Corporate Cynicism, Personality Clashes End Olbermann’s MSNBC Career

Keith Olbermann

People familiar with the workings of Corporate America should not be surprised by the sudden departure of MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann's focus on liberal issues, and passionate denunciation of the Bush administration and its disastrous Iraq war, turned him into star and raised the network’s profile. MSNBC carved out a reputation as place where progressives could go to hear opinions that echoed their views and even beat CNN in the ratings. Buoyed by the success of Olbermann’s “Countdown,” the network later added similar voices such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Shultz.

But cracks were beginning to appear in the Olbermann-MSNBC union. Olbermann himself is a prickly character, who had a history of clashing with networks chiefs and being fired from other cable channels. Things came to a head last year when he was suspended for making donations to Democratic politicians.

The suspension was odd, because the NBC’s policy was not clear. Olbermann said he was not aware of the ban on political donations, and other MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough were only punished after Olbermann, even though they had done the same thing. But this foreshadowed things to come. Just like other corporations, MSNBC decided that they did not want to fire their problematic star, so they would just make life so difficult for him that he would not want to stay.

I am sure that MSNBC’s recent purchase by COMCAST had something to do with the hostility directed at Olbermann. COMCAST chairman Ed Snider also owns the Right Network which is trying to create another channel dedicated to conservative programming. The last thing he wanted was an employee, who had a reputation from mocking conservative icons like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.

MSNBC was always an oddity. It recently billed itself as a home for liberal voices, but it was still owned by corporate titan, GE, the same company that owns major defense contractors. This was the same station that fired Phil Donohue, also it’s top-rated star at the time, for his criticism of the Iraq War, back when they were trying to be conservative.

And although MSNBC promoted liberal talkers like Maddow and Olbermann, you had to believe that they didn’t want them to be too critical of right-wing politics. The network probably decided that Olbermann was too much of a wild card and decided to offload him before the new management started sending them angry memos. So much for progressive commentary on TV.

But, I am not worried, I get most of my information from the Internet, and I am sure Olbermann will turn up on another outlet. He has a following, who will stay with him, if he has a radio show, newspaper column, TV program or Internet production. The firing of Keith Olbermann shows me that there is little room for independent thought on network TV. And as for Maddow and co., I would suggest they start dusting off their resumes. Olbermann was first, but your next on the chopping block.