Tim Goodman, television columnist for the SF Chronicle, says in print what many of us know:

Keith Olberman on MSNBC Knows How to Do News Best.

… in the last year, Olbermann has emerged as a kind of force of nature on television. His viewing audience has continued to rise — his show is up about 76 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared with last. His profile, however, is off the charts. Olbermann has been on a late-night talk-show binge; he is credited with almost single-handedly making MSNBC relevant (no small feat); and he has re-upped his MSNBC show, “Countdown,” for another four years, through 2011. The deal calls for Olbermann to write periodic essays for NBC’s “Nightly News With Brian Williams” and have two “Countdown” specials air on NBC.

Olbermann’s mix of smarts and snark would soon make “Countdown” one of the few absolutely essential news shows on television. In 2003, when Olbermann agreed to fill in a mere three times on MSNBC’s long forgotten “Nachman” show, somebody finally paid attention to the man’s myriad talents. Not long after, “Countdown” was born, and it took a turn as a Roman candle once Olbermann started poking fun at the meritless ego and thin skin of Fox showman Bill O’Reilly. Olbermann’s star status exploded when he then started eviscerating the dumbassification of this country through the politics of President Bush. Those “Special Comment” riffs caught the attention of what must always be lazily described as “the left wing,” and off Olbermann shot as a voice of reason for the left when, prior to that, everyone was sitting mute or meekly inarticulate.

So here television found a polymath who could deliver a news story with authority, skewer idiotic behavior with savage humor (his “Worst Person in the World” segment), be unafraid to have an actual opinion and back it up, and then hit the talk-show circuit and be a witty bon vivant.

It’s no news that MSNBC’s Olbermann knows how to do news best

Frankly, I turn his show off before he hits his Hollywood and weird sections but the first third to half are consistently good, and if he has a commentary at the end it always worth hearing….