That former TV star Keith Olbermann repeatedly engages in Russophobic rants isn’t information. That nobody from his political camp – ostensibly all about niceness, inclusivity and opposing bigotry – is looking him out on it, is.
The previous sportscaster turned MSNBC pundit turned sportscaster turned YouTube “Resistance” activist – that was the title of his on-line present – has a protracted historical past of hyperbole and invective, from calling Republicans Nazis to ranting towards “Russian scum” supposedly controlling US President Donald Trump.
On Monday, nevertheless, he plumbed new depths of bigotry, denouncing “the stain of Russian heritage in my household.”
It wasn’t instantly clear what he was referring to, as public details about Olbermann suggests he’s of German ancestry. His tweet rapidly bought ratioed, with the overwhelmingly destructive responses starting from calling it “vile and bigoted” and “xenophobic trash” to a number of variations of “Nazi s**t.”
Conspicuously absent, nevertheless, was any form of response from the US mainstream media and Democrats – who share Olbermann’s convictions and beliefs, even when they sofa them in much less incendiary language.
This may appear baffling. Evidently not a day goes by and not using a “information” story about how somebody – an actress, politician, police officer, professor, reporter, even a 19-year-old woman – will get “canceled” for saying one thing somebody someplace perceived as presumably racist. Why does bigotry towards Russians get a move?
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Issues get much more fascinating when contemplating the ostensible motive for Olbermann’s newest rant: his declare that none apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin himself goes after “my boy Panarin.” This can be a reference to Artemi “Breadman” Panarin, a New York Rangers participant who can also be on the Russian nationwide squad.
Panarin has just lately caught some warmth within the Russian press over his cheerleading for the “opposition chief” (i.e. US-backed blogger) Alexey Navalny. His former coach has introduced up a 2011 bar struggle in Latvia the place the participant had allegedly hit a lady and bribed police to let it go.
pic.twitter.com/VcOJ4BqMHm
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 22, 2021
Panarin denied and referred to as it a politically motivated “intimidation tactic,” however introduced Monday he can be taking a “private depart of absence” from the Rangers.
One would assume that within the US “cancel tradition,” defending somebody accused of abusing ladies would even be frowned upon. Not so. There may be clearly an exception for somebody on the identical facet politically. As Glenn Greenwald so memorably put it as soon as, “It isn’t #MeToo – it is #MeBlue.”
Not that there’s a lot to “cancel” in relation to Olbermann. True, he was as soon as a celebrated “liberal customary bearer” of MSNBC who helped invent “a brand new mode of liberal cable-news political commentary,” in response to a pleasant New York Instances journal profile from Might 2017. He has since fallen out of company media grace, nevertheless, and located solace in a web-based world he constructed to justify his existence, during which he has a job to play in saving the soul of America.
That is in response to that very same NYT journal profile, by the way in which, during which the sympathetic author solely obliquely criticizes his rhetoric by saying it’s similar to “unfocused rage and wild hypothesis” of Republicans in direction of former President Barack Obama. Maybe the mainstream noticed Olbermann as a “black mirror” reflecting their obsessions a bit too properly, and quietly pushed him out to the sidelines.
Sadly Keith isn’t the one media hack who lives with the stain of Russophobia. It’s a widespread #BlueAnon phenomenon. https://t.co/GOCYKNSkht
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 22, 2021
The distinction between Olbermann and the US mainstream, nevertheless, is one in all diploma and never of variety. His rants about “Russian scum” and “stain” of his heritage could also be dialed as much as 11, however aren’t that far off from Rachel “Russia desires to show off your electrical energy” Maddow or something one would possibly hear on CNN any given night time. Or has everybody already forgotten the 5 years of “Russian collusion” conspiracy programming?
It wasn’t a relative no person like Olbermann, however former Director of Nationwide Intelligence James Clapper, who instructed NBC throughout a Might 2017 interview that Russians “sometimes, are virtually genetically pushed to co-opt, penetrate, achieve favor, no matter.” Not solely did he face zero pushback or condemnation, he was employed by CNN as a nationwide safety analyst three months later!
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That will clarify why Olbermann is so offended on a regular basis. It additionally means that the “cancel tradition” doesn’t even have ideas. It’s not a solution to maintain folks “accountable” for bigotry, racism, xenophobia or offensive language, when it’s completely advantageous for them to make use of it towards the formally sanctioned enemy. In different phrases, this isn’t about one thing you do, however about who you’re.
That’s the good irony of recent US society, that it revolves across the “who/whom” principle of politics articulated by none apart from the Communist chief V.I. Lenin within the Soviet Union, virtually a century in the past.
