Oh, Please

So Keith Olbermann is now foaming at the mouth with fear that "24" is nothing more than "fearmongering" that's "brainwashing" the public.

This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. First, it's worth asking the liberals: Didn't we learn -- back in the days of Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown -- that television was television, and life was life, and never the twain shall meet? Isn't that the way that left-leaning showbusiness types routinely justify putting all kinds of disgusting sex and violence on the screen, and then arguing that it has no impact on the people that watch it? And if that's true, then what's the problem with "24"?

Second, how amazing that Olbermann would choose to pick on the one show on television that could, arguably, be characterized as having a conservative bent (only, mind you, insofar as it doesn't try to soft-peddle the consequences of ignoring the terrorist threat). This is after years of silence as liberal television fare has dominated the airwaves, including the older stuff like "All in the Family" and "Maude," up to and including overtly political propaganda like "West Wing" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." And that's ignoring the really ridiculous stuff, like the anti-nuke television propaganda film "The Day After."

Olbermann has no problem with political entertainment programming. He just has a problem with it dissenting from liberal orthodoxy.

Update: Hugh Hewitt opines on whether "24" went too far in his ABCNews.com column.