Thank you for posting this. I watch nearly all of your posts, and this was a particularly good one. His words are important here, and I commend you for providing a valuable service by republishing them. Thank you, and good work!

KO is BRILLIANT. The only talking head on cable news with an understanding of todays events in historical context. He's the closest thing we've got to Edward R. Murrow.

Share with everybody!

Spectacular. Olbermann's really been rising to the times.

Keith is the only commentator listen to, and now I know why! This is a fine editorial. JA Dow

Its nice to see Olberman in another shade. From your other posts I somehow experienced him as cheap shooting, but this modifies the picture.

It appears he has enough depth to sometimes do cases justice with this cheap shooting, when deserved.

A related Daily Show video.

Well said Kieth! That was one of the best commentaries I have ever hear!! AMEN

Wow! Obviously someone who is deeply passionate about his country...and with the intelligence & ability to get to the heart of the matter. Bravo Keith!

Yes, but does he have a flag? Right, Joe?

I was all set to say, "Wow, that was almost Murrowesque, in an age of media that I didn't think could have that adjective applied to it". Then of course Olbermann referenced Murrow himself, and so that comment no longer seemed useful. So I made this one instead. :-)

Bravo. The Murrow quote resonates.

This man has my utmost attention and respect.

Keith is leading the way, in intelligent reporting. He deals with the facts and he stand strong to inform the public that we ought not to repeat our tragic histories.

Such depth and elegance each time. Superb.

May I add, that this video is becoming very, very viral.

Keith's words are spreading like wildfire across youtube.

Edward R Murrow "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility."

Edward R Murrow Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER. For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done--and are still doing--to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.

Those of us who want to have KO's baby? Yeah, there's a sign up sheet.

If only the average american had the intellectual curiosity to try to understand Keith's main point, this world would be a much better place. They were not born stupid nor were they were born intellectually dull. So what has made the average american the way they are?

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Here, here.

Now, does this place Mr. Olberman in the running for a Peabody, or a Pulitzer?

Quite amazing. I agree completely... apart from the flag-waving, but hey - with Fox desecrating the American flag by spewing it over every frame of video they broadcast, someone needs to reclaim it!

Thanks for posting this, it NEEDS to be seen.

:) very thoughtful. Not only a rejection of the simple- minded explanations the government survives on, instead of a categorical assumption that everything they do is wrong. But also a reason for disbelieving the sureness of others, if they can only argue with help of their assumed knowledge of all things... cough And without some kind of tremendous bravado and vision of how the statement alone will change the world in an instant..

Mr. Olbermann, well done.

Nfinitfx-

I think the reason why the average American does not question authority figures is the same reason why fundimentalists exist. If you question, you have no certainy, and that is frightening. People want to feel safe.

In listening and in reading comments suggesting 'average Americans' may have difficulty understand Mr Olbermann, I can only nod in agreement. The man uses precise and academic speech and grammar, something to which most if not all television zombies are not familiar.

I feel for the citizens of the USA, much like I do for the Chinese and the Israelis who live under the shadow of their governments. It bring my blood to a boil in that I cannot convince my parents to even listen to my discussions on the subject of American politics - we're Canadians - as it 'does not affect us'. Oh how I wish that were true.

It's worse than that, imo. What's more frightening than genuinely believing you live in the strongest country on the planet, and then have someone question whether is possible to defend it?

im slow. what was his point about chamberlain and churchill?

Nothing slow about not seeing the point about that.. It's a good lie, anyway. Chamberlain's government, for loads of different reasons, simply decided to ignore how the germans built up their war- machine. Churchill, who was accused of being mentally unstable several times in his career, and apparently was committed for a while as well, was right about what Germany wanted to do. Even if Churchill was part of the government that gutted the defense- spending, and may not have decided about Germany until a bit later.

But it's true Chamberlain and his government knew they were right, and decided how reality had to be, based on political convenience (together with their government).. And how the general sentiments about strong leaders and fascism in europe in general at the time figure into that, is an interesting question. The same is how american views about strong leaders today are different, and how it may give the same opportunities for the same kind of blindsided errors.

...like not standing up to Germans nazis.. hm.. nevermind.