by Denis Campbell

It was a dream match-up prime-time television listing for this past Tuesday night. Whilst it competed with an NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) rerun and gripping baseball, NBA and NHL playoff games, even the WWE’s (World Wrestling Entertainment) CEO Vince McMahon was filled with respect. “I tried for weeks to make this bout happen,” said McMahon. “It’s the grudge-match of the century.” 

Bigger than Hulk Hogan smashing Andre the Giant or Shawn Michaels Burying The Undertaker, NBC scooped all other news networks with a “Must-See TV” event live via satellite from Chicago and New York City on their cable news channel MSNBC. 

True it struggled in the Nielsen ratings but network weasel spinmeister Eric Lipschitz of their law firm, Dewey, Cheatum and Howe said, “this was because there was not enough time to properly promote it.” While neither the Thrilla in Manila or the Rumble in The Jungle this was a match of true liberal and conservative heavyweights appearing on ‘opposite marriage’ shows!

Picture the late great ABC fight and Monday Night Football announcer (he of “Down Goes Frazier! “Down Goes Frazier! “Down Goes Frazier!” fame), Howard Cosell from ringside: 

“In the blue corner: New York’s towering, platinum-haired big-head, quick-tongued intellect of the left… Keith Olbermann

And in the red corner, the right’s foaming waterboarded mouth breathing the Windy City’s Madman Chicago conservative radio host Matthew Erich “Mancow” Muller. 

They will do titanic battle in a winner-take-all 5-minute live television steel cage match.” 

Billed as a take no prisoners, winner take all match between conservative and liberal talking heads, this was one for the ages. The bell rang 55 minutes into the show and Keith came out with a series of tight taught jabs.

No, he didn’t. 

They laid out ground rules, stayed away from the incendiary were respectful to each other. Both said they would never agree politically and stayed away from each other. Arena fans booed, popcorn rained down on the rink, they called each other “stand-up guys,” hugged in the centre, made fun of Hannity and when the bell rang saying we’re out of time they… thanked each other. 

WTF?

And this puppy dog sleeping with kitty cat moment sums up my trip to DC. 

Obama is doing his best to end the partisan bickering vitriol and by staying consistent he forces more moment such as this one. I talked with many White House and Capitol Hill press corps members and was blown away with how snarky they are about the other side. 

I prepare to enter the mouth of the dragon one last time before returning home to the relative safety and civility of the UK and Wales (coffee spit-take moment). We’ve all spent so long talking at each other in the guise of providing fair and balanced reportage, it took these two stopping for a moment to be civil to each other to remind us of where we need to be to move forward? I wonder what Reagan and O’Neill must think of all this. 

Imagine though how much less interesting but productive life would be if we got the news personalities: O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Olbermann, Maddow, Matthews and the like to spend five minutes being nice to each other and finding common ground instead of always on the attack?

Would not be “must-see TV” but then this was and folks missed it as well.

Hmmmm……