Countdown with Keith Olbermann ends
 

BREAKING: Keith Olbermann out at MSNBC, last broadcast tonight | Crooks and Liars

Wow. Countdown is done and Olbermann leaves NBC in one night. No reasons have yet surfaced as to precisely why.

What are your thoughts?

I suspect this will not only be a blow to overall ratings, but especially to Rachel Maddow.

I'm wondering if this might have something to do with the NBC/Comcast merger, too.

Victim #1 of the Comcast/NBC merger. It'll be interesting to see what happens to MSNBC in the long-run. Rachel and Keith were/are the only reasons to bother watching that sorry excuse for a network.

I stopped watching Keith when his "special comments" started sounding more and more like Rush. But that aside I figure this to be a result of the Comcast take over. My guess is they called him into a meeting and gave him guidelines of what he could and couldn't do/say and he told them to stick it. Maybe he thought he was "too big to fail" or maybe he simply thinks he's doing the right thing and refused to back down. Either way I'm betting they fired him.

Wonder what/where he'll go now? I can't see him being picked up by another network. MSNBC is alone in it's open left leaning. Any other network wouldn't touch him is my guess. I don't think he can be on any air until the fall, I read MSNBC is still paying him until then. Maybe he'll end up at some on-line news source or perhaps he'll take his money and retire from public life or the complete opposite.. run for office. Whatever he ends up doing I doubt it pays him 15 mil. a year.

One down and about 1000 polarizing talking heads to go. On both sides.

None of these fools are worth wasting time on.

Nice dream but like the movie Zombieland... you can "double tap" them in the head all day long and more will just keep coming.

Double tap the zombie talking heads....sounds like one of those silly little Facebook games. Aim with the cursor and right click to shoot. Game ends when your meter turns either all red or all blue.

Might be a video game but I was referencing the movie. Too bad we can't get them off the air by repeatedly "double tapping" with a mouse click.

Does anyone remember when he was on Sportscenter? I'm sensing a comeback!

Strange to imagine the circumstances surrounding this parting. One would have to conclude that NBC believed Olbermann in his current format would do more harm than good to their network and either let him go or asked him to compromise, something he was unwilling to do. What could they have possibly seen coming that would make them believe their top earner (ratings) would be a liability to them? It's gossip at this point. The fly on the wall isn't talking.

I guess this means that the right is truly winning the shouting match now.

Only in some much as there will be one less person from the left shouting for only a few months. I wonder if he will file for unemployment benefits?

I guess I was implying that there was more shouting from the right to begin with, and consider how it's more far-reaching as well.

The voice of the left, as minimal as it is in the U.S. mainstream media, seems to be wilting away into the fringes with Olbermann gone. Such as it is. The myth of the liberal media and all that.

I suppose this will be avoided if Olbermann pops up somewhere else.

I'm waiting for all those who were up in arms about Juan Williams to jump to Olbermann's defense. Not gonna hold my breath.

Well, how could anyone? We don't know why he was fired. Perhaps he got caught in the makeup room getting blown by the CEO's daughter while snorting coke off her rump? Nothing political about that...

There is speculation that his agent wanted him to be paid more money, but Comcast simply wanted him out because he was a "loose canon." He was apparently offered a package but cannot appear on the air for a set period, likely until the fall.

There are reports out there stating this, but I won't bother posting anything. As I said, it's still in the realm of speculation.

Cimarron, I see. So you're saying that these folks are waiting until they have something solid to report on before they start the self-serving speculation? Somehow I doubt it.

"By golly, the right has done SOMETHING wrong here, and we are going to FIND IT!" Hey, filth?

He's bounced around a little and usually lands on his feet. I'll watch him wherever he shows up. :thumbsup:

Who said anything about the right?

I'm not sure who on the staff edited this thread, but a heads up would be appreciated next time.

What are you talking about specifically? This thread hasn't been moved, and it hasn't had posts pruned or moved, and none of the posts have been edited except by the original authors themselves.

Either I don't understand what you mean or you owe us an apology. Which is it?

I do, my mistake.

Sadly, I will miss him. As far as left leaning news people go, he was one of the better ones. Still not as potent as Beck, Hannity or Limbaugh or even Levin. but he was limited to a very bad cable network, Hannity and Beck are on a horrendous network, yet they have their radio shows as outlets. Sadly for Keith he wasn't able to get that luxury.

As a voice on the left, he will be missed. Maybe they will replace him with Colbert or Maher. I hear Micheal Moore may need a job. Or they could try to resurrect the truly old Larry King.

I suspect who he's replaced with may be related to the reason for his departure. If he quit because of the merger, that probably doesn't mean a different direction for MSNBC. They'll probably replace him with a regular contributor the way they promoted Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell from regular contributors to hosts. If Keith was fired for being to anti-corporatist or too far left, though, it might be someone more conservative perhaps someone from the WSJ crowd.

Has the reason for his leaving been announced yet? There are a lot of theories around, but I've not seen anything official yet.

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-+-{Important TFP Staff Message}-+- Interesting, still not a public apology or an "I'm sorry." I think I have to say a little more about this. You could have easily PM'd any one or even reported the post but you didn't and you still haven't publicly apologized. Wow Will. Just Wow. Not only am I offended as the defacto person responsible for TFP, but I'm offended as an individual member here too.