Well, there’s the tease. Olbermann’s coming to Current TV, meaning that now Keith has an outlet that’s going to basically let him do what he wants. He also becomes the network’s “Chief News Officer,” meaning that rather than fighting with Phil Griffin, he effectively is Phil Griffin. source
Give us a bit of credit for getting eight years out of him. That’s the longest he’s been anywhere.
A NBC News executive • Discussing Keith Olbermann’s ouster late last week. Olbermann’s departure (which was mutual) continued a long trend for the fiery-but-talented anchor, who has left every network he’s worked for on not-so-hot terms. Most famously, of course, was his departure from ESPN, which Olbermann described as a “nuclear war.” But his resume is littered with similar explosive exits. So maybe it was time. source
Personally, I liked Olbermann better as a sports anchor. He could be funny, but he wasn’t expected to wad up paper, or quiver his lip, or what have you.
SB Nation’s Jon Bois • Offering a relatively fresh view on Olbermann’s departure, whatever the cause. Fact is, as many wonky fans as he has, some still love him more for his ’90s run on ESPN’s “Sportscenter.” (We disagree, by the way, but that’s just us.) Should Keith get back into sports? He was pretty good back in the day at doing this, so it’d be an interesting time to return. But he might be harder to accept in this role, considering the by-default divisive nature of “Countdown.” Keith’s done some sports stuff in recent years, most recently with “Football Night in America.” But doing sports full-time might be a bit of a harsh left turn for a guy who’s banked so much on the cult of personality and earned many fans because of it. source
departure Keith Olbermann shockingly announced his departure from MSNBC tonight, making the left half of the Interwebs explode. (Here’s the video.)
replacement Lawrence O’Donnell will be replacing Keith in the 8 p.m. slot, and Ed Schultz will replace O’Donnell at 10 p.m. Why not give our boy Cenk his own show? source
To simply the current societal argument going on right now: Some are arguing that the current anger and rage in our country’s politics have influenced events like the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy in Tucson on Saturday. Pima County, Az. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has perhaps been the leading voice for this kind of opinion. Many conservatives have been of the other opinion on this whole issue. This piece on Fox News, led by Megyn Kelly narrows the two points into one convenient video. Dupnik has some valid points, but Kelly arguably wins – she sticks to her guns and keeps asking for hard evidence, not speculation. She never gets it.
Olbermann’s repudiation hunt “If all of these are not responsible for what happened in Tucson, they must now be responsible for doing everything they can to make sure Tucson does not happen again.” It takes a few minutes for Olbermann’s main point to become clear, but when it does, it shines. The reason why it shines? Because he criticizes himself and his own side in the clip. That’s why it sticks to your bones.
The most heart-wrenching Story “I just assumed they got into a car accident.” When Christina Taylor Green went to witness Gabrielle Giffords speak on Saturday, she went with the kind of ambition that most nine-year-olds don’t have. And that’s what hurts the most about this incident. Gabrielle Giffords is still holding on and may make it. But her potential successor did not. You could feel it from the way her mom talks. Our heart breaks for her.
It’s not often we have Pat Sajak on the blog twice in a week – he’s a nice guy and all, but we’re not regular watchers of “Wheel of Fortune” by a long shot. But this clip right here is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it’s one of Keith Olbermann’s first network television appearances, and he’s on Pat Sajak’s, lost, lamented talk show with his ‘stache talking about sports. Second, Sajak (a conservative) pulled the clip out of the vault, apologizing for being the first to give Keith a wide audience. Keith, however, denies this, claiming that he had been on CNN years earlier, and had been the subject of segments on The Today Show and the CBS Evening News before that. Finally, no matter what happened, this clip is great. Keith was really funny back in the day, even though he was more wacky newscaster than second coming of Edward R. Murrow. (Pat Sajak’s show did give Rush Limbaugh his first wide audience on television.) source
The audible buzzing at the beginning of this clip we imagine was a side effect of the guy taping the video, but it makes the effect of Keith coming back even funnier. It wasn’t a PR stunt, kids, but it sure worked like one, didn’t it? source
After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night’s program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night.
MSNBC president Phil Griffin • Explaining how he’s decided to keep Keith Olbermann’s suspension really freaking short. While we’re happy about it, it’s like you gave your best player a two-game suspension for arguing with the ref. The fact of the matter is, we didn’t expect it to be so short, since you did it in the first place. source
The week in Olbermann Keith Olbermann has had a pretty busy week. It started with him ripping Jon Stewart while kneeling to him simultaneously. It ended with him getting suspended and getting Bill Kristol of all people defending him. This is prime territory of two media sources: Howard Kurtz and Mediaite. Both are covered here.
Countdown’s quick word “We know you are all looking forward to Keith’s return, and so are we.” We can imagine how weird it must be for Olbermann and the network that Olbermann revitalized to be going through with this. MSNBC sounds like Courtney Cox trying to be diplomatic about her separation from David Arquette.
So, to be clear … Eric Cantor, the likely new House Majority Leader, showed up on “Fox News Sunday” today, and was thrown a question on whether he’d allow a government shutdown on Obama’s watch, like in 1995. Notice how he didn’t say no, and suggested it would be Obama’s fault if it happened.
