Keith Olbermann Signs Off MSNBC For The Last Time

Despite there being no lead up to it, tonight was the last episode in the history of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and he signed off MSNBC for the last time.



David Shuster went on Anderson Cooper 360 this evening and stated that due to a clause in Olbermann's contract, Olbermann will not be back on TV for awhile. Once he is back, my guess is he will wind up on MLB Network doing random stuff for them. Outside of possibly Turner, he has burnt bridges at every other relevant organization.

Call me totally nutty, but I do not think it is a coincidence that this is coming three days after the Comcast and NBC merger was approved by the federal government. It's been long thought that Comcast wants a different direction with MSNBC. Now whether or not he was fired, stepping down on his own terms, or being forced to step down is a matter of which is not yet known.

Olbermann may be out at MSNBC, but he will land on his feet at somewhere doing something, I'm sure. He likely is not yet done in TV. For Olbermann fans who need to get their Olbermann fixture, you can follow him on Twitter @KeithOlbermann and he will be returning to his MLBlog The Baseball Nerd on February 14.

And for those wondering, maybe it is the ridiculous cold weather, but I am not as joyous and giddy as I thought I would be when this news eventually broke. It's true I have not watched his show in over a year, but maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or maybe I'm just numb to everything about him. Or maybe I miss watching his show a bit. Or maybe it's just cold and I'm incapable of feeling anything right now because my skin gets numb real fast when it's exposed to this bitter cold for more than a few minutes. Yeah, let's go with that.

Keith Olbermann Suspended Indefinitley

To start the NFL season, Keith Olbermann was kicked off Football Night In America to focus on his political show on MSNBC. Now, he might be finding himself struggling for work. Per sources at Politico.com, Keith Olbermann committed a huge MSNBC sin this election season.........donating money to 3 political candidates, something that is a no-no at the company, even if the political candidates are Democrats. From MSNBC.com

Msnbc TV host Keith Olbermann was suspended indefinitely on Friday for making campaign donations to three Democratic congressional candidates, apparently in violation of NBC News ethics policy.

The announcement came in a one-sentence statement from msnbc TV President Phil Griffin: “I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

The donations were first reported by the Politico website earlier in the day.

Olbermann acknowledged the donations in a statement to Politico, saying he gave the maximum legal donation of $2,400 to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, who waged an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate against Tea Party standard-bearer Rand Paul.

Like most news organizations, NBC News, parent of msnbc TV, prohibits political contributions by its journalists without prior approval of the president. (Msnbc.com, a joint venture of NBC News and Microsoft, also has a policy against its journalists contributing to political campaigns.)

"Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest,” it reads. “Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions. You should report any such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the president of NBC News or his designee."

Oy ve. The stupidity of some people. I mean seriously, did he actually think he could get away with violating company policy in such blatant, obvious form? While not a technical firing, per se, I can only imagine that Olbermann will be out for a long time and this will do even further harm to his already damaged image. He may return to MSNBC, but if this suspension turns into a firing or a "leave on peaceful terms and go on separate ways" type deal, then one really has to wonder where he would end up next. He would have burnt bridges with all 3 cable news stations, NBC as a whole (and now by default Comcast), and not to mention that ESPN never wants to associate with him ever again. Now as mentioned, Keith could be back on MSNBC in a month and everything could be dandy, but if not, what is he going to be reduced to? A full-time baseball blogger?

Update: Inside sources at TVNewser say Olbermann will not be returning to MSNBC, although the fill-in host for Countdown tonight, Thomas Roberts, seemed a little more optimistic that Olbermann will return.

Is Keith Olbermann's Time At MSNBC Coming To An End?

I really should be reading Olbermann Watch more often as this is about a week late, but alas, last week might have brought up the beginning of the end of Keith Olbermann's time at MSNBC.

Frankly, I was hoping his end would be a lot more funnier than this is, but I guess it is only fitting that reports of MSNBC's dissatisfaction with Olbermann come after he did something that crossed the line and offended people.

But before you criticize me for criticizing Olbermann's ill father, let me just say that my thoughts and hope are with him and the entire Olbermann family. All the best to Ted Olbermann. That being said, though, was there really a reason for this on February 24?



