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?
Olbermann is funniest when he does his faux anger routine. Maybe a real news network like Fox will hire him. Or maybe he can get his old job as a pitchman for Boston Market.
I think that Olbermann was asked to leave because he is one of the primary contributors to the Climate of Hate.
News ratings on cable may make Fox Opinion Channel look good but remember that high 90% + of the USA doesn’t watch ANY news channel. Ever. One week in 2009 nine of the top 20 shows on cable were SpongeBob. Reruns of NCIS get DOUBLE the ratings of any program on Fox Opinion.
I think KO won’t be out of a job long. Who’s on CNN at 8 again?
BTW, Maddow was awesome on Real Time last night.
Turns out it was all about more money demanded by the Capitalist Pig Olbermann. His agent pushed for more money and the spineless corporation caved.
http://goo.gl/BEyvV
Amazing how quickly the liberal left ideologues shift when they smell some greenbacks coming their way.
Ah yeah…what about Spongebob Squarepants’ numbers against Hannity? hmmmm? 🙂
Or what about NBC Nightly News? Or CBS? Or ABC? Or PBS?
Not everybody watches cable news. In fact, ten times more people watch news other than Fox….
#16 bobbo said, “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!”
About that reading thing. Conservative books outsell liberal books. How about that? Glenn, Hannity, Bill O’reilly, and Ann Coulter can always be counted on to put out a NY times bestseller. I haven’t seen very many bestsellers from liberal talkshow hosts.
Conservative books outsell liberal books only because conservatives are so unclear on reality that they keep losing their books.
Liberals and moderates can actually read a single book though once, and actually understand what the book really means.
Floyd…republican organizations buy the books in bulk at release to put them on the NYT bestseller lists. Nobody really buys those damned things.
I recommend Olbermann run for office. I believe he is just perfect to represent the Silly Party:
http:youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU
“Turns out it was all about more money demanded by the Capitalist Pig Olbermann.”
The truth doesn’t fit the pre-written narrative. It was Koch! Ailes! Tea Baggers! Oh, wait, he quit over money? Nevermind!
If you want real news, open the Wall Street Journal.
Everything we see on TV is crap.
Even if Olbermann is a populist crapmeister, it isn’t like Glenn Beck or O’Reilly or any of the other loud mouths or the celebrity news we are shoveled is real news either.
Network news is populist garbage.
Didn’t Obama say that at some point you just have enough money, and the rest should go to the government so they can spread the wealth around?
“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” – Mr. Fusion.
Spot on!
Editor: I am indeed working on a book. I hope if it gets published you will buy a copy. Then, between you and my mother, I will sell two!
#44 HMeyers: The problem is that the TV news started out as a public service and was staffed by journalists. Eventually, they saw the profits rising and news began to be a major revenue source. News became show business. Witness CBS hiring a mid-30s, blonde and beautiful woman as their “Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.” How many vastly more experienced men and less-attractive women did they pass over? Show business.
How many women dyed their hair blonde to appear on Fox News? Greta Van Susteren a blonde? Gimme a break. Show business.
CNN? Try getting any news out of the constant barrage of distracting graphics. Lights, bells and whistles. Show business.
The only TV news worth watching is the Onion News Network. America’s Finest News Source.
Olberman is a bore.
So is Dennis Miller.
And so is the smirk and snarky Jon Stewart.
Tedious self-serving poseurs, all of them.
Who cares about TV talking heads? From the right and the left, they come and they go–all of them are arrogant assholes.
Meh.
Tempest in a teapot.
Maybe they can get Assange? Or someone that will simply dump all the news on us, as is..you know reality unbiased. Naw..that would never sell.
Comcast, like all corporations taking over another company, wants to cut the payroll to increase the profits. They just started with their highest paid person.
You Sir, are an embarrassment to your network, and should immediately resign.
Say Pedro–I get it you and others don’t “like” Olbermann because he reveals the lies and hypocrisy of the PUKES. but given your level of negativity, there must be a whole list of issues/positions/stories that Olbermann has reported to the public that you finds self evidently wrong?
Care to post just one of them?
Hmmmm snuggums? Or are you just what Olbermann would report on if you ever made the news?
Stoopid PUKES.
… and I should care, why? He’s just another talking head, reading a script.
If he’s dumb enough to piss-off the boss, he deserves to be “let go”…
The same applies to the ones on the right as-well.
Poll – Fox News is the most distrusted name in news. They’re #1!
Well, they worked hard to achieve such bottom grubbing levels.
Pedro–I don’t know who you are responding to, but assuming it is relevant to this thread, if you think Olbermann never revealed the lies and hypocrisy of the PUKES, then you must have a long list indeed of things Olbermann said that wrong.
Yet you post nothing except that you “got lost.” Silly Pedro, we all know that already. Now man up–go google “Olbermann Lies” and pick your favorite.
Silly PUKES.
False headline, Comcast has not begun to take over or management of NBC, they merely have FCC approval to do so.
KO was fired by NBC under the complete and undisputed control of GE, not Comcast.
Hope remains that Comcast will exert control once the transfer is finalized and wipe away the entire Obama/Democrat/liberal fan club that NBC has become, restoring some sense of balance and neutrality.
#59: OK, perhaps I should change it to “..in preparation for Comcast taking over NBC very shortly”
Given the free reign the right has on Fox, what’s wrong with a channel devoted to the left?
And don’t forget, Olberman is a political commentator. Same as Beck and the rest. Their jobs are to provide commentary from their point of view, not ‘balance and neutrality.’
Comcast fired Olberman.
It is very common for “old” management to clean out dead/unwanted wood as requested by “new” management so that new management isn’t tainted by the axe falling. Old management has no reason otherwise to get rid of anyone and rock the boat as part of any smooth transition.
Olbermann is not the same as Beck and the rest. In the main, KO reports truthfully in a fair and balanced manner and simply the right doesn’t like the truth being told about their nefarious ways.
Too much is made about Faux Spews having on liberal guests. BTW, if having liberal guests make Faux fair and balanced, what is it exactly that the liberal guests are balancing????? But anyway–in the main the lib guests are cut off, interrupted, and spoken over. Meanwhile, the PUKES won’t go on liberal news outlets because they don’t like looking like idiots–although it is fun to see the new crop who haven’t quite figured out yet they aren’t talking to their base when they go onto KO. Q==”Senator–are you for or against 30 bullet clips?” A==”I’m against gun control as an assault on our liberty.” Rinse and Repeat. Yes, it will go on for hours. Paradoxically, half the Pukes look like they think they won the exchange.
Silly Pukes.
No, we don’t need another Fox News but we don’t need an MSNBC, either.
@Animby
That is a very good explanation of the current state of things and how we got there.
The real sheeple:
http://goo.gl/9Mvj5
Pedro…it has not gone unnoticed that you skipped the main thrust of the question put upon you…twice now.
So sad this truth tell is gone, especially in “the home of the free and the brave” where truth telling is now punished this way by corporate interests who have taken over the airwaves, want to take over the internet and are succeeding, all so they can pass on their falsehoods so they can make profit and F*** the consumer.
Yes, the fairness doctrine being removed WAS a major step in this fascist direction and everyone in corporate America pushed for it for this very reason.