I've never watched either of these shows before up until today's class, and if it weren't for this assignment I'm sure I never would have. And while I didn't watch any specific episodes in full, I thought that the clips in class as well as the few others I watched through both websites displayed enough footage for me to form an opinion.
Both shows did almost exactly the same thing. They supported one candidate over another, without actually saying which candidate they preferred. As everybody as already mentioned, both shows came across as extremely biased, but as a few more mentioned that is almost their purpose: to cater to a certain group of individuals with the same views and opinions in common. However, what I don't think anybody mentioned which I would like to point out is that I really appreciate both Olbermann's and O'Reilly's confidence, or rather Fox News and MSNBC's confidence. Shows like these two were obviously created for their specific purpose, but I applaud the two men for being so well versed in such distinguished topics and not being afraid to air their opinions. I don't know, it's just something I wouldn't be able to do.
And while I can't say I'm going to be sitting down anytime soon to catch an entire episode of either show, if I had to make a choice I think I would choose to watch Olbermann over O'Reilly. His versions of things were a lot more entertaining and just made more of an impact without sounding utterly ridiculous as O'Reilly did to me. But again, that could just because my opinions are much more similar to those which Olbermann expressed. It's not a necessarily "fair" competition.