What are a local TV news anchor and a national cable talk-show host doing together on my blog? Simple. In one word, it is asshole. Now, there are different degrees to which I use this term. I have never met either of them in person, but they both seem to have earned the same smug reputation among most of those who have seen them.
Bill Sharpe is the 600 anchor for WCSC in Charleston, SC. He has been an institution at the station for over 30 years (read: he is getting pretty old), and he is the quintissential stuffy, anchorman. I quote from that old conservative weekly, the Charleston City Paper..
Best Ted Baxter ImpressionNews Anchor Bill Sharpe WCSC
That hilarious TV character Ted Baxter (the late, great Ted Knight's role from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) was the stereotypical anchorman character for years. His stuffy manner, constant mistakes, arrogance, and incompetence created an American icon for sure. As an award-winning newsman of 30 years in Charleston at WCSC's Live 5 News, anchorman Bill Sharpe — one of the only native Charlestonians on the local news scene — may be the closest thing we have to a local Ted Baxter-type. Although Sharpe is loose, casual, prepared, and extremely confident (and totally un-Baxter-like in many ways), he has that sing-songy delivery that's instantly recognizable.
All that aside, I had something odd happen when I mentioned Sharpe to two friends at different times. They both said the same thing... "Bill Sharpe is an asshole." Stunning. What could be so bad about a guy that two people in separate places at different times say the same thing about a guy? Does that really make him one? Of course not, but hey...... I'm sure some of our Charleston area friends could shed some light on all of this...
On to a real a-hole: Keith Olbermann. I liked Keith a lot when he was on ESPN back in the 90's. He had a wicked sense of humor, and his SportsCenter broadcasts were great. I used to watch his MSNBC show 'Countdown' on occasion, mostly for his oddball news segments, but it had been some time since i caught his show - until this week.
I skipped around the news shows to get the poop on the Gen. Petraeus - Amb. Crocker hearings. First, i saw Hardball w/ Chris Matthews. Although Matthews is obviously not a GOP fan, his show was even handed and respectful of all the candidates. Then came Olbermann.
Olbermann has become what often happens to funny people who get into politics - they stop being funny, and just become angry. Ask Al Franken, Whoopi Goldberg and Bill Maher.... Olbermann is obviously upset with the US being in Iraq, but instead of intelligently picking apart the opposite side's stance on it, he is too busy making wise-ass comments under his breath and calling people facists to do so.
He no doubt has it in for John McCain.. While Matthews honestly felt that the Tiger Woods comment made by a supporter at a speech he gave was not McCain's fault, Olbermann accused him of being a racist, and then got back into his "he can't get the Sunni's and Shia's straight' crap again. People misspoke. On the same broadcast, Olbermann misread the teleprompter , saying 'bearing' instead of 'hearing', but do we start calling him illiterate??
Watching this made me realize why Olbemann's ratings suck. No one can watch this mess day after day. It wears on people. No one can watch negativism for too long. Even Howard Beale's rating went down the tank after a while. With that in mind, i give you a Zer-Olbermann like clip to watch....
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3 comments:
got a good lawyer
who will i get sued by now?
warren pepper is a prick too.
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