For the past few days, I had been planning an impassioned plea for Keith Olbermann to bring back Worst Persons in the World - one of his most popular and effective spots. 

With recent events of his indefinite suspension, the finished post has morphed into a rally cry for reality and truth in media - and to put Keith back on the MSNBC airwaves where he belongs. A few snippets:

"Keith gives light to marginalized people. He elevates stupidity for what it is (which was the purpose of my original post to urge him to keep WPITW) and calls out specific individuals who act like the world is not enough for them. They act like ownership applies to culture, to principle, to people - and it doesn’t. And despite breaking NBC protocol, Keith’s donation pales in comparison to what FOX is doing - as the de facto fund-rasing and PR wing of the GOP. Anyone doubting that point has not been paying attention to the slow and steady - and Supreme Court allowed - involvement of corporations in our political system. Fox News has become a festering money machine for the far-right agenda, with primetime hosts posing as politicians and vice versa. They are policy impostors when the world needs true heroes."

Since I'm always a solutions guy, I'd be remiss without suggesting one:

"Allow me to volley a solution. Take a break, go to the beach, do some writing, read some Thurber, watch some tape of the Mets winning the series, whatever. Then, come back on air and promptly anoint yourself Worst Person in the World. Elevate the rules of NBC as, in fact, the standard bearer in your sane media world and hold yourself accountable as violating them. You can rise above the fray. Because there’s no other way forward than to slot yourself in to the same standards to which you hold others - plus, it would play right into your unvarnished, Bush-league contrarian honesty."So, allow me to volley a solution. Take a break, go to the beach, do some writing, read some Thurber, watch some tape of the Mets winning the series, whatever. Then, come back on air and promptly anoint yourself Worst Person in the World. Elevate the rules of NBC as, in fact, the standard bearer in your sane media world and hold yourself accountable as violating them. You can rise above the fray. Because there’s no other way forward than to slot yourself in to the same standards to which you hold others - plus, it would play right into your unvarnished, Bush-league contrarian honesty."

Jump directly to my blog for more. Thanks for reading and reposting - there are links galore after the jump to the latest news stories as well as the petition to bring him back from BoldProgressives.com.

This is the perfect chance for Keith to restart and relaunch himself as the cornerstone of MSNBC's line-up. He got there for a reason, and to leave now would be a betrayal of sorts to that accomplishment. 

The title I used here and in my full blog post borrows a line from Keith's impassioned Prop 8 Special Comment in which he questioned denying expression of love. It was a true watershed moment in the search for marriage equality - he won a GLAAD award for it.