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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Bye Keith

MSNBC and it's new (part) owner Comcast have sacked Keith Olbermann's show.  Story link HERE.

I really couldn't watch Olbermann all that often.  While I agreed that some of his favorite targets needed to be exposed ("Bill O" and "Comedian Rush Limbaugh"), the show was, by and large, so blatantly partisan that it became almost predictable.  Republicans bad. Check.  Dick Cheney is mean.  Got it.  Can we have something new now?  On the flip side, Olbermann was not more extremest on the left than O'Reilly is on the right.

From a technical perspective I liked Olbermann's style.  Very conversational, sometimes very funny, always intellectual.  Olbermann is also a terrific writer (check out his tribute to his departed mother).  He is a very talented guy.

Why the sacking?  Olbermann's show was one of the highest rated on MSNBC, so it's not entirely clear that this decision was an economic one.  Given the new ownership interest of Comcast you have to wonder what's next.  I don't trust Comcast, not in the least...this reinforces that feeling.

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