Keith Olbermann just needed to find his voice. He'd been a droll sportscaster, a serious news anchor and a bickering critic of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. But none of those personas really clicked.

Then he found one. A little over a year ago, as the White House fumbled and botched the Hurricane Katrina recovery, Olbermann finally blew up.

He concluded a broadcast of his MSNBC cable news show, "Countdown,'' with an indignant rant in the rat-a-tat-tat cadence of his idol, Edward R. Murrow. He called it a "Special Comment.''

And just like that, Olbermann found his voice -- the angry everyman. He became a liberal counterpoint to conservative media ranters like O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, and an Internet star, too.

The result has been a cultural earthquake.

"Here's what happened,'' Olbermann said in a phone interview this week. "Five years ago (on Sept. 11), 50 percent of the country went quiet. There was this self-imposed censorship. Suddenly it became unimaginable to criticize the administration. And no one else was brave or stupid enough to say, 'I don't remember signing that document.' ''

Today Olbermann is hot, in every sense of the word. He likes to say that the first step to creating one of his blistering editorials is to "get pissed off,'' and that's certainly how he sounds.

But there's something more to it, too. Conservatives may hate his attacks, but no one doubts that he comes across as one of the smarter guys in the room. When he laid into then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Aug. 30, he threw in references to Neville Chamberlain and the policy of appeasement. Let's see NBC network anchor Brian Williams pull that off.

Not that he would try it.

"Broadcast networks are not interested in the controversy,'' Olbermann says.

Well, maybe they'd better start thinking about it.

"I think,'' says MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams, "that Keith Olbermann may become a model for the newscast of the future.''

And sure, Abrams is going to say that because he's Olbermann's boss. Besides, the MSNBC ratings have been on a roll lately -- helped by the 67 percent jump in viewership for Olbermann's show in the year since he began channeling Howard ("I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!'') Beale from the movie "Network.''

But there's something more at work here, a possible new model for the next age of electronic media. Olbermann isn't just getting more viewers. He's getting more views -- lots and lots more.

It may have been the Rumsfeld piece that struck a nerve. Captured on YouTube, it was e-mailed all over the country and watched again and again. A month after it appeared on "Countdown,'' it had been seen more than 100,000 times.

"I was told that this thing was flying all around to various places,'' he says. "To hear that as many, if not more, people were seeing it there than had seen it in the original was amazing.''

Not only was it a rock-solid indication that Olbermann was pulling younger viewers, but there was legitimate proof that he could move product as well. The day the Rumsfeld piece aired, pre-orders for Olbermann's new book, "The Worst Person in the World,'' placed it 19,000th on Amazon.com's best-seller list, according to mediabistro.com, a media news Web site. After the commentary aired, the book moved to 19th.

It's tangible evidence of what Olbermann calls the "proverbial ripples on the pond.'' Not that he needed the book sales to convince him. Wherever he goes, people rush up to tell him that they've seen one of his "Special Comments'' and that he speaks for them.

"Six weeks ago,'' Olbermann says, "a woman burst into tears. I was at a restaurant with my girlfriend and she came up to me and started crying.''

Suddenly, everyone wants Olbermann. Last week, he and political veteran Chris Matthews teamed up to anchor MSNBC's midterm election coverage.

The result? Abrams called it "a major turning point for this network.'' Ratings were up across the board and the coveted 25-to-54 age demographic increased 111 percent from the 2002 midterm election.

What's next? Expect to see Olbermann in even more mainstream settings. The one thing he is resisting, however, is pressure to produce more "Special Comments.'' He has to feel them, he says. "Otherwise I will turn into a cartoon of myself.''

Certainly it is the passion that carries the day. As Abrams says, "Keith isn't faking this, and the viewers can see that.''

But now that he has everyone's attention, everyone is asking Olbermann the same question: With the result of the election and the resignation of Rumsfeld, where will he find targets?

"I'm giving the Democrats six months,'' he says. "And then they may be in for some 'Special Comments' of their own.''

Don't think he's kidding. He has found a point of view and he isn't afraid to use it.

To watch his MSNBC show, "Countdown," go to msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677 .

C.W. Nevius' column appears regularly. His C.W. Nevius.blog and podcast, "News Wrap,'' can be found at SFGate.com. E-mail him at cwnevius@sfchronicle.com.

© Copyright 2006 San Francisco Chronicle

###