Before moving on to other subjects, I thought I’d add a final word (for now) on the Great Keith Olbermann Debate. Is he a progressive savior amidst the morass of mainstream media or is he a progressive demagogue doing more harm than good?

Well, it’s nice to hear someone coming to his defense. Aaron Barnhardt at TV Barn goes so far as to say that the Olbermann bashers are actually feeding a Republican attack machine that wants to KO KO. He takes particular issue with the views of Jamie Poniewozik, the Time magazine TV critic, whom I reference in a previous post.

The discussion that ensues in the comments is quality stuff, including a lengthy response from Poniewozik himself.

That discussion leads, in fact, to the contemplation of what it means to be a modern journalist — and whether someone like Olbermann is one of those rarified sorts. All of which gives me an excuse to mention a great column by Glenn Greenwald of Salon, in which he condemns Politico and self-conscious editor-in-chief  John Harris — among many others — for the fixation “on meaningless, ephemeral trivialities in lieu of substantive reporting.” You might have heard it all before, but it’s worth hearing again (as well as looking at the statistics Greenwald cites at the end of the piece):

That’s the defining activity of the modern American political journalist: copy down what political officials and campaigns say. That’s what they consider to be “reporting.” Their “scoops” are determined by whoever gets chosen to be the first one to copy down (or cut and paste) those statements first. They focus on trivial stories not only because they think doing so will get them quick attention, but also because — by definition — trivial chatter requires no analysis, thought, or critical faculties.

The real harm inflicted by the behavior Harris describes isn’t that we’re all subjected to an endless stream of worthless gossip from our political journalists. That’s more of an avoidable annoyance than anything else. It’s that the trashy gossip completely crowds out any discussion of anything that actually matters, allowing our government and political class generally to get away with the most extreme acts of corruption, lawbreaking and destruction while those assigned to “report” on what they’re doing prattle on about haircuts, horse races, and an endless stream of soap opera storylines. Those who know best how to feed journalists their easy, gossipy items are those who best manipulate their “reporting.”

Which brings us back to Mr. Olbermann. In this context, he doesn’t seem so remarkable.