Cable host Keith Olbermann and news channel MSNBC abruptly parted ways Friday night, as the network announced that his contract had ended and the last installment of his show would air that evening. The surprise announcement strips MSNBC of its most-watched evening anchor after an increasingly tempestuous relationship, coming less than three months after the network briefly suspended the fiery host.
But why, given his high ratings which equals money to NBC?
We already know that MSNBC president Phil Griffin had been gunning for Olbermann for some time now. MSNBC was reportedly close to firing Olbermann on several occasions. Recall that during the ridiculous flap over Olbermann’s political donations, in which he responded to his suspension with a show of public defiance, Griffin flatly told Olbermann’s representative: “We are at war.”
Personal differences trumps money in a business where news has become profitable reality show entertainment? Really? It couldn’t possibly be for this reason:
“He’s been very problematic,” an NBCU source told Deadline about Comcast’s attitude to Olbermann. Officially, the Comcast takeover is next week. But word has been circulating for months now that the new owners have wanted to “tinker” with MSNBC and had many changes in store, including a right turn for the left-wing cable channel.
Do we really need another Fox News?
Yes. That sounds good.
I’m sure CNN would love to have someone of Olbermann’s status on either the main or HLN.
Olbermann will not only land on his feet, he will do even better.
“We already know that MSNBC president Phil Griffin had been gunning for Olbermann for some time now.”
Gun metaphor! Good shot though.
This sucks – just when the guy was getting interesting too. With all the political irascibility within the country, however, this kind of change is inevitable, and a fantastic opportunity to make some money. Whoever picks up Olberman, a great potential awaits for a new type of newscast.
I’ve always thought of Olberman as the most entertainment oriented of the MSNBC talking heads. Ratigan and O’Donnell are much more confrontational of the entrenched interests, Matthews is more confrontational with political pundits, Maddow is actually more revelatory of the history/basis of various political issues.
So why Keith, and not ALL of them, or is that only around the corner? If the institutional bias of the corp is not changing, then it must have been the off air/inhouse activities of Olbermann that got him in dutch and that should come out in the next weeks/months.
I’ll miss “The World’s Worst” and Oddball. Highlight of my tawdry week.
Well Done, Keith.
“Do we need another Fox News?”
It’s not whether we need another Fox News but maybe, and it’s a slim chance, that we could get a news organization that wants to do it’s job. One that is more interested in impartial and investigative reporting and not mainly focused on entertaining.
I could easily be wrong but I don’t think the goal is transformation.
My initial, gut reaction is that the plan is to silence any effective dissent within the United States, which might question total corporate control over the country and more importantly, the resources of the country.
Why should corporations act differently from any other dictators, since they all have precisely the same long-term goals in mind?
I’m sitting in a seedy bar in Phnom Penh. The thump of the rotating blades of the fan over my head seems to be keeping time with the Rolling Stones. I’ve just finished dealing with two women: one wants to know if I want another beer, the other if I wanted to be her next dear – “I have room around corner, han’some man.” During the day, I take a long-tail boat up the Mekong River to a shabby little clinic where I’ll treat six kinds of foot rot, a bevy of eye complaints and more pregnant little girls than god knows about. (Yes, most of them are little girls all their lives.) So pardon me if I haven’t kept up with all the news. Did the NBC/Comcast merger get approved?
In any case, I wouldn’t be surprised if Olberman moved over to Fox News. No, really. They like to keep a few lefties but with murmurs in D.C. about reinstating the fairness doctrine, They might be looking to get a real left winger on their staff to prop up the “fair and balanced” nonsense.
Oops! Here comes the bar girl, again. Or is it the hooker. They look so much alike. At least she’s no crack whore. She does this work honestly. The old fashioned way. To support her pimp.
“Did the NBC/Comcast merger get approved?”
Yes.
http://guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/21/nbc-universal-comcast
“given his high ratings which equals money to NBC?”
Talk about missing the point! What high ratings? This guy is a moron and destroyed an entire newsroom.
He should be selling used cars.