And then after not appearing for the show for the few days afterward, Olbermann went on the air on Monday on top of a building in New York in a piece what is simply bizarre, even for Olbermann.



Again, all the best to Keith, Ted, and the entire family in dealing with this, but it really must be said. Why?

What was the point of that 14-minute speech and 9 and a half minute postscrpit? Why couldn't he just take a quiet leave of absence to deal with his father and leave it at that? Why did he have to go on national TV on his own cable news program and deliver way too much information about his father's condition? But the biggest question of all here is did he really just use his sick father to try and score a political point on healthcare?

Of course, I am not the first person to bring it up. Glenn Beck even went as far as to suggest that Olbermann's dad would be dead by now if he were being treated under Obama's healthcare plan. It's not that I necessarily condone, agree with, or even know for sure the validity of Beck's assessment, but the point is I am not the first one to bring it up.

Most shocking of all, it is being speculated that even NBC brass have had enough of Olbermann. 2 reports from JedEckert.com (here and here) that cite anonymous, unlinked sources have are saying that folks at NBC are getting fed up with him. Here are some notable quotes from the reports.

Ratings picture is bleak:

* Looking at January 2009 compared to January 2010, Keith is down 27% whereas his hated enemy, O’Reilly is up 22%.
* In the much vaunted demo (ages 25-52) Keith is down a whopping 47%, O’Reilly is up 53%."

As we noted earlier this week, Keith has a propensity to blame absences on dead or dying parents especially when he doesn’t get his way, and his bosses have long suspected that he was playing the bereaved son card. They could even tolerate the sick father excuse to a point (apparently even when that said father was not be seen at the many Yankee games Keith was attending - one notable game was the October 9 play-off against the Twins!) But now things have really gotten creepy. In his special comment on Wednesday, in what can only be a cry for help or sign of impending mental breakdown, Keith talked about killing his father.

Word is that the folks at NBC are now looking for a way out. Very informed sources tell us that they realize all his relationships with employers end badly. It is just a matter of degree. Add to that - his embarrassingly dismal ratings no longer appear to warrant his inflated salary.

Sources within NBC News have confirmed that things are more dire than we originally thought. Veteran correspondents are cringing and are openly embarrassed by Olbermann’s self-absorbed theatrics.

Now before you completely dismiss the anonymous reports of a fairly unheard of guy, consider the following:

We just saw two and a half weeks of Olympics on MSNBC. And thus with the Olympics, MSNBC took the time to run ads for Rachel Maddow, Chuck Todd, Ed Shultz, and Chris Matthews. But let me ask you this: how many times did you watch MSNBC during Olympics and see a Keith Olbermann commercial? I can barely remember one.

Surely MSNBC would want to advertise their main guy whose ratings seem to be plummeting. I'm not an expert, but you would want to get your most-watched cable TV host more facetime than freakin' Ed Schultz to the people who may be turning on MSNBC for the first time ever, no? After all, they had several hockey games on your channel, one of them being the 1st epic USA-Canada game, what better way to try and toss a sinking ship a lifeline? I mean, really? What harm would advertising have done? MSNBC gave Rachel Maddow, Chuck Tood, Ed Schultz, and Chris Matthews nonstop ads, yet the highest rated host on the network gets nadda? Why?

Obviously these reports are to be taken with a grain of salt, but consider them with the abysmal and getting worse ratings and the lack of Countdown commercials, and maybe, just maybe, there is something to be said here about Olbermann and his lack of time remaining on MSNBC. I mean, the only reason I can think of for not advertising him to death like everyone else would be because they think that they and Comcast might let him go. Do you have any other explanations for it?

Bold Prediction: Come the end of 2010, Keith Olbermann will be out of a job at MSNBC.

Why Putting USA Vs. Canada On MSNBC May Just Be For The Best For Hockey Fans

The argument has been going on for some time now back and forth. The USA and Canada game is going to be on MSNBC while NBC decides to air ice dancing, which believe it or not, is the name of a figure skating event. James Craven feels that this is wrong, and while I can't blame him or any other hockey fan for feeling that way, sometimes the less-appealing option on the surface may be the better option for all involved.

Now I assume that everyone reading this gets MSNBC (if you don't then you have every reason to be as pissed off and irate as you have ever been in your life), and in making this argument, I am making it with the knowledge that I get MSNBC.

