Bill O'Reilly has started an online petition to have Keith Olberman fired from his MSNBC show and replaced with Phil Donahue.
Keith Olberman has become one of he lone voices of reason on cable network news. When a right winger says or does something crazy, he isn't afraid to point out their ridiculousness.
Obviously this has rubbed O'Reilly the wrong way. Olberman has regularly poked fun at O'Reilly for his crazy jihads against "the secularization of Christmas," San Francisco, and anyone who deviates from the far-right party line.
Now O'Reilly is striking back. But instead of engaging Olberman on the issues or defending his own credibility, O'Reilly is trying to get Olberman fired with a petition.
Can you imagine the staff meeting where this was discussed? O'Reilly sat down with his team of producers and announced that he wanted to get back at Olberman. How? He was going to make MSBC fire him and replace him with Phil Donahue. Wasn't there anyone in the room who had the guts to tell O'Reilly that this idea was childish and silly? "Smith, get that on the web site. Put it right under my list of enemies and the list of newspapers that have defamed me."
When you have an overpaid bully running his own show, none of the peons working for him are willing to be the voice of reason, especially not the women on staff. They're just sexual objects. And the men? If they disagree, they'll be removed by security, like Jeremy Glick.
O'Reilly's ego has gotten so big no one has the guts to point out to him when he is acting crazy. This is the classic first stage of a major publiic and personal meltdown. Reminds me of someone from history, brought to life so vividly by Malcolm McDowell in the ledgendarily bad film Caligula. McDowell, speaking to the Roman Senate, bellowed this classic line:
I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God.
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