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How the Rally to Restore Sanity Has Made the Liberals Less Sane

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | November 9, 2010 |

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | November 9, 2010 |


Last night, Jon Stewart kicked off his show — now competing with “Conan” (review later today) — by taking a look at how some other progressives reacted to the Rally to Restore Sanity, specifically Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Bill Maher, all of whom I like, and all of whom I watch regularly.

But this argument that Olbermann and Maddow insist on making — the MSNBC vs. Fox false equivalence argument — is bullshit. And quite honestly, the more they insist they’re not Fox News, the more I lose respect, especially Olbermann, who sounds like a self-righteous blowhard whenever he tries to make that argument. They are the same thing — Olbermann’s political contributions further revealed the similarities.

What the hell happened to this guy’s sense of humor, anyway? I’ve been watching him for years — since his ESPN days. Olbermann used to be funny on occasion. And he used to have some self-awareness. He quit an earlier incarnation of his current show after it began to revolve almost exclusively around Monica Lewinsky, realizing that he didn’t want to devote his career to gossip and scandal. Now? He’s just as reactionary as O’Reilly, and when he tries to insist that he’s not, he sounds defensive and petty. I think that Stewart is exposing Olbermann for the giant douche to which many of us on the left have been willfully oblivious.

Maddow, Olbermann, Maher: The opening segment of last night’s show demonstrated exactly why you don’t pick a fight with Jon Stewart. You can’t win. And when you try to, he will put you in your place. Stewart focuses a larger share of his ire and ridicule on Fox News right now, but this is exactly the sort of thing that will get him to refocus his attention on MSNBC and the liberals. You don’t want Jon Stewart as an enemy.


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