Keith Olbermann
Conservatives are rejoicing.
Hell, even I raised a glass of sparkly last night when I learned from… well, let’s just call him an inside gamer… that Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown was suspended indefinitely, without pay, for making political contributions to Democrats in this most recent midterm cycle. You can, and should, read the delicious details on Politico. (Now they’ve announced that his suspension will end Tuesday.)
Outside of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann is quite possibly the most divisive and visceral anti-conservative/anti-Republican out there. Suffice is to say that Keith Olbermann is the Democrat’s own Rush Limbaugh. (To be fair, please note that colleagues report that Maddow is actually a complete gem when it comes to the interviewer-interviewee relationship – meaning she is a gracious host. That said, all graciousness is lost when it comes to her breakdown of Republican policy and politics…)
Back to the topic at hand: Olbermann has spared no nanosecond of a moment throwing FOX News and any number of business entities and individuals under the bus for their contributions to x, y, or z-Republican political candidate. Sitting atop his high throne at MSNBC, Keith attempted to verbally slaughter donors for their individual right to make legal political donations.
Well, talk about the pot calling the kettle black. We now know that “despite MSNBC’s embrace of a more opinionated format, NBC News has a policy against its employees making political contributions – and it appears that Olbermann ran afoul of that policy, even by contributing to candidates he gave a platform on his show.”
Applause, applause, applause to MSNBC for making the tough decision to abide by their corporate principles at the risk of losing revenue to the temporary suspension of one of their top agitated hosts. Awesome, right?
Not quite. While this might seem like a contrition move on behalf of MSNBC in the face of Tuesday’s political blowout, what was MSNBC really trying to do? Let me just leave you with this closing thought…
Keith Olbermann’s suspension from MSNBC is about as strategically perfect as a rapper going to prison.
Ratings up, albums up – it’s all the same difference.
Sarah Lenti is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net’s The Savvy. E-mail her at sarah@nmpolitics.net.