I have a new crush (giggle). It’s always so exciting, at the beginning, when the other person can do no wrong. When everything they say is music to your ears. Sigh. Cue violins and chirping birds. Okay, maybe I’m not that far off the deep end. But I am feeling a little bit inspired.

As a self proclaimed theatre geek (I mean, come on, I did watch the Tony Awards Sunday night and almost peed my pants when Patti LuPone won, not to mention almost fainted when Paulo Szot sang “Some Enchanted Evening”), it took me some time to train myself to not flip straight to the New York Times Arts Section to agree wholeheartedly or disagree enraged with Ben Brantley and to actually read the (gasp!) news. The boring, boring, unfamiliar news. It wasn’t out of protest that I avoided the serious stuff, it was out of habit. Since leaving high school and my small home town on Long Island I’ve fallen into a more politically conscious crowd that has encouraged me to be more aware just by existing themselves. Which proves that some peer pressure isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Maybe it’s the thespian in me, but a few days ago I found myself perplexed by a bit of theatrics, and I’ve been trying to unravel the mystery. Perhaps you can help. I was visiting my family at home on Long Island and my mom and I were flipping the channels looking for something to watch. Ever since Jon Stewart’s Crossfire attack a few years back I’ve been wary of televised news. After all, if there’s anything on this earth that I know, it’s theatre. It’s in my blood. Televised news uses theatre to its advantage. The threatening music and the graphics are all very familiar. It’s all Special Effects. In theatre they’re used on a very fundamental level to assist in whatever the director or playwright is trying to get across. In the news, it’s emotional manipulation. It attempts to sustain suspense, get your attention, make you afraid. If a boyfriend or girlfriend did this stuff to you, it would be abusive. But since it’s the media we sit there and take it, and take it, and take it.

So a few nights ago I had to pause when I saw a distinguished man with glasses looking earnestly into the camera and speaking with conviction, concern crossing his face. He passionately berated John McCain for his statement regarding the uncertain return of US troops from Iraq, and that when exactly they come back is “not that important”:

Oh, so long ago you touched the essence of the reality of Iraq. Your comments about your lost comrades, yesterday.

The men and women in Iraq, today, Senator, they are your comrades, too.

And you are condemning them to die.

To die, for your misdirection, for Mr. Bush’s lies, for whoever makes the money off building 58 permanent American bases and all the weapons and all the bullets and all the wiring so costly and so slip-shod that it electrocutes our comrades as they step, not to fight freedom’s enemies, but into the shower at the base.

That, Senator, that is context.

It was a beautiful, eloquent speech about the lies told to us by the administration; a poetic salute to the fallen men and women; a cry for their deaths to be acknowledged. This guy was really upset. I thought to myself, “Okay. This must be fake. What about this is fake?” The longer I watched, the more I started to believe. I was struck by the possibility that maybe he actually cared.

Whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. Back up. Someone…in the media…cares?

I’ll pause while you pick yourself up off the floor.

It turns out it was none other than Keith Olbermann, who I’d definitely watched before but never really took much notice of – after all, those newscasters are all alike, aren’t they? After watching the segment I hurriedly turned on my laptop and checked my usual sources (New York Times, Wikipedia, Google, YouTube).

Okay let’s see…he started out as a newscaster on ESPN, then Fox Sports, then got his show Countdown on MSNBC. He posts on the Daily Kos and Rolling Stone says he’s The Most Honest Man in News? And then the New Yorker article by Peter Boyer that just came out really got me. It contains without a doubt my favorite line of all:

Phil Griffin, the senior vice-president in charge of MSNBC (“Phil thinks he’s my boss,” Olbermann says), raised the matter of tone. Why did Olbermann need to end his commentary by telling the President of the United States to “shut the hell up”?

“Because I can’t say, ‘Shut the fuck up,’ that’s why, frankly,” Olbermann responded.

Guys…I think he could be the one! I mean…he could be one of the only genuine guys in news. Not the one. You know what I mean.

If this is old news, forgive me, but I’m really excited about the prospect that someone might actually care. HE MIGHT ACTUALLY CARE. Wow. It’s a downer that we’re this cynical, isn’t it?

While I acknowledge the completely non-compassionate nature of Olbermann’s segment “The World’s Worst Person” in which he names the day’s top evil-doers (which have included Bill O’Reilly, John McCain, Rupert Murdoch, and himself), I do think it’s commendable that someone on a major news network is calling people out on their crap. And while I don’t doubt that the producers of MSNBC are happy with the fact that Olbermann brought up their ratings, I have to applaud them for giving him a voice. That’s a risk right there. That’s a lot of people you’re going to alienate. And let’s just say he hasn’t said the nicest things about Hillary Clinton, either.

Like any man, Mr. Olbermann isn’t perfect. He did make some disparaging remarks about Jon Stewart’s Oscar opener in which Stewart made a joke about Obama’s middle name being Hussein and that his last name rhymes with Osama. But I’ll forgive him for that. It’s hard to keep a 24 hour sense of humor when you’ve got a job like his.

And I know that he’s not devoid of his own theatrics, but sometimes it takes a character to reach people. There’s a reason why we love the Keith Olbermanns and the Stephen Colberts and the Jon Stewarts and the Lewis Blacks of this world. Good writers, good performers, make us want to listen. And while a distinctive personality shouldn’t be a prerequisite for getting your voice heard, it certainly helps.

I had a high school chemistry teacher who used to bang on students’ desks when they were falling asleep, and he once poured a student’s water bottle over the student’s head. This teacher was the bad guy that everyone was afraid of. But if you knew him, you saw right through his tough guy act, and you knew that he was one of the best teachers in that school. Sometimes you need to be shouted at to wake the hell (or the fuck) up.

Maybe the honeymoon period will wear off. Maybe Keith Olbermann will become just another angry liberal. Maybe he’s a jerk in real life. But for the time being he gets my Tony nomination for Best Leading Newscaster in a Partisan Country (or at least Most Interesting). I invite you to cast your vote now, and either reaffirm my youthful cockeyed optimism or send me a healthy dose of reality. Either way, I thank you.