MSNBC's Keith Olbermann takes on Anderson Cooper

MSNBC talking head Keith Obermann is well established as one of the few news anchors out there willing to really speak up about controversial topics. (For the record, I think he's great.) He's repeatedly taken on the Bush Administration, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and pretty much anyone else he suspects of being a hypocrite. Turns out Olbermann's outspokenness extends to his fellow news anchor Anderson Cooper of CNN. In a recent interview with New York Magazine Olbermann has this to say about Anderson (recently "outed" so to speak by Out magazine):

Don’t tell me you don’t want to talk about personal life when you wrote a book about your father’s death and your brother’s death. You can’t move this big mass of personal stuff out for public display, then people ask questions and you say, ‘Oh, no, I didn’t say there was going to be any questions.’ It’s the same thing as the Bush administration saying, ‘We’re going to war, but you really aren’t allowed to know why.

Don't hold back there, Keith! But that isn't all. Olbermann goes on to say:

Don’t tell me you can’t talk about your personal life and then, when they send you overseas and you do a report that consists of your voice-over and pictures of you in a custom-made, blue-to-match-your-eyes bulletproof vest, looking somberly at these scenes of human devastation—like a tourist—and that’s your report. Your shtick is your personal life.

I think I've made my feelings about outing pretty clear, but I have to say Olbermann has a point. I've long felt that if a celebrity doesn't trade on their personal life to garner publicity (see Ian McKellen) then their private life is off limits. But if they do make appearances with "dates" or, say, write books that spill all the personal beans except for whom they spoon with at night, then they are being a hypocrite and I can't get too outraged when they get questioned about the part of their personal life that for some reason isn't as relevant as the rest.

I think Olbermann's remarks significantly up the pressure on Anderson to come out as Olbermann is main stream media and I wager his remarks are going to be widely reported. Hmm, perhaps I should start writing that coming out blog post now.

(Hat tip to Wayman for sending us the article! And Olbermann's comments about Anderson appear starting at the end of page 5.)