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Home Front: Culture Wars
Olbermann OUT at MSNBC
2011-01-22
I saw Comcast got the approval to buy NBC the other day. Looks like the adults are back in charge...
Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC and has announced that Friday's "Countdown" show will be his last.
Countdown's at "zero", Olbermann. Time to blast off. Clean out your desk. Security will escort you out.
Now, Olbermann! NOW!!!
MSNBC issued a statement Friday that it had ended its contract with the the controversial host, with no further explanation.
Sorry about that, folks.We couldn't find a suitable synonym for "douchebag".
"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.
Ah, Ye Olde "Don't let the door hit ye in the arse" statement...
Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Let's hope he'll now be the target of drunk high school kids at the Mickey D's drive through window on Friday nights.
"Hey, Mr. Big Shot! Where's my friggin fries!!"
Olbermann did not say why he was leaving.
Sound like he didn't have much of a choice...
The host apologized to fans -- but not to the network.
Yeah, I'm sure they're heartbroken at the network...
Posted by:tu3031

#21  Great find, tipper.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-01-22 20:34  

#20  GlennBeck Correctly Predicts Keith Olbermann's Departure
Posted by: tipper   2011-01-22 19:06  

#19  
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-01-22 19:03  

#18  Damn, Pan, that's hysterical! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-01-22 19:01  

#17  "Years from now, all of us will be able to answer the heartrending question "where were you when you heard Keith Olbermann was quitting?"

It came so suddenly, and so unexpectedly. One moment he's calling the Tea Party racist, or declaring Sarah Palin to be "The Worst Person In The World," and the next moment he's gone. Keith, we hardly knew ye.

Currently, there is no solid information about why Olbermann and MSNBC parted ways. There is absolutely no indication that Olbermann had a longstanding homosexual affair with mass-murderer Jared Loughner, nor is there anyone willing to go on record that MSNBC believed Olbermann to be a necrophiliac pedophile who hated minorities.

Although rumors abound, there is no confirmation that Olbermann was terminated for "relieving himself" manually while looking at pictures of the First Lady's yams, nor should anyone believe - absent verifiable proof - that MSNBC forced him to leave because of drug, alcohol, and orphan abuse.

All we can say for sure at this point is that Keith Olbermann's journalistic voice has, for the time being, been stilled."

Lifted from Weaasel Zippers, thanks!

Posted by: 49 Pan   2011-01-22 18:16  

#16  Nailed it: "self-righteous gasbag"
Posted by: OldSpook   2011-01-22 18:01  

#15  I detect a trend...

As an employee, Olbermann was his own kind of Worst Person in the World. His sense of superiority and caustic vibe eventually cost him gigs and friends at three networks. How naughty was he? Olbermann was the only former ESPN star not invited back for the sports networkÂ’s 25th anniversary (heÂ’s allowed to participate on PatrickÂ’s radio show only because Patrick promised that Olbermann would never set foot on the networkÂ’s Bristol, Connecticut, campus).

....He was fired from his first stint at MSNBC after he denounced his own show in a commencement address at his alma mater. Fox hired him to host its major-league baseball Game of the Week and then sent him home with a year left on his contract simply for being a malcontent.

Still, where some saw a brash breath of fresh air, others saw a self-righteous gasbag. And despite the show’s unprecedented success (Olbermann and Patrick were SportsCenter’s most popular duo), Olbermann was a world-class agitator. He began firing off thousand-word memos to management, lobbying on causes from saner hours for lowly production assistants to profit-sharing for ESPN employees who were helping the network generate billions. Along the way, he won a reputation as a miserable jerk. “Of all the people I’ve known inside and outside of the business, he was the unhappiest,” recalls a SportsCenter staffer. “Sometimes, at the end of the night, I’d leave early just so I wouldn’t have to give him a ride home. And it wasn’t out of my way.”
Posted by: tu3031   2011-01-22 15:19  

#14  Lets hope Comcast keeps going and adds some maturity and common sense to this network. Moving the network to the center, being critical of both parties could be a market coup.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2011-01-22 15:07  

#13  Both viewers are despondent.
Posted by: CincinnatusChili   2011-01-22 14:19  

#12  No dice, Pappy, they already have Shepherd Smith and Bill O'RLY for that sort of thing.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2011-01-22 13:12  

#11  Safe in saying he won't be working at Fox?

Could you imagine the legions of Fox viewers who would tune in just to rage at him?

Hmmmm...

Roger Ailes - call me. We'll do lunch.
Posted by: Pappy   2011-01-22 11:08  

#10  Never watched him except when a sane news/opinion program showed clips of his idiocy, so he served the cause better where he was. He reminded me of the Far Side cartoon:
Posted by: jack salami   2011-01-22 10:35  

#9  I suspect he'll do the book/lecture thing with occasional returns as a guest on different shows that need a spike in the ratings. I wish he were gone but I just don't see it. The folks at Huffington Post went nuts over this, he has a passionate following, even if it is small and partially unhinged.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2011-01-22 10:01  

#8  Safe in saying he won't be working at Fox?
Posted by: Besoeker   2011-01-22 08:51  

#7  "MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.

Making MSNBC a brand name among news outlets like the 'Yugo'* was for automobile manufacturing.


*The Yugo was voted Car Talk's worst car of the millennium.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-01-22 07:53  

#6  Beck ????
Posted by: Speck    2011-01-22 06:40  

#5  Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics gave him lower rankings than the ENTIRE FoxNews lineup.

Maybe he could do sports announcing for JV college games?
Posted by: Free Radical   2011-01-22 06:08  

#4  the value of his message was realized earlier than most, and predates the Snuggie and Shamwow, both of which have more $ per seconds
Posted by: Frank G   2011-01-22 01:59  

#3  He said he was grateful to the network that he was given time to sign off, noting that when he left ESPN in the 1990s, he was given 30 seconds — cut in half at the last minute to get in tennis results.

Heh. Sounds like they loved him over there too...
Posted by: tu3031   2011-01-22 00:39  

#2  couldn't happen to a lower d-bag, oh wait...Larry O'Donnell is even more unhinged
Posted by: Frank G   2011-01-22 00:34  

#1  Buh-bye, asshole.

Don't let the door peacock hit you in the ass on the way out - you really can't afford any more brain damage.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-01-22 00:14  

00:00