Keith Olbermann Leaving MSNBC, Ends 'Countdown'
One of the biggest challenges for animators on Pixar's new feature, 'Brave,' was getting the curly red hair of the main character, Merida, to look right. Here is a progression of images showing how they worked on her hair. / Disney/Pixar
NEW YORK - MSNBC host Keith Olbermann announced Friday that he is leaving the network and has taped his last "Countdown" show.
MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Olbermann did not explain why he was leaving.
"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.
A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.
Olbermann was suspended without pay from the network for two days in November for donating to three Democratic candidates, which violated NBC News' policy on political donations. Olbermann complained that he was being punished for mistakenly violating an inconsistently applied rule that he had known nothing about.
The host apologized to fans - but not to the network.
Olbermann, before leaving the show with a final signature toss of his script toward the camera, thanked his audience for sticking with him and read a James Thurber poem.
The host reminisced about his brief goodbye at ESPN's "Sports Center" that was cut short to accomodate a result from a tennis match and his time at MSNBC, thanking his fans, highlighting the $2 million in donations they sent to National Association of Free Clinics in honor of his dying father.
"This may be the only television where in the host was much more in awe of the audience than vice versa," said Olbermann during his sign-off. "You will always be in my heart for that, and for the donations to the Kranich family in Tennessee and these victims of governmental heartlessness in Arizona..."
He thanked a series of people, including the late Tim Russert, but pointedly not Griffin or NBC News President Steve Capus
Olbermann's prime-time show is the network's top-rated. His evolution from a humorous look at the day's headlines into a pointedly liberal show in the last half of George W. Bush's administration led MSNBC to largely shift the tone of the network in his direction, with the hirings or Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell in primetime.
But Olbermann was known for a mercurial personality behind the scenes and he was almost fired last year for the political donations. He quit a prime-time show on MSNBC in the late 1990s, complaining that management was making him report too much on President Bill Clinton's impeachment scandal.
He was particularly critical of Fox News Channel and his direct competitor, Bill O'Reilly, frequently naming him his "Worst Person in the World" in a segment popular with his fans. Bosses at NBC had discussed trying to keep the tone of the vitriol down.
MSNBC announced that O'Donnell, who had frequently filled in for Olbermann before starting his own 10 p.m. show, will take over Olbermann's time slot starting Monday. "The Ed Show," with Ed Schultz, would move to 10 p.m. Cenk Uygur of the Web show "The Young Turks," will fill Schultz's vacated 6 p.m. time slot.
Olbermann had signed a new four-year contract with MSNBC two years ago. It's unclear what his plans are now.
He could give a boost to struggling CNN's prime-time lineup, but Olbermann would mean CNN would make an abrupt shift in its nonpartisan policy. It was not immediately known how quickly Olbermann could switch to another job if he wanted to.
CBS/AP MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Olbermann did not explain why he was leaving.
"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.
A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.
Olbermann was suspended without pay from the network for two days in November for donating to three Democratic candidates, which violated NBC News' policy on political donations. Olbermann complained that he was being punished for mistakenly violating an inconsistently applied rule that he had known nothing about.
The host apologized to fans - but not to the network.
Olbermann, before leaving the show with a final signature toss of his script toward the camera, thanked his audience for sticking with him and read a James Thurber poem.
The host reminisced about his brief goodbye at ESPN's "Sports Center" that was cut short to accomodate a result from a tennis match and his time at MSNBC, thanking his fans, highlighting the $2 million in donations they sent to National Association of Free Clinics in honor of his dying father.
"This may be the only television where in the host was much more in awe of the audience than vice versa," said Olbermann during his sign-off. "You will always be in my heart for that, and for the donations to the Kranich family in Tennessee and these victims of governmental heartlessness in Arizona..."
He thanked a series of people, including the late Tim Russert, but pointedly not Griffin or NBC News President Steve Capus
Olbermann's prime-time show is the network's top-rated. His evolution from a humorous look at the day's headlines into a pointedly liberal show in the last half of George W. Bush's administration led MSNBC to largely shift the tone of the network in his direction, with the hirings or Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell in primetime.
But Olbermann was known for a mercurial personality behind the scenes and he was almost fired last year for the political donations. He quit a prime-time show on MSNBC in the late 1990s, complaining that management was making him report too much on President Bill Clinton's impeachment scandal.
He was particularly critical of Fox News Channel and his direct competitor, Bill O'Reilly, frequently naming him his "Worst Person in the World" in a segment popular with his fans. Bosses at NBC had discussed trying to keep the tone of the vitriol down.
MSNBC announced that O'Donnell, who had frequently filled in for Olbermann before starting his own 10 p.m. show, will take over Olbermann's time slot starting Monday. "The Ed Show," with Ed Schultz, would move to 10 p.m. Cenk Uygur of the Web show "The Young Turks," will fill Schultz's vacated 6 p.m. time slot.
Olbermann had signed a new four-year contract with MSNBC two years ago. It's unclear what his plans are now.
He could give a boost to struggling CNN's prime-time lineup, but Olbermann would mean CNN would make an abrupt shift in its nonpartisan policy. It was not immediately known how quickly Olbermann could switch to another job if he wanted to.
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America is a land where people believe that they are told they believe - and with corporations censoring all America sees and hears it isn't surprising that it's media would choose to silence one of it's most effective critical voices.
Somewhere below in these comments you find the proposition that Olbermann's "ratings" stunk - and that that's why he got canned, was removed, forced to quit, whatever.
I don't buy it. I run with the same crowd that went to the Rally for Sanity (over two MILLION of us by the way and I've the pictures to prove it). Our representative was Olbermann. None of us thought Olbermann was prissy (Palin)... or a know it all (Beck)... or a lying tub of crap (O'Reilly). NOTE: What you won't here is that Rally for Sanity numbers outnumbered Beck's lil MLK day shindig 10 to one.
Perhaps the authors or the ratings Company this guy quotes used the same garden of inequity to come up with bogus numbers that they used to prove FOX "is SOOOooo popular" (it really isn't out here in the real world you know). Whatever. Olbermann's reach was far and wide - and COMCAST knows that - which is why he is now gone. I disagree that O'Donald or Maddow will be next though. It's more likely they will be kept around... for right-wing fodder... seeing as how they play the game so well (in any case I and millions like me who needed Olbermann's reassuring voice that sanity still exists in this world, don't watch either... so I guess Comcast has won).
America has lost a staunch defender of all that is, or ever was, correct and good about our country> He has to be also one of the best essay writers in history. His piece on the war in Iraq will go down as one of the most remarkable statements ever made opposing the mentallity that WAR is OK.
Keith Olbermann calls "it" precisely as it is - no sugar-coating, no B.S. He is consistently willing to root out the facts, and report them responsibly. This, in diametric opposition to the likes of Fox News, that is the cable T.V. equivalent of the National Enquirer.
Keith will be missed on MSNBC, as a personality and as a journalistic professional. I hope and trust he'll soon land at another media service, to continue his responsible, open & honest delivery of facts.
As to the haters on this post, one can only consider and accept the reality of their poisoned positions. When one listens to the nonsense of the GOP, and believes it, one is a pitiful soul - indeed!
I am proud to be a life-long independent citizen and voter, and equally proud to be a Keith Olbermann fan.
I like Chris Matthews show or even that wanna-be-a-man Rachel Maddow show is better than Keith.
MSNBC will do well with commentators like Lawrence O'Donnell, he's an honest Liberal, like when he stood up for himself and said "I am a Socialist" and pointed out that Social Security is Socialism, which it is.