Mediaite has the statement from MSNBC president Phil Griffin:
I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.
Exit question: Stupid move by MSNBC or stupidest ever?
I don't know... It's in tough competition with the decision to hire Keith Olbermann.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt may be that this is the excuse they have been looking for, to get rid of an embarrassment. I have to believe that even many on the left look at Olbermann as a crackpot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's stupid about this is Phil Griffin making the rather unbelievable claim that he is, essentially, shocked--shocked I tell you!!--to discover that KO has been donating to Dems--this is actually even more stupid than 'water is wet.'
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe they just now realized that catering to the hard left guarantees the best MSNBC will ever be is an also-ran, and dropping Olbermann is their public proclamation that they're shedding their fringe image.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHope springs eternal!
Just yesterday I was seeing joking speculation about how MSNBC could possibly find a spot for Alan Grayson in their line-up. Well, here it is!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePhil Griffin is tonight's worst person in the world
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf I were the new owners of NBC (Comcast recently bought them from GE), I'd be looking for any excuse to fire Keith ASAP.
1. He is grossly overpaid for producing also-ran ratings (barely 25% of the O'Reilly audience, and falling!)
2. His show undercuts whatever reputation the parent NBC news has left as a "real news" organization. (MSNBC has no reporting staff of its own -- in fact most of the time the channel is just reruns of NBC "newsesque" docs, like "To Catch A Predator" and "Life Behind Bars"!)
3. His show undermines the Left's insistence that Fox is just heated crazy-talk while lefty MSM narratives are ice cold rationality from "reasonable moderates."
4. Olbermann is a notorious character who has already butted heads with and been fired by everyone else in the business (he even used to work for Fox!) I'm sure he's not much fun to have around the office, and no one would miss him.
As a whole MSNBC is quite profitable, but this is due to a combination of low overhead (no reporters & recycled content -- see #2 above), plus the MS stands for Microsoft which means the MSNBC website is pushed in Windows and Internet Explorer.
But MSNBC's cable TV ratings have fallen more than 20% since 2008 (while Fox's ratings have continued to grow.) Clearly the primetime line-up is not working out, so as owner I would start cleaning house by firing the highest-paid employee (who also happens to be the most troublesome.)
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