The fact of the matter is, as much as hockey fans are upset that hockey is being put down, things could be worse. Let's look at the positives of the game being on MSNBC: It will be live coast-to-coast without interruptions. Why do I say that? Because put this game over-the-air on NBC and that would not happen. From Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune

Christopher McCloskey, an NBC Universal Sports and Olympics vice president, said one benefit of putting the hockey game on MSNBC is that it can run there without being cut up into segments to accommodate other sports as NBC customarily does in prime time to cover as much ground and as many viewer interests as possible.

"The incorporation of cable platforms into Olympic programming allows for the avid sport fan to watch games the way they are used to watching them — with long-form coverage," McCloskey said.

TV by the numbers also points out what I stated above that this game would be on tape delay on the west coast if it were to be aired on NBC.

Now as a hockey fan, I would much rather watch a fully live, uninterrupted hockey game on a cable channel then watch it over the air on NBC with Bob Costas giving us ice dancing updates unbeknownst to the fact that just Patrick Kane scored a goal and we missed it because Costas was talking about the top ranked ice dancing team just wiped out. Now as a hockey fan who gets MSNBC, I can live with this just fine. Would I want to see hockey reach a broader audience? Sure. But at the same time, do I want to only see segments of the game with long, non-intermission interruptions by Bob Costas during the game? Heck no.

And is there anyone out on the West Coast that would not know the result of the game by the time it "started" if they were to air it on tape delay?

I know that putting this game on MSNBC is not the kindest thing that NBC Universal has ever done to hockey, but given the alternative of what putting this game on NBC would mean, isn't putting the game on MSNBC really the better deal in the end for fans that just want to watch the game?

Keith Olbermann Apologizes.......Sort Of.

When I first went over this story kt1000, pointed out that if only I did this for others in the media as well. But if I focused on everyone and posting stuff on every mistake made by the cable news media, I would not have time in my life to pee, let alone go to class, do my work, write for this, write my memoir (Part I coming up tomorrow morning, stay tuned!), and have a life. Therefore, yes, I do pick and choose what I put on here, yes, I do tend to focus on Keith Olbermann more. With Olbermann criticisms you get meat and potatoes (most of the time at least), with Fox News criticisms, half of the stuff out there is twisted garbage taken out of context. Yes sometimes Olbermann is taken out of context as well, but not near as much as Fox News so it is easier to focus on. Plus I used to be a fan of his so I get angrier and angrier at him when he does something stupid than I do with Fox News people.

That being said, if I can't be 100% fair in who I choose, then I need to be 100% fair on how I cover the stories that I choose. Keith Olbermann did address Jon Stewart's parody of him on here and yes, he did apologize at the end of it. Well, sort of. I'll admit that I was confused and speechless for 5 minutes after I watched this.

"You want some baseless name calling? You are a.....No. You know, what? You're right. I have been a little over the top lately. Point taken. Sorry." - Keith Olbermann

I honestly had no idea what to make of that. What exactly was he apologizing for and who was he apologizing too? Jon Stewart? Scott Brown? His audience? Republicans? Was he apologizing for his word choice? His generalizations, a lot of which were based on incidents 8 or more years ago? The complete falsity of the accusation that Scott Brown never denounced the crazy at his rally who yelled that he should shove a curling iron up Martha Coakley's backside? Check out this little doozy from Politico on January 18.

Democrats are circulating a video of Brown smiling after his supporter's "curling iron" line, a reference to a controversial sex abuse case Coakley handled.

"We can do it," Brown said with a smile after the shout.

"The 'we can do it' statement was in response to the growing energy of the crowd," said the spokeswoman, Tarah Donoghue.

UPDATE: Brown told reporters this morning that he didn't hear the remark, that it was "inappropriate" and that he would have "said something" had he heard it.

There's that proof that Olbermann was looking for! If only he bothered to go outside of Media Matters, The Huffington Post, and The Daily Kos for his Countdown news stories, oh what a wonderful world of news it would be!

That being said, never in a million years did I think that he would have the gumption to air that Stewart segment in it's entirety (I can assure you that the part where it appears to jump is only jumping a filler sentence from Stewart that had no substance or jokes at all), especially the part at the end where Stewart really hit him by saying that his attack on Michelle Malkin was "more like violence against women than anything Scott Brown ever said". Stunning.

