“How long ago did you leave MSNBC to go to the Current TV show?” Letterman asked. “It’s over a year, right?”
“I don’t know,” Olbermann said. “I have to consult my notes because after a certain point, I can’t keep track of where I’m working. I don’t have any idea.”
Letterman then proceeded to give Olbermann an “adjustable business card.”
“I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.
Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.
It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain.
In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.”
Olbermann out!
h/t Nick of Time
The Keith Olbermann Saga’s Starting to Get Kind of Sad
Read —> The Atlantic Wire
Keith Olbermann: Brad Drake An ‘Asshole,’ O’Reilly A ‘Psycopath’
Keith Olbermann visits Occupy Wall Street
via @GottaLaff
Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi appeared on Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann to discuss the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. “The movement is growing organically,” Taibbi says, “because people know there’s something to protest now.” He adds that Occupy Wall Street could spur reformers and legislators to act because “the public won’t take it anymore.”
(via Rolling Stone)
h/t PPG
“Where is the outrage over these great hypocrisies? Do you expect it to come from a corrupt and corrupted media? For whom access is of greater importance than criticizing the failure of a politcal party or defending those who don’t buy newspapers or can’t leap website paywalls or could not afford cable TV.” - Keith Olbermann rails against the debt deal and the media’s lack of “outrage” over it.
“Mr. Olbermann’s new home, Current, is much smaller than MSNBC, so the channel’s executives expected Mr. Olbermann’s audience to be much smaller than it was at MSNBC. Indeed it was much smaller — but the early ratings for the first week do suggest that some of Mr. O’Donnell’s viewers did choose to watch Mr. Olbermann instead.
“Countdown” on Current averaged 354,000 total viewers in its first week, and 131,000 viewers ages 25 to 54. “The Last Word” on MSNBC averaged 794,000 total viewers, and 203,000 viewers ages 25 to 54, a drop of about 20 percent from Mr. O’Donnell’s second-quarter average.”
“You have an African-American gentleman married to a white woman who is in cahoots with a group that has a lot of racists in it. Is that Stockholm syndrome on his part? What’s going on?”
“As I was saying.”
began Keith Olbermann, who has been off the air since departing MSNBC Jan. 21, on his relocated and modestly retooled Countdown With Keith Olbermann, when it premiered tonight on cable’s tiny Current channel. And indeed, the liberal commentator picked up pretty much where he left off, tearing into the usual conservative targets and then some.
Continue reading… ‘Countdown’ to Keith Olbermann’s return ends - USATODAY
America’s Favorite Talking Hothead - Olbermann’s Rage Is All the Rage - NYTimes
“
MSNBC is still a destination for liberal viewers, but there’s some disappointment that network personalities aren’t more challenging to the Obama administration and Democratic orthodoxy, said Jeff Cohen, an Ithaca University journalism professor and liberal activist. He said there hasn’t been enough debate about military action in Afghanistan and Libya.
“I would argue that it was more independent when Olbermann was there,” Cohen said. “His charm, if you can call it that, is that he’s uncontrollable. He’s not a party-line guy.”
MSNBC is facing the same issue that Fox News had during the Bush administration: It’s not as exciting being on defense when the party you support is in power as it is being on the outs and on the attack, said Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center.
“Now it’s, `Let’s not make trouble for these people. They have enough to handle with angry conservatives,’” he said.
[MSNBC’s chief executive Phil] Griffin said that analysis is flat-out wrong. He said there was extensive debate among MSNBC hosts about the extension of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, for example. Network personalities also harshly criticized the Obama administration for not fighting Wisconsin legislation that unions considered harmful, he said.
“We are not a rubber stamp, and it would be wrong for anybody to imply otherwise,” he said.
”
