I am a big fan of Keith Olbermann. There was a time when he was almost the only progressive voice in the ‘mainstream media.’ Moreover, he was one of the few people on television willing to swim upstream against ‘the narrative’, that sort of conventional wisdom embraced by the punditocracy.
But Olbermann made himself a target. He promoted the impression he was bigger than his employer, and all but untouchable because of it. I suspect executives at NBC and GE, and perhaps Comcast as well, had the impression he was ‘out of control’, and encouraging a sense among other MSNBC staffers that he, and not management, was the ultimate authority in day-to-day operations.
So, in spite of the fact he rescued the network from obscurity, and remained its most popular personality with viewers, they fired him.
There are people at FOX News, of course, who make Olbermann seem like the very model of a sober, reasoned newscaster. But although Glenn Beck may suggest that various political figures need to be “shot in the head”, you will never hear him imply that he is bigger than FOX News itself.
I hope Olbermann turns up somewhere else doing what he did at MSNBC.
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Arizona made the national news twice today. To wit:
1. The governor wants to be the first in the Union to cut state Medicaid benefits.
2. A restaurant in Tucson has agreed not to sell hamburgers made out of African lion meat.
A local story revealed that no less than 3 people had been hit by news coverage vehicles at the University Medical Center during the Tucson shooting circus. One was seriously injured. The article did not site if there had been a Tribute (candles, crosses, Teddy bears) erected to said individual.
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