So for airing that and actually allowing a dissenting view of him on his program, Olbermann gets a job well done.

Meet MSNBC's Newest Contributor!

As if MSNBC was not already a prime time laughing stock, they have somehow managed to increase that laughing stock 10 fold. I realize that that is a tough thing to do these days when you've got Keith Olbermann in the coveted 8 PM ET timeslot, but MSNBC has done it. They have hired Stephen A. Smith. No, no typos exist in that last statement. Stephen A. Smith is now employed by MSNBC! I really feel like I need to repeat that due to it's unbelievability, Screamin' Stephen A. Smith is doing commentary on cable news! From the New York Post

MSNBC must have had an opening for a race-based provocateur with zero credibility, a thorough disregard for facts and an extensive record for prefacing windy spiels with bad guesswork, because it has hired Stephen A. Smith as a contributing commentator on race.

Tremendous idiocy. I'm liberal and even I recognize that Jeff Zucker the folks at MSNBC have completely lost their marbles. Oy ve. Stephen A. Smith now a regular on cable news.....can you imagine? And this on the day that we find out that Richard Wolffe will most likely never appear on Countdown and MSNBC again.

My Last Keith Olbermann Post For A While

If you did not get what I was talking about with Keith Olbermann's hypocrisy in my rant a week and a half-ago, watch this and all will become more crystal clear than it ever has been before. And of all things, it has to do with the Garofalo video I put up in my rant. Just for easy comparison's sake, here is that interview again.



And now today's Worst Person In The World segment (wait for it, the hypocrisy comes with the "Worst" portion, although I must say, Keith calling out Manny Ramirez as "Worse" is great)



Don't worry, I'm not going to rant again. I did that before here and I let loose again at The O Files where I just so happened to be filling-in as JC is at the Phils game today (coincidence that I get to live blog the Ultimate Hypocrisy episode).

And my apologies for the Olbermann overload the past couple of weeks. But when there is not a whole heck of a lot going on in the sports world (i.e. summer time), sometimes things that would normally take a back seat in my mind and on this blog come to the forefront. Training camp can't start soon enough....

Keith Olbermann's Cowardice Has Reached An All Time Low

Before you call me out for hypocrisy, in my RIP post, I was discussing how everyday people will remember Michael Jackson years down the road, not how a cable news network should go about with their tribute show. And last night, Keith Olbermann and Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth completely disgraced the legacy of the King of Pop.

Unfortunately and much to my chagrin, I can't find you any video, but here are some quotes from last night's clusterfuck of an interview courtesy of a transcript of provided by MSNBC.

Count the number of distortions and bashings of hte late-great Jackson as possibe in Orth's answer.

OLBERMANN: Did he? Did he ever find the life he wanted?

ORTH: I don‘t think so. Michael Jackson gave a lecture at Oxford in 2001, in which he said childhood was supposed to be the wondrous time in your life. I never had that childhood. He grew up on the stage. He was a superstar at a very young age. His family whipped him into being the money-maker for them. He resented it terribly.

He really did become very much addicted to fame. It became grotesque at a certain point. He was so extremely talented that nobody ever told him no. And he was surrounded by enablers. And the charges that I followed from 1994 until 2005, the allegations of pedophilia against him, I believe were very much probably more true than not.

And he had—he battled drugs. He had alcohol problems. He gave—it came out in the trial testimony that he called white wine Jesus Juice and red wine Jesus blood, and he gave it to teenagers. He really was a very, very sad person, who had been given great, great, extreme talent.

But in the end, the life he led was grotesque.

No objection ever came from Keith. And even if there was some veracity to those distortions, this is not the kind of things you say about a man 3 HOURS AFTER HE WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD!

We continue on and while I ended the blockquote with some commentary, we are resuming the interview right where I left off.

OLBERMANN: I‘ve often heard this used about athletes, about politicians, about anyone who has excelled in any field that requires a part of you to become permanently public. People say, if only they could have somehow separated out these bad parts of the personality, these compulsive or addictive or abusive parts of the personality that has eventually come up to end or dismantle part of the public career; is that possible? With your experience of people like Michael Jackson, not that there was crowds and crowds of them—but there are many people that who fall under this broad category of enormous talent and enormous mistakes, and enormous controversy, everything writ large. Is there any separating or are all these things so interweaved that you might not be able to say which is cause and which is affect, but it‘s all part of one bundle?

