think there's a place for all of us (in the media mix). And to be compared to them . . . I'm greatly complimented."