Keith and Bill O

I'm a big fan of Keith Olbermann. I like his nightly news show, "Countdown" on MSNBC a lot. He is one of the best sports reporters and commentators in my considerable memory.

But he has got to get over his obsession with Bill O'Reilly. I am not sure but I don't think Keith's had a show in a couple of weeks in which the man he calls "Bill Orally" hasn't played a prominent role. The two men are bitter competitors. Or at least they appear to be. Each bashes the other on his show. And each thereby gives his competitor publicity and exposure he might not otherwise get.

I don't like O'Reilly. I don't like the network he appears on (Fox Noise, as Keith calls it). I think the right-wing screed he and his bosses and colleagues spew daily is a blight that explains in some large measure why our country is what it is today: angry, distrusted, violent and unpleasant in many, many ways.

But I don't see how it serves Keith to continue to attack O'Reilly other than the fact that the conservative radio-TV guy does give Olbermann a chance to utter some of his better-written lines.

I've resolved to fast forward through Keith's segments on O'Reilly. I wish he'd back way off on the attacks. Not stop them altogether, mind you. O'Reilly is a truly mean-spirited egomaniac and occasionally he does something so contemptible it ought to draw fiery commentary from the likes of Keith. But incessantly beating that horse? Counter-productive, Mr. Olbermann. Get over it.