Keith Olbermann OUT at MSNBC

[filkertom]

Holy crap.

(And, because of travel earlier in the week, I'd missed a Special Comment [video here] about the tone of political discourse, nine days after the Tucson shootings.)

Comments

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I was surprised; I didn't hear any rumors. I thought maybe he was going to say Countdown was done, but he was starting a new show called something else. Very surprising.

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

I'm also sorry he won't be among the commentators on Tuesday night.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Aside from all the speculation about this being the first fallout of the Comcast-NBC disaster merger, I would love to see Oprah give him a show on her new network. He'd fit in, politically, and people who don't currently watch it or have it on their systems would suddenly give the net a good bump.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like the way you think... :-)

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

She can't.

Nobody can.

Olbermann is still under terms of a non-compete clause with NBC which runs through February 2013, as I understand it. He can be on the Internet and maybe on radio, but not in any televised format whatever.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

That surprises me. I don't think of Oprah as being particularly left-leaning...maybe centrist. So far, a lot of the stuff I've glimpsed on her new network are shows like Dr. Pill and Suze Ormand (sp?) and ads for some show about hoarders with an authority figure chastising the hoarder-of-the-week and making Everything Better (blecch). I just don't see Oprah bringing in Keith Olbermann, but I could be completely wrong.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Fit in with Oprah? When has Olbermann ever given away a car? Or plugged sappy light-reading books? Or encouraged pop-culture shrinks to cure someone's askew life? He wouldn't work at all on Oprah's network. For her kind of plug-o=rama she'd need someone like...say, Drew Carey.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Hi jaw, meet ground. I'm sure Keith will clarify in his own time and under his own terms, but wow.

Interestingly enough, the exit is top headline on CNN (at 915am EST) complete with large picture, and on MSN.com, it's a small 4 word link at the bottom of one of their news subsections. I kinda wonder what FauxNews has to say about it, but I don't want to give them the webhit.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Google cache? :)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

There's good general coverage, but also a dose of malicious gossip, and "He was particularly critical of Fox News Channel and his direct competitor, Bill O'Reilly..." It's all about them, I guess.

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is just loads of bullshit. the one truly honest voice in American Political commentary who took on all comers. He kept others honest while freely admitting when he himself had done wrong, yet wasn't afraid to go after any and all bullshit. This is a sad day in journalism.

[tantra-cat.livejournal.com]

Keith was forced out, and as part of the deal he will be off the air for a period of time...worst case scenerio 2 years which is what was left on his contract.

He did his job too well and it pissed the corporate overlords off.

Comcast is right wing and has ties to tea party types....It's hard to say what the people left (ha) will be able to say and do...

It's a devastating blow for the opposition voice in this country...Pretty soon all we will have is Fox, and Fox lites giving us "news".

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Well, there's always the BBC and other foreign news sites.

And on American television, Comedy Central, the USA's source of last resort for actual news.

Oh, and Hollywood for opposite spin. Liberals apparently have ceded the entire "news" media to the extreme right, choosing instead to corner the entertainment market.

[bosswriter.livejournal.com]

I am sure he will surface somewhere in some medium. He is too good at what he does to not be around. It is a sad commentary that we have devolved to where someone speaking his mind is given the boot because he "offends" too many people. The truths hurts.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Only liberals who speak their mind are given the boot for "offending too many people". The fringe right is actively promoted on the grounds that they are "contentious".

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I heard/posted about this last night.

It's very weird and surreal actually. I'm really looking forward to eventually hearing the whole story.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Local Seattle blogger and alternative journalist David Goldstein runs the following headline at his blog, HorsesAss.Org: "Comcast buys NBC, fires Olbermann (http://horsesass.org/?p=32315)." True, false, who knows? Likely enough, though. He also comments, "Anybody who says that media consolidation isn’t the greatest threat to our democracy, is either a liar, a fool… or somebody who wants a career in media."

"Jill" over at Brilliant at Breakfast writes a kind of memorial (http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2011/01/like-butter-spread-on-too-much-bread.html) for Countdown, at the end of an extended post about an awful month.

[old-fortissimo.livejournal.com]

It was surreal watching it go down in real time last night.

"I think the same fantasy popped into the head of everybody in my business who has ever been told what I have been told -- 'this will be the last edition of your show.'"

N.B. "told what I have been told."

Clearly, this was not Keith's choice.

MSNBC has already stated this had nothing to do with ComCast: YMMV on that.

Lawrence O'Donnell will take over the 8:00 PM EST slot...presumably Rachel's show now has the Last Word.

Tom, did my attempt to notify you of this news ever get through to you?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No, Murray, not before this comment. On the other hand, it was all over the Internet. ;)

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

MSNBC has already stated this had nothing to do with ComCast: YMMV on that.

Well of course MSNBC said that; their spokespeople want to stay employed, don't they?

That's the problem with news media being untrustworthy; even if they were telling the truth, you'd be a fool to take any statement from them as proof of anything other than that they know how to issue statements.

If they owned ALL the media, the public might not have any way to know whether it really snowed outside their town, or whether Rep. Giffords had actually been shot, or by whom.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

The Comcast merger has been in the news for months. How do you know there wasn't an agreement to get rid of him as a condition of the merger or a way to please their new owners? Do you really think MSNBC would admit ComCast was involved and risk the bad press? What else would cause this turn of events?

[stdharma.livejournal.com]

I think KO will probably go back to what he loved, that being a sports announcer.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Fuck. I can't even think of words to pen on this subject.

[kshandra]

I spent six and a half hours on Twitter last night, mourning with my fellow fans (and fangirls). It wasn't until the last hour that I finally forced myself to eat dinner. I'm trying to damp down my instinctive reactions today, in the interest of marital harmony (gridlore is sorry he's gone, but believes that Rachel and Lawrence have become the better interviewers), but it's not easy.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with your honey about that, but sheer passion & righteous outrage -- not to mention world-class snark -- are potent weapons for our side as well. And loads of fun to watch.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Not that I don't share the sentiments expressed here already, but I'm a little disappointed that this blog post wasn't a revelation that KO is gay or Wiccan or something like that which needs "outing".