Here are the facts:
“NEWS RACE
THURS. JAN. 20, 2011
FOXNEWS O’REILLY 2,918,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,079,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 1,940,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,786,000
FOXNEWS BECK 1,780,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,460,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,106,000
CNN PIERS 1,025,000
MSNBC MADDOW 976,000
MSNBC O’DONNELL 855,000
MSNBC SCHULTZ 760,000
CNN COOPER 740,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 700,000”
So lets do the math. O’Reilly heading Fox pulls in 11,963,000 viewers.
Olbermann heading MSNBC pulls in 4,397,000.
So that makes Fox %270 (that’s nearly 3 times) more profitable than MSNBC.
Nuff said.
To Ah Yeah #10:
So should we ONLY have right wings news, i.e., Fox, available, or should any other voices or opinions be heard?
By the way, sheer numbers doesn’t mean much as most of the people in any dictatorship….actually SUPPORT the dictatorship. Doesn’t make it right. Also, Fox usually is one of the basic cable channels. I think most viewers have to pay extra for MSNBC on the second tier.
Animby–your intro there reminded me of one of my favorite openings in all film: Apocalypse Now where the fan blades of our hero’s room blend into the blades and sound of a helicopter. Always a strong image in my mind.
Also reminds me of the last whore that called me Handsome Man: a drop dead gorgeous double for Elke Sommers. She said it would be a fantastic experience and I agreed with her but asked her what it would mean? She laughed and sat with me sharing a bottle of wine until the next tourist arrived. There is a lot to recommend in whores who aren’t on drugs at the same time and working for THEMSELVES.
Now for some reason I want to talk about free market capitalism, but enough about prostitution.
Fox isn’t a basic cable channel. Both Fox and MSNBC are on the same service tier.
How about this? The reason vastly more people watch Fox is because they have enough common sense to despise Olbermann and the screaming shrews at MSNBC.
By the way, just in case we all forgot, I mentioned this was going to happen anyhow because MSNBC wants Juan Williams to headline their news division.
They were going to cast away Olbermann one way or another. He simply jumped ship before they got the chance.
MSNBC already tried the right-wing route, and it failed.
This is about Keith Olbermann being difficult. He left ESPN on bad terms, Fox Sports, and now MSNBC. This was a good run for him.
The other part of this is lately Olbermann has been bashing Obama, and the FCC already put in a bunch of unnecessary blackmail provisions before it would approve of Comcast’s merger, like selling internet for $10 a month to some low income households. Obama probably arranged for this irritant Olbermann to be gone.
I wonder what Olbermann will do next, as he has done well everywhere, except his football broadcasts. HDNet with Dan Rather and Mark Cuban’s billions?
Ah Yea==enough! the reason Fox News has more viewers is because they pander to a group of know nothings who like to be spoon fed. Survey shows: Fox has the largest percentage of misinformed/uniformed/low information voters of any of the infotainment news outlets.
People who want a better quality of news: read. Thats why CNN and MSNBC have lower ratings, those who would watch if they watched tv are reading!
Conflating popularity with anything else except popularity is imbecilic spin==a bad habit gained from listening to Faux?
Rap or Country is Better Music than Full Symphonic Orchestras because they sell more records.
I wondered why Robert Gibbs was stepping down. Meet the new White House Press Secretary. LOL
Bobbo, your bias is showing, again!!
Who says they “pander to a group of know nothings”? You?
Isn’t that something like the pot calling the kettle …
Who says Rap or Country isn’t better music than full orchestra. You?
Who are you to say what others prefer? Who are you to say what is better? Who are you to say who know nothing? You?
You, sir, are the worst person in the world!
>Also, Fox usually is one of the basic cable channels. I think most viewers have to pay extra for MSNBC on the second tier
They are about equal. CNN is a tier above both. For example Dish network gives CNN but not Fox or MSNBC, though theirs is an even cheaper barebones offering that has Fox.
Comcast usually gives all three.
Businesses run like old-fashioned networks, telcos…Congress…aren’t worthy of serious investment. They aren’t even capable of coming up with new mistakes.
