Olbermann has some tics that grate on me and in the end I always prefer Maddow, but I find that he underreacts to more things than he overreacts to and I generally have a lot of respect for him. If you followed his show during his father's illness and death, you can see that the "shrillness" is sincere passion. Given the cesspool the 24-hr media cycle is, a little integrity and passion for values that a lot of rich, privileged white guys don't share is pretty impressive and admirable.