This retarded tautology neatly encapsulates MSNBC’s incapacity for critical thinking (or even self-awareness):

From Newsbusters, via Ace of Spades.

Researchers have discovered that the brain saves energy by predicting what it is likely to see. According to scientists in the Department of Psychology at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany, the visual cortex does not simply react to visual stimuli but proactively predicts what it is likely to see in any given context – for example, within familiar environments such as your house or office.

And once we hear about a study that concludes the brain hears what it wants to hear, we”ll have a complete explanation for the alternate reality experienced by MSNBC’s David Shuster.

Have you noticed that Keith Olbermann a) never, ever, has anybody on his show who disagrees with him substantively; and b) nobody on Fox News or talk radio will even mention him by name?

Well, Keith finally encountered somebody who will engage him. It is ordinary people: tea partiers, amateur YouTubers and bloggers.

And so far this is going very, very badly for Keith.

Via Olbermann Watch.

Remember Keith Olbermann?

He was the one-time must-see anti-Bush ranter who helped rescue MSNBC (yes, it’s still on at night) from even worse oblivion years ago.

Well, quietly last month while no one was looking, hardly anyone was watching Keith Olbermann anymore.

We did a deeper dive into Keith’s viewership:

H/T Matthew G.

UPDATE: I screwed up. Not even Keith Olbermann watches Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

The Sultan of Smug and Howard Fineman discuss the implications of a Brown win in the Massachusetts Senate race. Olbermann wants so badly to proclaim racism from the solar-paneled rooftops of his progressive fantasy world, but all that he and Fineman are able to come up with is “pick-up trucks are racist” or something.

Ed Morrissey has more.

Just listened to Howard Dean on Rachel Maddow’s show. His explanation for a Brown win? Republicans don’t think Obama has delivered enough change.

It’s pretty clear that people are upset by what’s going on in Washington. They don’t like the partisanship, they don’t like the bickering. They don’t I think really see the kind of change they were hoping to get. I had a number of people, Republicans, who had voted for the president the last time around and they are really looking for some real change. I think the American people want real change and they haven’t seen that yet.

Can a statement contain so many contradictions that it actually becomes true?

UPDATE: Victory. The wheels are coming off at MSNBC. I encourage you to watch.

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 3, 2009

roborant \ROB-uh-ruhnt\, adjective:

1. Strengthening; restoring vigor.

noun:
1. A strengthening medicine; a tonic; a restorative.

I thought it was robo-rant [ROH-BOH-rant], and I thought it described that thing that hosts MSNBC’s Countdown.