Keith Olbermann

I was stunned by The Sun's description of Keith Olbermann's firing from Current TV as, "A mainstream media figure washes out at Current. " You had me for a minute, then I realized the headline appeared onApril Fool's Day. How else to attribute The Sun referring to Mr. Olbermann as a "mainstream media figure?" Joseph L. Holt, Chestertown

We had a spirited discussion Sunday on CNN's  "Reliable Sources" about Keith Olbermann's suit against Al Gore's Current TV. The video is at the end of this post, and I urge you to take a look especially at what Sharon Waxman, founder of TheWrap, has to say about Olbermann having played his games maybe once too often. Here's something Olbermann should perhaps be even more worried about: the fact that to win his suit he is going to have to trash a liberal icon in Gore. And how are Olbermann's liberal fans (however many might be left)

At the end of my review of Keith Olbermann's new "Countdown" show on Current TV, I said I hoped Olbermann would find an audience in his new TV home if for no other reason than to make CNN pay in its prime-time ratings gut for giving Eliot Spitzer a show. Read it here. And, according to highly-selective Nielsen ratings figures released by Current, "Countdown" did beat CNN's "In the Arena," in the key demographic of viewers 25 to 54 years of age. Spitzer was on vacation -- not that anyone noticed.

I was stunned by The Sun's description of Keith Olbermann's firing from Current TV as, "A mainstream media figure washes out at Current. " You had me for a minute, then I realized the headline appeared onApril Fool's Day. How else to attribute The Sun referring to Mr. Olbermann as a "mainstream media figure?" Joseph L. Holt, Chestertown

I have to give Keith Olbermann and Current TV their due: For 58 minutes Monday night, they delivered an impressive premiere on the new "Countdown" show. Strong production values, reasonable discussions and no ugly over-the-top slanderous attacks on anyone. And then with only a few minutes left, Olbermann, who behaved like a professional broadcaster most of the night, teed it up for contributor Markos Moulitsas to tear into on-air talent and management at MSNBC, Olbermann's last TV home.

I have had my disagreements with Keith Olbermann the last few years, but I have been watching in admiration lately as night after night he's covered the Occupy protest movement like no one else in the media. I am surprised that he has not received more praise for getting to this major story before anyone else and understanding the massive sociology of it better than anyone yet. Olbermann understands that Occupy Wall Street is an eruption of the pain millions of Americans are feeling.

The hypocrisy and truth issues of Jon Stewart were among the topics debated Sunday on CNN's media review show, "Reliable Sources," with host Howard Kurtz. Stewart's weak performance last Sunday in an interview with Chris Wallace, of Fox News, and his post-interview whine about how he was edited, were part of the conversation. I called him a liar, while one of the co-panelists called his appearance on Fox and act of "genius. " You can guess there might have been a little disagreement.

To be Keith Olbermann these days is to live your life as one giant plot point out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.In sports arenas and on billboards across the country looms the disembodied head of Olbermann, the wise-cracking anchor of Fox Sports News' nightly broadcast. Accompanied by some Olbermann bon mot or another, it floats there to draw fan attention to Fox and away from ESPN, Olbermann's former employer.For the bespectacled Olbermann, it calls to mind a major metaphor out of Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby": a pair of eyes with glasses on a billboard in Long Island in the 1920s used as ad for an optician.

Football Night in America 7 p.m. [chs. 11, 4] Not only can you can catch up on the day's NFL highlights before NBC's Sunday night game, but you also can watch Keith Olbermann (right) not be snippy with Chris Matthews. That is, unless some network suit has decided Matthews should replace Dan Patrick.

Watching Keith Olbermann interview his boss, Al Gore, Tuesday night for the second night in a row, I couldn't help noticing something: How much Olbermann looked like the RCA dog, head cocked slightly to the side, listening intently at his master's voice. That is, of course, when Olbermann wasn't nodding in agreement at what his master said. Check out the video at about 1 minute and 8 seconds and again at 2 minutes and 40 seconds for some of the enthusiastic nodding. This is Keith Olbermann, the guy who thinks himself worthy of Edward R. Murrow's legacy.

I have had my disagreements with Keith Olbermann the last few years, but I have been watching in admiration lately as night after night he's covered the Occupy protest movement like no one else in the media. I am surprised that he has not received more praise for getting to this major story before anyone else and understanding the massive sociology of it better than anyone yet. Olbermann understands that Occupy Wall Street is an eruption of the pain millions of Americans are feeling.

