Current TV, the fledgling liberal cable channel, said Friday that it had terminated its relationship with Keith Olbermann, the anchor that it hired just one year ago.
In a letter to viewers, the channel said Friday: “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before. Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”
Mr. Olbermann will not be given an opportunity to sign off. Starting Friday night, the former New York governor Eliot Spitzer will replace him at 8 p.m., according to the letter to viewers. His program will be titled “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”
The decision to dismiss Mr. Olbermann was unanimous among the senior managers of Current, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It came after months of infighting between the famously temperamental Mr. Olbermann and his bosses at Current, including David Bohrman, the channel’s president, and Joel Hyatt, its chief executive. The fighting spilled out into public view last January after Mr. Olbermann declined Current’s requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that had plagued his 8 p.m. program, “Countdown.”
Source
In a letter to viewers, the channel said Friday: “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before. Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”
Mr. Olbermann will not be given an opportunity to sign off. Starting Friday night, the former New York governor Eliot Spitzer will replace him at 8 p.m., according to the letter to viewers. His program will be titled “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”
The decision to dismiss Mr. Olbermann was unanimous among the senior managers of Current, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It came after months of infighting between the famously temperamental Mr. Olbermann and his bosses at Current, including David Bohrman, the channel’s president, and Joel Hyatt, its chief executive. The fighting spilled out into public view last January after Mr. Olbermann declined Current’s requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that had plagued his 8 p.m. program, “Countdown.”
Source
ETA: I can't keep from mentally filling in the "you have annoyed me for the last time" tag LOL.
Edited at 2012-03-30 11:15 pm (UTC)
Rachel. Is. A. Fucking. GODDESS.
And with him being a pompous asshole, you don't see too many conservatives talking shit about him, do you? They keep their mouths shut because all they have to do is give him a reason to publicly humiliate them.
Edited at 2012-03-31 05:46 am (UTC)
I'd like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.
Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I've been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.
It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current's statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa
In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.
I'd like to see Keith back on a news network because the guy does do great commentary. Unfortunately, he doesn't ever get along with the people who actually employ him. If I was him, I'd be calling up Rachel to see if she could use him as a guest host. They seemed to genuinely get along, and right now she's got to have a lot of influence at MSNBC.
I swear, Rachel needs to be his get-a-grip friend and show him a timeline that demonstrates that with each firing/quitting his tenure gets shorter at the subsequent place.
I like Keith, but he needs to learn that if you play in someone else's sandbox, you don't kick sand in their faces. He's turning his reputation radioactive, who the hell is going to want to touch him?
Actually, his own syndicated show is what would probably work best for him. He'd make a lot less, but something through NPR might be doable.
CNN might give him a show, maybe, but it wouldn't be the sort of big-fish-in-a-small-pond atmosphere he's been used to. He was head dog at both MSNBC and Current and really, was a huge deal when he was hosting Sportscenter too. But at CNN he is going to be a small fish, and I don't know if his ego can really take it.
Shame, I enjoyed him on MSNBC. Especially when he and Matthews did election night coverage. The Keith'n'Tweety Show = GOLD.
Maybe he'll go back to ESPN? (If Disney will touch him, that is.)
(didn't MSNBC-brand Countdown get torpedoe'd before April Fools, too?)
Dood has an iPhone, he should just... get a YouTube account and go indie podcaster. He could monetize instantly on name recognition alone, and he wouldn't be restricted to a 1 hour format (so longer Thurber readings are a non-issue)! No more corporate/political conflicts of interest, and the worst he'd have to put up with are YouTube comment trolls.
If it weren't for that I still watch Law and Order SVU, I'd say I'm done with TV. *sigh*
I would totally watch an Olbermann YouTube channel
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2
I mean, after you get canned enough times, maybe someone could gently suggest, "Keith, did you ever think, 'Hey, maybe it's me.'?"