Keith Olbermann popped up on the David Letterman show and gave one reason—perhaps one big reason—why he left MSNBC. As transcribed by MediaBistro’s TVNewser (where you can also watch the video):
At some point in the last few years that I have been doing the news in the way that I do, it has occurred to me that the best place to continue doing the news in that way would be to do it at a place that is just in the news business and nothing else. It doesn’t also own an amusement park in Orlando, it doesn’t have outdoor advertising, or beet plantations in the Azores.
Keith has a website where he posts occasional videos, including special comments: http://foknewschannel.com/
My personal opinion? If he wasn’t fired, he was smart enough to read the writing on the wall. When Comcast took over, he knew he had one foot on a banana peel and the other out the door.
He will be on Current TV in June.
Whatever the reason, his departure has absolutely devastated MSNBC’s nighttime line-up. Rachel still has an excellent show, but she’s alone between a pair of second-stringers.
I think Ed Shultz and Lawrence O’Donnell are excellent also! Excellent, I say.
I disagree as well as agree with classicliberal2. I agree that Rachel Maddow is a first-stringer, but I am very impressed with Lawrence O’Donnell at 8 pm on MSNBC, and agree on many things, and consider him to be a welcome and very articulate progressive as well as a first-stringer; I also think good thoughts about The Ed Show, though it’s too much sitting in front of the TV and too late in the evening to make it through.
Cassicliberal2 is wrong. Also don’t forget Cenk Uyger too who is marvelous. Also Olbermann will be starting up his show on the 20th of June and it will run live then two repeats.
I disagree with classic liberal also. I think Rachel is by far the best of the night shows by O’Donnell is getting better. I like Ed Shultz but I can’t bear to listen to his loud rants.
MSNBC is still in great shape with its current line-up, and they are all doing about the same in their ratings. With Olbermann not there anymore, they deal with less of a headache… in his feuds with Fox News, Bill O’Reilly, et al… and they get to still stand up for Progressive/liberal values in a responsible manner. Olbermann was great, but he wanted out of MSNBC as much as MSNBC did.
They are all great – I miss Keith – and -Yes- it is too much sitting in front of the TV to get all the way thru….altho I watch none of the corporate media geeks anymore….can’t stand them and the lying.
If they could just replace some of those gawd-awful “sex slave” shows where police fetishizing kevlar act all manly about lewding themselves over young ladies privately trying to earn a few extra bucks.
Could someone please inform MSNBC’s advertising folks that entrapment of prostitution is leaning as far into patriarchy and backward as you can get?
In some fashion, I get through all of them, Matthews through Schulz, mostly by multi-tasking, often recorded versions. I live in Arizona, so none of the local media are honest. Rachel is amazing, and Chris has come around from the days when he used to feature Tom DeLay. I never did understand that.
I knew, of course, that there had to be people that agreed with and even liked those mentioned above. Still, it is difficult to really accept that sad fact, but dwelling upon it could lead to terminal depression. So, along with those creatures who post idiotic and vulgar comments on YouTube, and the guests and fans of the Jerry Springer show, Shultz, Olbermann, and O’Donnell are best dealt with by ignoring and forgetting them. True, their ugliness, ignorance and hatefulness are not easy to forget, but it can be done. I just stay away from their channel and think about them less and less. It works. Just as I finally realized that I could filter out the flamers that spoil the conversation on so many forums, I realized that allowing them to continue their hatefests unobserved was the way for me. Peace at last.
@Niku
“I just stay away from their channel and think about them less and less. It works. Just as I finally realized that I could filter out the flamers that spoil the conversation on so many forums, I realized that allowing them to continue their hatefests unobserved was the way for me. Peace at last.”
so what are you doing here,just could help yourself? its OK. its called, fatassholeamericanignoramusinternetopinionitis.The treatment involes turning off, FOX NEWS as well as MSNBC, but since you didnt mention any of the proffesional hardons that work there, i think your probably an unwilling, and therefore hopeless case.
I too miss Olbermann but there is nothing “second string” about Lawrence O’Donnell. He has done a terrific job in exposing stupidity, hypocrisy and introducing factual and logical reporting of news events.
I was being overly kind by characterizing O’Donnell and Big Ed as second-stringers.
Shultz seems to be a good enough fellow, but he’s a radio guy, and it shows, and rather painfully. He can barely even read his lines, and they’re pretty lousy lines to begin with. Being from contemporary radio, he aims to generate heat, rather than light, and is fond of hyperbolic comments, and of overstating absolutely everything. He’s a party man–a Democrat, instead of a liberal. A guy who thinks Obama is the greatest things since sliced bread, and says so over and over again (he criticizes him from time to time, as well, but he always goes along with him in the end). Those in the corporate press are always offering up false comparisons between conservatives and liberals–Ed is the first one that gives them a real equivalent.
O’Donnell just sucks. I’ve never liked him. I wouldn’t even look at Olbermann’s show when he was guesting. He has absolutely no charisma, no charm, no real sense of humor about him. He’s just this sour, dull, monotonous filler of space whose facial expression never changes; a liberal Ben Stein. He makes for absolutely awful television, and he’s not just a step down for Olbermann–the effect is more like a piano going over a cliff.
I used to watch Olbermann and Maddow on a regular basis. These days, I barely even turn it on, and it’s just for Rachel.
Why wouldn’t a “liberal”/Dem-supporting variant of Fox News be equally morally bankrupt?
Come on Kieth im not buying it. Altruism may of been your reasoning but believe me there was a dynamic at work that was heading at you like a steam roller.You left because you were painful…..and i do mean painful to watch. Glen Beck has become a hard 5 minutes(let alone an hour)to nail your seat to a chair.He has become painful to watch to.So its not right or left.Or content.The name of the game is and always has been watchability. Stewart and Colbert make it easy. Kieth was the worst of the lot.A shrill voice spouting negativity of an ideological kind night after night pumped from an ugly mug.It aint Sienfeld.He and Glen should do one show a week.Im not promising ratings.Just some relief for the listeners please.
Why is it hard to understand Chris Matthews’ featuring DeLay? Matthews voted for GW Bush … twice.
// “Why wouldn’t a ‘liberal’/Dem-supporting variant of Fox News be equally morally bankrupt?” //
Because Democrats and liberals tell more truth than Republicans and conservatives. Republicans are all about spin and marketing, which mostly boil down to lies.
@classicliberal2 you are so dead on point with every point, I have only to say I agree.. I agree.. I agree!!
I’ve never watched any of them, but I have the feeling, classicliberal, that your comments are dead on, especially about Ed Schultz. Schultz’s pal, the very good (at least on radio) Norman Goldman, has promised that his Monday show “may cost him a friend.” I think he may be referring to Big Eddie and Eddie’s melt-down last week concerning another radio host’s questioning of the bin Laden execution. Goldman says that the theme of Monday’s show is going to be about “what kind of country we want to be.” Here’s hoping that Goldman will speak truthfully about the Presient’s taking of powers that clearly are not his to take (like, say, assassinating American citizens and holding people indefinitely without charges or trial). We’ll see.
The departure of Countdown was a big mistake. Keith brought bias with humor and great sarcasm. He levied criticism to the left when needed and to the right where deserved pointing out hypocracy as often as it appeared. Nightly! Miss you Keith!