Current TV, the prime-time home of Keith Olbermann, Wednesday announced a strong election-year move with Jennifer Granholm joining the channel in January to host a show weeknights at 9 following Olbermann's. Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, will be host of "The War Room with jennifer Granholm," and I'll tell you what, I'll be there with big expectations on opening night. Here's the release from Current TV: San Francisco, CA, October 12, 2011--Current TV will launch THE WAR ROOM WITH JENNIFER GRANHOLM, hosted by the former two-term Michigan Governor.

Given the size of Keith Olbermann's audience on Current TV, what goes on during his "Countdown" show probably isn't worth the energy it takes to denounce it. On the other hand, the more marginalized he becomes, the more likely it is that "Countdown" will become a crucible for the kind of reckless and possibly slanderous speech Olbermann allowed from Janeane Garofalo Wednesday night. And part of this job is to identify such speech and warn of its dangers. This utterly unsubstantiated attack on GOP candidate Herman Cain, with its allegations that he must be getting "paid" by someone to run as a Republican, is outrageous.

Watching Keith Olbermann interview his boss, Al Gore, Tuesday night for the second night in a row, I couldn't help noticing something: How much Olbermann looked like the RCA dog, head cocked slightly to the side, listening intently at his master's voice. That is, of course, when Olbermann wasn't nodding in agreement at what his master said. Check out the video at about 1 minute and 8 seconds and again at 2 minutes and 40 seconds for some of the enthusiastic nodding. This is Keith Olbermann, the guy who thinks himself worthy of Edward R. Murrow's legacy.

MSNBC is built on a lie, and it's one that the cable channel is never going to be able escape as long as sticks to its leftist ideological guns. That's what I kept thinking as I watched Keith Olbermann's strange, coded, wink-wink interview with Cenk Uygur last week on the new version of "Countdown. " (That's the nightly show that is doing so well that Olbermann and Current TV  have not released any ratings since the first week of July -- and those showed a 30 percent drop for Olbermann from his premiere week.)

What is happening to MSNBC? They've veered off into left-wing politics (which I thought were supposed to be encouraging of free speech) and, all of a sudden, they've turned into anti-free speech zealots. First, Ed Schultz gets suspended for calling Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut" (which, admittedly, is a tremendously stupid, misogynistic thing to say) but now the network has taken it a step further: Suspending Time editor Mark Halperin over calling President Obama -- brace yourself -- a "dick.

We had a spirited discussion Sunday on CNN's  "Reliable Sources" about Keith Olbermann's suit against Al Gore's Current TV. The video is at the end of this post, and I urge you to take a look especially at what Sharon Waxman, founder of TheWrap, has to say about Olbermann having played his games maybe once too often. Here's something Olbermann should perhaps be even more worried about: the fact that to win his suit he is going to have to trash a liberal icon in Gore. And how are Olbermann's liberal fans (however many might be left)

Given the size of Keith Olbermann's audience on Current TV, what goes on during his "Countdown" show probably isn't worth the energy it takes to denounce it. On the other hand, the more marginalized he becomes, the more likely it is that "Countdown" will become a crucible for the kind of reckless and possibly slanderous speech Olbermann allowed from Janeane Garofalo Wednesday night. And part of this job is to identify such speech and warn of its dangers. This utterly unsubstantiated attack on GOP candidate Herman Cain, with its allegations that he must be getting "paid" by someone to run as a Republican, is outrageous.

The hypocrisy and truth issues of Jon Stewart were among the topics debated Sunday on CNN's media review show, "Reliable Sources," with host Howard Kurtz. Stewart's weak performance last Sunday in an interview with Chris Wallace, of Fox News, and his post-interview whine about how he was edited, were part of the conversation. I called him a liar, while one of the co-panelists called his appearance on Fox and act of "genius. " You can guess there might have been a little disagreement.

After four nights of watching Keith Olbermann, there are two things I can say with some certainty. First, he has put together a first-rate production team. Current TV is producing a more focused and faster moving “Countdown” than MSNBC did. That is either high praise for a relatively little outfit like Current, or a harsh indication of how slipshod things sometimes get editorially and production-wise at MSNBC, especially with some of its, shall we say, less focused hosts likeChris Matthews.