Battle of the Bloviators

Concerned Keith Examines Plummeting Ratings

During the general election campaign, various primetime show hosts claimed the mantle of "most-viewed"- oftentimes incorrectly. The most visible feud was between Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News. Olbermann made his mark by means of semi-coherent rants about the alleged evils of the Bush Administration while occasionally tossing in a stereotypical epithet regarding the religious right. O'Reilly was widely regarded as a tough-minded, if somewhat rightward tilted, political commentator who gained viral popularity on account of his interview with Barney Frank, during which he all but shouted down the beleaguered Massachussetts senator regarding his role in the financial crisis. Now that passions have died down somewhat, it would appear that O'Reilly was the winner in terms of lasting popularity. The most recent viewer numbers from Drudge, dated December 15th, are as follows:

CABLE NEWS RACE
MON, DEC. 15, 2009

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,855,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY/COLMES 2,619,000
FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 2,087,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,020,000
CNNHN NANCY GRACE 2,007,000
FOXNEWS HUME 1,917,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,454,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,321,000
CNN COOPER 1,207,000
CNN KING 1,102,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 1,009,000

The FOX team, headed by Bill O'Reilly, has essentially buried Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The fact that Nancy Grace (think Duke lacrosse and Kaylee Anthony) beats Keith's anti-Bush tirades by almost 100,000 votes is an embarrassment to the MSNBC brand. Furthermore, Olbermann continues to nurse dreams (fantasies?) of grandeur, as Bill O'Reilly is almost weekly labeled "Worst Person in the World" for some fallacious reason or another along with some mention of "Fixed News". To be sure, Olbermann has lost the Battle of the Bloviators, but can he get over his creepy obsession with O'Reilly?