As I’m sure you know by now, Keith Olbermann has left Current TV in a huff, just as he did with ESPN, Fox and MSNBC (twice). It reminds me of someone who gets married and divorced 7 or 8 times; after a while, maybe you should realize that the problem is you. Keith is very smart and entertaining. But he has a giant ego and he just doesn’t play well with others. And where the heck does he go now? What network would have him? He may have to go the Glenn Beck route and start his own online network.
Apr 04 2012
Olbermann’s Massive Ego
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Alverant
April 4, 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Doesn’t he sort of have that now with his commentaries being posted to that crooks & liars site?
I think that’s the way things are headed. Internet usage is up, TV watching is down. Eventually the internet will be a bigger media force than television (for better or worse).
Improbable Joe
April 4, 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How long after being self-employed does Keith fire himself?
treefrog
April 4, 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hmmm…the way I heard it, he was fired:
which goes a long way toward explaining why he was never hosting his own show when I tuned in recently. On the positive side, I’ve enjoyed Cenk’s show.
Kazim
April 4, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s disappointing. I used to listen to Keith all the time when MSNBC made him available as a free podcast. Since I couldn’t find any good way to pick him up on my phone, I gave up listening. His show was fun but I can see how he might have trouble getting along with bosses.
Spanish Inquisitor
April 4, 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oprah?
He could even start a book club…
neonsequitur
April 4, 2012 at 2:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He can’t fire himself if he quits, right?
Randomfactor
April 4, 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If he goes online-only, I’d subscribe.
But he’s gotta be kicked at least once for dropping out of one of the most important election years evah.
michaelgaribaldi
April 4, 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He’s certainly gone and jumped the shark. Unless some brilliant and original producer at Fox Business Channel can go and create a Crossfire type program, by pairing him with Lou Dobbs, I don’t see that Olbermann will be doing much more in media any longer. Unless it’s pushing reverse mortgages or something like that.
Chris from Europe
April 4, 2012 at 3:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t think you can leave Current TV off the hook. Countdown always audio issues and the overall strategy didn’t work at all. It was easier to find the remnant Countdown on MSNBC than the one at Current. I also don’t think their marketing (and other) issues are limited to Countdown.
harold
April 4, 2012 at 5:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The “periods of really good stuff and periods of self-destruction” pattern is most associated with musicians, but it can occur in other fields as well. Olbermann seems to be an example of it.
Rip Steakface
April 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, it may be a very smart idea for him to go the Internet network way. Isn’t that exactly what Ed and PZ did by (mostly) leaving SciBlogs and starting FTB?
Crudely Wrott
April 4, 2012 at 5:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is unfortunate but, I suppose, unavoidable.
I enjoyed watching Keith on MSNBC, his wit and language skills made him a stand out among the current crop of paid talkers. His Worst Person feature was always worth a hoot along with food for thought.
Perhaps it is that strange phenomenon that seems to happen when someone otherwise sensible finds themselves on the TeeVee. Of a sudden they stop seeing themselves with their own eyes, instead gaining self worth through the eyes of the madding crowd.
Wouldn’t that be so confusing?
Oh, yeah. Ego too. TeeVee Ego. Comes with a certificate (a certificate!) of integrity and dedication to (some kind of) truth.
No wonder my set is off most all the time these days. This shit is just too routine.
Dr X
April 4, 2012 at 6:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
heh
lancifer
April 4, 2012 at 8:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Getting fired by Current TV is like being relieved of duty from the engine room of the Titanic as she is sliding under.
Hardly matters except for the embarrassment of being fired from your fourth (or is it fifth) show.
omnicrom
April 4, 2012 at 11:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Keith Olbermann makes me sad and annoyed largely because I really wish I could give him complete support. He was witty and said good things, the medical conventions for the uninsured he organized in the period where Obama’s Healthcare reforms were being debated did a huge amount of good and highlighted very clearly the Medical problems America has, and his special comments are usually very incisive and relevant.
On the other hand he really is incredibly full of himself. Olbermann lost respect when he gave Worst Person in the World to someone who said that he was a lot like Rush Limbaugh. On one hand that’s unfair, Olbermann is usually based in reality. On the other hand he spent minutes chewing this guy out for comparing pundits to pundits and it really highlighted how highly Olbermann thinks of himself. I really think that if a position he favored turned out to be wrong Olbermann would absolutely refuse to budge on it, and that’s disheartening when he usually has something decent to say.
Randomfactor
April 5, 2012 at 1:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Olbermann DID give himself a Worst Person once, though.
aaronbaker
April 5, 2012 at 10:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He is a blowhard, but he’s a blowhard on the side of the angels–so I hope he does eventually find longterm employment.
The comparison to Rush Limbaugh is unfair not just because Olbermann is reality-based in a way Limbaugh isn’t (though Olbermann is)–but because Olbermann, as far as I know, never revels in being vicious.
With the medical conventions he organized, he was of course a far greater benefactor to humanity than most of us (myself emphatically included) will ever be. Let that always be remembered in his favor.
Matthew Cline
April 5, 2012 at 4:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There was also the time that he gave Brian Deer the bronze medal for “worst person in the world” because Deer’s initial expose on Wakefield was published in a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. (The the Respectful Insolence post on the matter)
Midnight Rambler
April 7, 2012 at 5:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Meh. I can’t even get that interested in the drama anymore. I think Keith jumped the shark around 2006 or so, when he started taking Bill O’Reilly seriously instead of as a joke, and his “special comments” became almost daily. It seemed like he was driven insane by the capriciousness of the Bush admin and the fact that masses of people didn’t get outraged about it, and never really recovered.
How to make fondant
April 4, 2012 at 7:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How to make fondant…
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