{"id":3911,"date":"2011-01-22T10:09:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-22T18:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2011-01-22T10:09:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-22T18:09:49","slug":"action-alert-say-thank-you-to-keith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/22\/action-alert-say-thank-you-to-keith\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Alert: Say Thank You to Keith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I was shocked to learn that MSNBC has fired Keith Olbermann, their most popular host.  I grieve his loss.  He has been my favorite source of video for this blog.  His Special Comments have crystalized issues in ways that others have failed to equal.  Although we have never met, I consider him a friend.  I\u2019ve read lots of speculation as to what went down and why, but at this point, nobody knows.  Lets look at what we do know and watch his farewell.  Then please join me in signing a Bold Progressives petition to say thank you to Keith for the invaluable service he has rendered.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"22keith_olbermann\"So Keith Olbermann is out. As best as I can tell, none of the news accounts about his departure have gotten to the bottom of what happened here. But Olbermann himself offered enough clues in his final broadcast for us to reasonably speculate that he abruptly got the ax, perhaps even as late as last night.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

A "knowledgeable official" at MSNBC <\/font><\/font>told Howard Kurtz<\/font><\/a><\/font> that the separation was "mutual." But it’s hard to see how that squares with this, from Olbermann’s last words on Countdown last night:<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

"I think the same fantasy has popped into the head of everybody in my business who has ever been told what I have been told, that this is going to be the last edition of your show.<\/strong><\/span> You go directly to the scene from the movie ‘Network,’ complete with the pajamas, and the raincoat, and you go off on an existential, otherworldly journey of profundity and vision… <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

"When I resigned from ESPN 13 and a half years ago, I was literally given 30 seconds to say goodbye at the very end of my last edition of "Sports Center."<\/font><\/strong><\/span> As God is my witness, in the commercial break just before the emotional moment, the producer got into my earpiece and he said, `uh, can you cut it down to 15 seconds, so we can get in this tennis result from Stuttgart? So <\/font>I’m grateful that I have a little more time to sign off here."<\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Between this and the shell-shocked look Olbermann had last night, it seems clear that he may have been abruptly informed that he was history, perhaps even during last night’s show\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

\u201cI have been told\u201d makes it clear that he was not consulted in the decision.  \u201cA little more time\u201d indicates that it was sudden.  My own speculation is that the timing was related to Jeff Zucker\u2019s last day yesterday.  Zucker was President and CEO of NBC Universal.  He was also Keith\u2019s biggest supporter at NBC.  Here is Keith\u2019s farewell statement:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

And here is the link to the petition: Say Thank You to Keith Olbermann<\/a>.  I\u2019m going to miss his voice!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I was shocked to learn that MSNBC has fired Keith Olbermann, their most popular host.  I grieve his loss.  He has been my favorite source of video for this blog.  His Special Comments have crystalized issues in ways that others have failed to equal.  Although we have never met, I consider him a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-politics","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}