ORTH: What happens, I think, is at a certain point, you‘ve been told you‘re a genius so many time, and you are a genius musically, and you are not really allowed to grow up and mature in a normal way. Narcissism takes over. I remember one time in Neverland, there was a black velvet painting and Michael Jackson, I think he had commissioned it. And it was Michael Jackson, Mohamed Ali, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ. That‘s kind of how he viewed himself, in that pantheon.

So he was always surrounded by enablers, people who wanted to get close to him, close to his talent, close to his money. I don‘t think it is at all surprising that we‘re not hearing this statement come out. I‘m sure there is amazing behind the scenes craziness going on right now, because I think chaos followed Michael wherever he went. And I‘m sure that this is one of those chaotic moments.

What is going to happen to the children? Everybody, all the creditors are going to be in line for the money. I‘m sure this story is going to go on with a lot of craziness.

OLBERMANN: Yes, if there is money, or if it hasn‘t already disappeared—

ORTH: There is still—I think he still owned about 25 percent of his catalog. Sony was taking it little by little, piece by piece. But there is potential problems in the future because of his extraordinary music for many years to come. There‘s plenty to fight over.

She called the man a narcissist. 3 hours after he died she calls him a narcissist. And once again, no objection from Keith Olbermann. He is perfectly fine with everything Maureen has said. And just as an aside, Maureen is a known critic and basher of Jackson. Why is she even on this show anyway? Shouldn't this discussion be saved for later?

And the only thing I can say about this next question is tell me this did nut just happen.....

OLBERMANN: [...] What was this comeback tour all about? What do you think it meant to him?

ORTH: Well, the comeback tour first has to be about money, because he was always having terrible, terrible problems with money and debt. And he would attach himself to various sheikhs and billionaires in different parts of the world, where he still had a measure of a claim. He was very big in Poland, for example, or in parts of the Middle East. So he would find very rich people in these more out of the way places, and sort of live off of them for a while, until they got tired of it, or until the concerts didn‘t materialize or whatever. And then he would be thrown out and they would go on and there would be more lawsuits.

This is a person who lived in constant chaos, and probably kept a whole retinue of lawyers all the time working. So the amount of money that came in, the amount of money that came out was extraordinary.

Having said that, of course Michael wanted to be revered. He wanted to be considered a god. At one point, he had some man going around the world trying to find places where he could get lifetime achievement awards. That was one of his favorite things, was to appear in different parts of the world with a lifetime achievement award.

So he needed—he had an ego that need to be fed. But he really didn‘t like entertaining anymore. And, of course, his family for years—his brothers begged him, please, please come out with us. Do another concert tour with us. And they would constantly announce that this was about to happen, which, of course, it never happened. He didn‘t really want anything to do with his family.

I remember that his parents were very loyally sitting in the front row of the trial in 2005 most days. And different various relatives would come in and come out. As soon as that not guilty verdict came down, boy, he disappeared. He went in one direction. They went in another. And I don‘t think they could get him on the phone.

Unbelieveable.

I think that occult777 summed this whole thing up best in a Daily Kos entry:

On the day the world mourns the shocking, sudden death of Michael Jackson, Keith Olbermann decided to reflect on his memory by bringing Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth into the studio to trash Michael's image with lies and innuendos most of which were without merit.

I have always held Mr. Olbermann in high regard as a journalist. Common decency dictates that on the day a person dies, we all owe the deceased and their family a certain amount of respect. As the saying goes, if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all. For crying out loud, Keith! You had Maureen Orth sit there and spew hateful rhetoric and unsubstantiated stories as facts, while you sat there and egged her on to give you more dirt. How dare you?

This is a shocking occurrence and most of us are saddened by the tragic nature of such an untimely passing. The man may not have been an angel but give us all a break and allow us to mourn in peace. I would stand up for you in your memory if on the day of your passing, some hater and twisted buffoon made statements, however controversial about the life you lived. I hope when you get the opportunity to review tonight's segment with Maureen Orth, who by the way, has and always will be a hater and an innuendo pedlar, that sensationalizes for the sake of magazine sales, you will make a decent commentary and address the inappropriate nature of what transpired on your show tonight.

