Keith Olbermann's vacation isn't going so well.He was forced to apologize yesterday after more of his E-mails found their way to my inbox and exposed the host of MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" as insulting and frequently obscene in an acrimonious exchange with two viewers who taunted him.Olbermann's antagonists, who asked not to be named, repeatedly claimed in their June 8 E-mails that dead Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was Olbermann's "hero," prompting the television star to advise: "Hey, save the oxygen for somebody whose brain can use it. Kill yourself."After I forwarded that and other E-mails to an MSNBC exec, Olbermann wrote: "I apologize to anyone who might take offense at my part of this correspondence. It goes without saying that I should not have replied to these abusive and hateful E-mails, but I wonder how many of us could receive literally hundreds of them questioning our patriotism, religion and ethnic origin, without succumbing to the natural wish to confront such hate?"Here are some examples of Olbermann "confronting hate":o "Given how far you are from knowing your a- from your elbow about my industry, you couldn't be stupider, wronger, or dumber ..."o "Go - your mother."o "You 'Americans' still watching that evil f- O'Reilly?"Apparently, they are. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly draws six times the viewership of his 8 p.m. weekday rival.
Lovely. This is the same Lowdown wanker who publicized Keith's e-mail calling Rita Cosby dumber than "a suitcase full of rocks," and he certainly sounds like he's on a mission.Keith needs to be really careful here: I think MSNBC is just itching to get rid of him for all the agita he gives their corporate and Republican masters, but they know they can't just get rid of their highest-rated guy without some pretext. And Keith (with a big assist from Mr. Grove) may have just handed it to them on a silver platter.Oh, how I hope I'm wrong, but this has the fishy, manufactured smell of a classic Republican ratfuck operation.Crap.
7 comments:
srxmNice bidness plan, getting rid of your biggest ratings drawing program.
Did they get their cue from arbusto bidness 101? They are the worst of the 3 news networks anyways.
Who they gonna replace him with Byron York/Andrew Sullivan/Glenn Reynolds?
We used to be a Nielsen family for the CT market, faux news never got any rating points from us for sure.
I think ratings and profits are secondary objectives, to be pursued ruthlessly *as long as* they do not conflict with their propaganda objectives.
Just bear in mind, MSNBC is effectively a subsidiary of Microsoft and General Electric. It's not like Keith is their only source of revenue.
I think they would have canned him already if they could figure out a way to not make it look like political payback.
If anything, his ratings and popularity will only make MSNBC look even more noble and courageous when they oh-so-regretfully sack him.
I've said this repeatedly: If profit was the primary motive, the Jeff Gannon story would have made Natalee Holloway look like a one-day cat-rescues-baby story.
Yeah, probably a GOP ratfuck job. But I don't think it's going to work. I can't justify that opinion so there it is.
A side not: I'm pretty sure M$ sold their share in MSNBC. To whom (maybe back to GE) I don't know.
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Whether it works pretty much depends on whether MSNBC wants to get rid of Keith or not. I think they do, in which case this (and insulting a fellow MSNBC host, however accurately) might be enough for them to axe him.
If they don't want to get rid of Keith, I don't think this is enough to force them to. I wonder if someone saw an opportunity with Dan Abrams taking over - I don't think the timing is coincidental.
So why is Lloyd Grove inserting himself into the story by forwarding the emails to MSNBC?
What a dick.
He lied about Rita Cosby, btw.
She's DUMBER than a box of rocks.
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