Keith Olbermann

[Dharma Bum]

So the Countdown ends.

Improving the tone of discourse, big media conspiracy, clash of egos, or just the end of a bad show?

[Lainey]

It's big media swallowing up smaller media. According to reports, cutting Olbermann loose was part of the Comcast deal.

Rep. Franken warned about this effect on the floor of the House when he talked against approving the merger, but the FCC approved it anyway. Big business tightens its grip on what can be shown on mainstream media.

[freein05]

I would say it was letting a bad show go.

[loosechickens]

Actually, Keith Olbermann's show was the highest ratings of the MSNBC evening programs.

He's always been hard to keep "on the reservation" and had lots of clashes with "the suits", and the Comcast deal increased the power of "the suits", and he's out. He's prevented from appearing on another network for a fairly extended period of time, but walked with his salary thru 2014, I think, so.......

He may have separated from MSNBC because of differences and clashes with the executives, but it wasn't because of ratings.....his show, and the folks that spun off from it, such as Rachel Maddow, reinvigorated MSNBC and greatly increased their ratings.

He's well known to be prickly, opinionated, and with difficult relationships with his bosses, and this isn't the first place he's walked from (or was pushed). The consensus seems to be that the bosses hate him, but the people who work FOR him think he's wonderful......he has a mercurial personality, and the upside of that is that it gives him his "star power", but the downside certainly has been over his life, even as a sportscaster, that he's stepped on the toes of the bigwigs all the time.

[Alan]

And now I'll have to live with the shame of never being named "Worst person in the world". I'm heartbroken!



Actually, Keith Olbermann's show was the highest ratings of the MSNBC evening programs.

Yes, he was definately the big draw for that network. Unfortunately, his ratings didn't quite equal the lowest evening ratings of the competition.

[loosechickens]

Umm.....you make an interesting point, but the National Enquirer has a much larger circulation than newspapers like the New York Times, so are you sure that ratings equate to quality? It might say more about people than we'd want to look closely at, hahaha. ;-)

Wasn't it P.T. Barnum who said, "no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"......?

edited to say: Nope......"The Google" says it was H.L. Mencken who said it.

[Gregg]

I never watched the show. Had it on my bucket list. Oh well...