You heard it in Mr. Oxman's voice as he spoke between tears of losing a friend. Today, a fellow human being died. He was a brother, a son, a cousin and an uncle. More than just a pop icon who's dirty laundry was aired in public for all to see. You Keith, ought to be above the fray.

You have really disappointed a whole lot of your fans tonight.

Update!! - This is NOT about Keith bashing. I am a true fan of Olbermann's. I Have been since his sportscaster days. The man isn't perfect all the time, but most of the time. He should be called out, when he makes a mistake.

Suffice to say, Keith Olbermann has disappointed me greatly. There is only one fallacy in that quote and I'll get to that later. There is one thing that Keith Olbermann cannot and will never be able to overcome: The man is a coward!!!!! He is utterly afraid to disagree with any guest he ever has and I think I can count on one finger the number of times he has had more than one guest on his program. There is no debate, no interesting discussions. The studio is and always has been an echo-chamber. And Keith makes it that way. For he never, NEVER disagrees with anything his guests say. Case and point, take the Jeanine Garofalo incident from a couple months ago. Listen as she calls EVERY PERSON who joined in in the tea party protests (or as Keith Olbermann and others called them, "teabaggers") a racist and listen closer as KEITH ACTUALLY EXPRESSES AGREEMENT WITH THAT RIDICULOUS, ABSURD, OFFENSIVE, AND DOWNRIGHT FALSE STATEMENT!!!!!!!!



I'll admit that when I first started watching Countdown, I was blind as a bat. I had never seen O'Reilly before and I thought Olbermann was the greatest thing ever. But I can see now. My only disagreement with the aforementioned is that the poster called Keith Olbermann a journalist. That, he is not. He is a liberal commentator. And whether he'll ever admit it or not, that's exactly what he is. Just like Sean Hannity is a neo-conservative commentator, just like Glenn Beck is a liberterian commentator, and just like Bill O'Reilly is an independent commentator. I've been watching The O'Reilly Factor and he is not a far-right Republican has Keith Olbermann portrays him as. He just does not have a hard-on for Obama as Keith Olbermann frequently seems to do, especially on domestic issues (Olbermann's a little better at criticizing him on foreign policy). For those that believe Olbermann and consider O'Reilly right-wing, I challenge you to watch him for a week, whether it be live at 8 PM ET or the replay at 11 PM ET. And for those into ratings, not only is O'Reilly's overall numbers tripled that of Keith's, but more often than not, the Factor re-air has more viewers than the live 8 PM edition of Countdown!

This is not a far-right opinion that I am presenting here. It is the facts of the situation. For those that don't know and/or forget, I am a liberal democrat (especially on social issues) and I campaigned hard and voted for Obama. But you have to be able to criticize even those that you agree with it and even if their opinions are the same as yours, that does not make them perfect angel who do no harm.

Let's go back to O'Reilly for a second here and Keith's cowardice. I've been watching the O'Reilly Factor more and more as I have stated and I don't always agree with him, but there is always one common denominator, and that is that O'Reilly always has guests who disagree with him on his show and there is always a lively, fun to listen to discussion, whereas Keith NEVER challenges his guests to an argument, and most of the time they just agree with each other. And while Hannity can be a bit too much on the right for me to tolerate on a daily basis, he too has guests who disagree with him and a lively discussion. Again, everything in that paragraph is a fact. Tell me a time when Keith had a verbal disagreement with a guest. Go ahead.....find one. I dare you. You can't do it, now can you?

Now let's go back to what I started this post with: the Maureen Orth interview. All this was not a rant about Olbermann for nothing. The point of this whole post is to demonstrate to you that Keith Olbermann is too much of a high-horse riding coward to have anyone disagree with him. We can't let a verbal squabble bruise the ol' ego, now can we? The more I watch, the more I become disgusted with it. And forget the fact that Olbermann mocked Michael Jackson beyond belief during Jackson's 2005 trial, I think everyone at somepoint or another took their shots at Jackson for that whole saga, but when you are anchoring coverage that is more or less supposed to be a tribute and you are either sincere or just portraying someone sympathetic, and someone completely trashes and skewers him like Orth did, SAY SOMETHING, YOU GUTLESS COWARD!!!!!!!! STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!!!!! STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!!!!! GROW A SACK AND DEFEND YOURSELF AND THE LEGACY OF MICHAEL JACKSON!!!! DEFEND YOURSELF AND YOUR SHOW WHEN SOMEONE CALLS TENS-OF-THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS RACISTS JUST BECAUSE THEY DON'T AGREE WITH OBAMA'S TAX PLANS!!!!!!!!!

