Olbermann Vs. Hannity

From time to time, I'll watch some of the different cable news stations at night. There is a wide variety of "hosts" for stations like CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, and MSNBC. Almost all of them happen to be conservative. The most blatantly hard-line conservative of these has to be Fox's Sean Hannity. But there is one unabashed liberal as well: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann (I consider Alan Colmes on Fox to be more of a centrist than a liberal). So I thought it would be interesting to compare the two.

Being generally a little on the left side of the center politically, I think it's only fair to lay that out when making my comparisons. Be that as it may, overshadowing the fact that he is one of a rare breed (liberal commentator), Keith Olbermann is, to me, a thoroughly obnoxious character. His segment titled "Today's Worst Person in the World" is actually the highlight of his show! He seems to derive some kind of perverse pleasure in deriding irrelevant personalities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton for several minutes at a time as well. And his bombastic "open letters" to President Bush are so loaded with spite that it's hard for me not to break out in laughter at his style. But my biggest criticism of Olbermann is that he seems to only interview like-minded liberals on his show and not conservatives. So, very often you'll see a split screen with Olbermann running his mouth about something and his always-agreeing guest in the right screen, smiling smugly and nodding his or her head like one of those old bobbing dog decorations. This is really sad, since I happen to agree with this host on most of his opinions!

Sean Hannity, on the other hand, is equally as obnoxious as Keith Olbermann, but in different ways. Most of my exposure to him is in the format of his syndicated radio show, although I've seen him at times on TV. His line with callers is "You're a great American", which apparently has something to do with being a conservative (apparently liberals must conversely be BAD Americans). But whenever a caller reveals disagreement with Hannity or shows a liberal bent, Hannity morphs into a rude rant, frequently interrupting the caller and barraging him or her with insulting name-calling in the manner of an interrogation, not a conversation. That's for the callers (us "little people" out there). To Hannity's credit (and this is what sets him apart from Olbermann), he invites and treats with respect guests of all sides of the issues that he's discussing. And then you can get a real debate on some topics. I've yet to see Olbermann get someone on his show with whom he was strongly at odds with. That isn't to say that one hasn't accidently slipped through from time to time, though.

Both Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann have a problem, as I see it. And it is basically that, if you agree with them, then you're a good guy. And if you disagree with them, then you're either bad or stupid. I would much prefer to watch someone like Chris Matthews, who is not only very knowledgeable and fair in his on-air dealings with others, but also has a terrific sense of humor. The "humor" of Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann is a nasty, cruel, mean sort of thing which is derived from insulting and ridiculing those with whom they differ. But this kind of style apparently sits well with many "Great Americans" out there, since these two hosts seem to be among the most popular as well.