The smug factor of msnbc has just dropped 75%! Rachael Maddow will crank it up to carry the channel now.
Animby–your reports on Aussie Cleanliness made me feel like I was reading Ah Yea’s post. Kinda Creepy.
Ah Yea–so you agree that equating popularity with anything else is in error? Good boy. Watch out though, you may get tired of sleeping in front of Faux Snooze.
Ha, ha. I just wish I liked candy.
Sad how American news has to be biased and entertaining to get anyone to watch? I have been reading more of US news from the BBC lately and other World sources then from our Network news. These days you almost have to read about something on three or four different sites to get the full story. Why is it that news creates a Political view on its stories?
#18 Bobbo is not the worst person in the world. To my knowledge he has never actually killed anyone.
I’m also fairly certain that he is more tactful in person than in posting or he’d be dead by now or at least frequently hospitalized.
********************************
If he’s attacking Obama then he’s pitching to a very small viewing audience on the extremist side of the progressives. However he still had the best ratings on his network so I might have kept him.
What I would do was try to pair him off with a real die hard Tea party guy who would seriously push back or even a Williams and let them go at it on the air and I would make it clear I wanted them to strongly disagree.
The only reason I hesitate about Williams is he’s too nice to shove back the way needed on the other hand he’s a lot more likable and appeals to the independents a lot more than Olbermann is going to.
To be blunt Williams is the kind of class act I used to think a progressive was until I learned most of them are elitist who could care less about justice, due process, or the constitution. Many of them appear to be remarkably mean spirited.
If you are running a network to make money rather than as philanthropist you want ratings. The entire lame media is only pitching to the progressives which is at best 1/3 of the viewing audience. By the time you get through dividing that up income is way down.
This may not be where the network is going at all but I’d want a co-host that would go toe to toe with Olbermann or a program before or after that went toe to toe with Olbermann.
Unless his pay scale is too high or his attitude too rank I would not get rid of him as long as he is the one bringing in the most money. I absolutely would get rid of some of the others that aren’t bringing in as much revenue and at least one of the replacements would be well over to the center and at least one would be ultra Conservative or a libertarian. Olbermann and the Conservative/libertarian could (verbally) shred each other.
If you are a business person you want many points of view on your network with your lead anchors going head to head on at least something with somebody that isn’t a door matt. You also need some hard hitting centrist in the organization for balance.
Both Bill O’ and Greta are centrist. Hannity and the Judge are Conservative though you would be dumb to say Republican. Last and least you have 1 isolated Libertarian but at least he’s there. They all make a point of bringing guest whose views are very different that theirs. This means the network actually has something to offer a very broad slice of the American viewing audience.
#26–do-ill==quite right you are. I have never murdered anyone and I avoid discussing politics and religion even on provocation. Why bother? So yes, this blog is my outlet for all that repressed rage.
I hope we aren’t conflating “news” with commentary as we consider the two infotainment outlets? I am very left/libertarian in my views and recognize that bias. You should do the same for your views so you don’t say things like “OReally is a centrist.” Hannity is more a hypocrite than a conservative. I do like the Judge and Stossel for their libertarian views even though both take them too far.
Democracy: having one’s druthers curtailed by the majority of folks disagreeing, and yet, life is still not just the only game in town, but actually is still very worthwhile. FREEEDOM: other people doing what you don’t like.
Dogma: spouting crap that doesn’t make any sense on any evaluation at all, but spouting the same crap again because thinking is hard.
I feel the force weakening.
I’ll stick with the Newshour on PBS, thank you very much.
gildersleeve in 4 said “Whoever picks up Olberman, a great potential awaits for a new type of newscast.”
What would that be?
We already have people bloviating all over the air waves.
That’s why I am on the web, getting my news from allover the world.
I’m surprised that Uncle Dave posted this. I figured he would be in mourning over this tragic incident.
Oh noes! One less shrill left wing opinionator on the air! Only DOZENS left! We’re almost FOX NEWS! Arrrrggggghhhh!
The news reports of Keith Olbermann being fired from MSNBC are totally incorrect. Rather, he has just metastasized.