It's people who are too scared to stand up for themselves and have a disagreement that are the worst persons in the world. And Keith Olbermann falls into that category. It's easy to criticize others who say something stupid in the heat of a moment, when all you do is read from a teleprompter and have guests who agree with you. It's easy to just agree with everything your guests say and go about life and make an undeserving $8 million per year for it. This way, Keith's ego is perfectly intact and he does not have to worry about taking a few shots on the air. People like Keith don't deserve that kind of money. Say what you will about O'Reilly, but at least he is man enough to get in disagreements and arguments. He'll take his shots and move on, unlike Keith "I Avoid Arguments AT All Costs Because My Ego Can't Take Such A Low Blow" Olbermann.

I end with a statement that until I can get over this, I'm pretty much done with Countdown. Keith has crossed the line too many times for my liking. I just hope that one day Keith Olbermann will leave the political news business for good and stick to becoming a sportscaster full-time. At least there is something he is good at.

Add The Pittsburgh Penguins To The List Of People Mad At NBC

GE, NBC, and MSNBC certainly have not been making any friends at all this year. Actually, that's putting it lightly seeing as they basically have been become a laughing stock of television. From Jeanine Garafalo's extremely idiotic statement last week on Countdown with Keith Olbermann which basically called over 40% of Americans racists (all those who were exercising their freedom of speech and protested Obama's tax policy) to the overload of liberal hosts (see addition of Ed Schultz) and rapidly declining ratings on MSNBC (damn, tvbythenumbers.com is down so I can't pull up the O'Reilly vs. Olbermann chart that illustrates this) to the loss of money they suffered broadcasting the Super Bowl to the occasionally laughable ratings of the NHL on NBC (although in defense of that, the NHL is currently seeing some relatively really strong ratings and the Pens-Flyers game on Sunday was the highest rated hockey game on NBC since the Winter Classic). But sticking on the subject of hockey, they slightly angered some Pens fans by not allowing Sunday's Pens-Flyers Game 3 to be shown on an outdoor screen. All year last year, they allowed games to be shown on gigantic outdoor screens in front of the Mellon Arena, which is why it came to such a shock to Penguins fans who may have taken this whole thing a bit too far. From Puck The Media (which is quickly becoming one of my new favorite blogs; check them out if you can and have not already).

The Pensblog have been waging a war against NBC since their decision to ruin the party outside Mellon Arena to watch the game. Now, we agree with them in principle. The 14 or 15 diehard Penguins fans and the 300 or so of their hangers-on since last year’s Cup run want somewhere to drink in public and watch the Penguins lose. But, they seriously took it to a new level. It was like the Parents TV Council after an episode of South Park.

It started with confusing outrage, and a list of people to contact. Then it went to reasoned pleading with the league, whom the guys and their homosexual friend felt abandoned by. Because as you know, the NHL is a business created to cater to the Pens fan, and no one else.

Finally (sort of), it exploded into an admittedly hilarious photoshop of a Penguin defecating on the NBC logo, and a list of NBC’s major advertisers. Really guys? Do you think Red Bull gives a crap moreso than NBC about hockey? Where is that getting you? It finally led to them recommending you watch on the web on one of CBC’s broadcasts.

It finished for now with Pensblog’s annoyingly narrow-founded recap of the game, where they made jokes about Pierre McGuire. Because that’s never been done before. Also made fun of: Harry Kalas. I’m done linking to these clowns, you can find that yourself.

That final post stated that “The war on NBC isn’t over”. C’mon guys, don’t you want people to think I came up with that headline myself? Lame.

