Rex Murphy: Gore and Olbermann — which one is Gilligan? | Full Comment | National Post

When Keith Olbermann comes on Current TV and hectors all 23,000 homes that watch its prime-time signal that “the science is settled, dammit” then you can be sure the science will be settled or else.

Still, there’s something wrong with this viewing equation for both parties. Twenty-three thousand viewers in a country of 300 million people — these are not CSI numbers. Heck, they’re not even fireplace-channel numbers; and can hardly constitute the “reach” that an impressario of Olbermann’s ego can tolerate.

Maybe the governing motto here then is not that of Shakespeare and his “true minds” after all. Maybe the real impulse can be explained more simply and commonly by the ancient piece of folk wisdom that “misery loves company.” As Gore’s star pales and recedes, and as the furious sanctimonies of global warming meet resistance, perhaps fading Al sees something of a mirror image in the fall of Keith. And perhaps both of them sense that each of them has had his moment, that this moment is past, so maybe the only fun left is to join hands and mutually console for what little of the gig remains to either of them.