But maybe the war needs to end after this news. A 33% share in Pittsburgh? 33%! So why did this happen? Maybe because most of the Penguin outdoor screen-watching fanbase went on with their lives after hearing this news, instead of wasting their time going all Rachel Dratch in 30 Rock about it? If the war isn’t over, then Round 1 most certainly goes to NBC.

Too funny! Like PTM, I agree with what the Pens fans are saying, but The Pensblog took this thing way too damn far.

However, while NBC came out the winners and unscathed in this battle, they really do need to lighten up. For the NBC Universal brand, this has been on of their worst weeks on record, as evidenced by everything linked to up top. In fact, the Garafalo statement was so bad that Bill O'Reilly actually aired bits and pieces of that segment of Countdown! And O'Reilly goes to great lengths not to say or give any direct mention to Countdown and Keith Olbermann (Olbermann's chime-ins were edited out by Fox News in the segment and the logo Countdown with Keith Olbermann was obsucred by a the bottom of a blue box and they only credited the clip as "MSNBC", and most hilariously of all in that Factor segment, the guests referred to him as "that on-air host"). Hopefully though, they'll be able to turn things around as no one wants to see an organization this bad in the dumps like this.

And now that I have pretty much thoroughly bashed NBC, I guess now is as good a time as any to announce that I will be "plausibly" live-blogging Countdown with Keith Olbermann over at JamesCraven's blog, The O Files, tonight at 10 PM ET, assuming that the Flyers game does not go into overtime, in which case, I'll do it from the Countdown website either later tonight or 11 AM ET Wednesday morning.

The "Oh God" Heard Round America

I'm not sure how many were of you were watching MSNBC last night, but for those of you that were watching, we were given something that has already stirred a great controversy on the internet. Right before Lousisana governor Bobby Jindal delievered his response to President Obama's speech, there was a very distinct, whispered, "oh God" heard on the MSNBC broadcast. The big question is, who was it? I've been looking around and I've read posts where people were certain it was Keith Olbermann, I've read posts where people were certain they heard Chris Matthews' voice, and others are certain it was an MSNBC producer. Here's the video and you can judge for yourself.



When I first heard it, I immediately thought the producer option. But then I heard it more, and I began hearing Keith Olbermann's voice. I then listened to it some more and I'm back to thinking it was an MSNBC producer/director. I don't think it's Matthews for a couple of reasons. For one, Matthews was serving as a guest to the show in Washington and not at the MSNBC studios at 30 Rock in New York. And secondly, try as I might, I just can't get Matthews' voice out of it. In all likelihood it came from Keith Olbermann's mic, but the question is, was it Olbermann who said it or a producer that came running in after Olbermann was off-camera? Was the "oh God" meant as an "oh God, here's a lame-ass Republican speaking" or was there some sort of production difficulty? If it's the former, then someone at MSNBC may be in hot water. If it's the latter, then good luck convincing the right-wing blogs that that is so.

If there's a confirmation of some sort later today, I'll be sure to give it to you.

Update: A recent post on the forum from Olbermann Watch that I linked to below has reported that Chris Matthews will confess tonight to being the one saying "oh God" and it was (allegedly) in reference to the setting that Governor Jindal used in his response, as it was made to look like the East Room of the White House. I still have problems hearing the voice but I guess when you're whispering it's hard to make any sort of distinction. Good times, MSNBC, good times!

Update #2: From the Huffington Post, here is a tidbit of what we can expect to hear from Matthews tonight on Hardball according to an NBC Spokesperson

I was taken aback by that peculiar stagecraft, the walking from somewhere in the back of this narrow hall, this winding staircase looming there, the odd anti-bellum [sic] look of the scene. Was this some mimicking of a president walking along the state floor to the East Room?

Update #3: We have confirmation that it was indeed Matthews. And what do you know, if you click on the Olbermann Watch link below and you'll find that my prediction came true. Now that it's been revealed to have been Chris Matthews, the right-wingers are trying to say that he was just taking a bullet for Keith and that the more and more they hear it, the more and more they think it's Keith Olbermann. Of course last night, they were just as willing to play the guessing game as the rest of us but now that it was not what they had hoped for, they're saying he's taking a bullet for Olbermann.

MSNBC: "Oh God" and laughter as Jindal began to speak (Olbermann Watch)
MSNBC Welcomes Jindal: "Oh God" (Politico)