Dwindling ratings, erratic behavior, and a bloated salary are leaving television insiders to conclude that cable news network MSNBC may soon fire its lead talker, the left-leaning Keith Olbermann.
Ratings for Olbermann have been in a free-fall for the past year. Countdown has been down 27%, while rival Bill O’Reilly is up 22%. In the highly-prized 25-52 demo, Olbermann is down a catastrophic 52%, and his FOX rival O’Reilly is up 57%.
In fact, several of the more obscure sporting events during last week’s Winter Olympic Games scored higher ratings than Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Curling bled into Olbermann’s hour Wednesday, and viewers fled when the ice game finished.
Olbermann is not helping to make his ratings better, with an unexplained fixation with conservative activist James O’Keefe. He also continues to make matters worse for himself by reportedly having extending arguments with MSNBC higher-ups, then refusing to leave his apartment (or even his bathtub) after fighting with management.
The bombastic talking head has been blaming his extended absences on dead or dying parents especially when he doesn’t get his way with his bosses, who have long suspected that he was playing the bereaved son card. They could even tolerate the sick father excuse to a point, but now things have really gotten creepy. In what can only be a cry for help or sign of impending mental breakdown, Olbermann used his Special Comment segment last Wednesday to talk about killing his father:
“Keith has a habit of flaming out,” Capitol Hill Blue quotes one NBC producer as saying. “It’s happening again.”
All of this is adding up to increasingly louder whispers that MSNBC execs are looking for a way out of their relationship with Olbermann. With dismal ratings and erratic behavior, they are finding it increasingly difficult to justify his bloated salary.
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Does anybody even watch this overpaid nut job or care what he says? Fire the jerk and the sooner the better.
Keith Olberman is the second reason I watch MSNBC.
I find it hard to believe that MSNBC would even consider doing anything but giving Keith a raise!
This guy is just boring and stupid. I wonder why msnbc gave him the job in the first place ? You can't watch his show with out wanting to turn the channel after the first 1 or 2 seconds.
I think most people would prefer to flee reality given half a chance. KO is not allowing them that 'luxury'. He's only speaking the truth about what a REAL America would do for its people, but because of politics, will not make it happen. We have given the lie to every beautiful word written about us. Here's the third verse:
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
FauxNoise, Never Fair, Never Balanced, and most certain, NOT funny — Right-wing-nut-job propaganda 24/7. I'll bet you guys still think Oswald did it! Ok, now to my comment:
Corporations ARE NOT People, What happened to "We the people…" ? The citizens of America are OUR GOVERNMENT. The idea of less government only gives these fascist corporations a foot hold in every aspect of your life. Why are you paying 4.. 5… 6… hundred dollars a month for your healthcare? Medicare for all would be around $130.00 and no corporate "death panels" because of a pre-existing condition.
You kids education – My god! Hasn't the dummying down of Amerika gone on long enough? The Corporate powers (Military Industrial Complex) have all the money at their command to order another drone missile to kill another Afghan or Yemenese family but your kids education is less than third rate, I think it's about 27th now(?). Why can't lil Johnny sit still in class? That's right, put psycho-tropic drugs in him, that will fix the proplem, oh wait, justr say no to drug!
D.A.R.E. Drugs are really entertaining …. to Big Pharma!
The genetically manipulated foods your food lobbyists promote to your elected servants are killing you. Wonder why you are so damn fat? or your kids can't do a push-up, they put corn sweetener in everything – genetically manipulated corn. Why is little Johnny growing breasts???
Sorry for going so long with this. Keith Olbermann is fine — Ratings aren't everything, just look at the rest of the crap the corporation put out there for what is called entertainment OR NEWS. Do you remember what an attention span is?
SEX
Now that I have your attention again – Please do what you can do for the people of Haiti and Chile. Someday and maybe soon, I may be We the people…. asking for aid and there might not be an ear left to listen.
Thank You
Martin Carpenter
I rank Keith O #1
I have been a caregiver
it does take a lot out of you
and that commentary was not morbid and not odd for those of us who have been there
jeez give the guy a break – u are ridiculing his care for his dad ?
that is unfair and unprofessional – there was nothing of a meltdown there just what a real care giver goes through – so if you don't like it turn over to a guy who calls the women he worked with with filthy phone calls and is a chicken hawk war monger for money
I don't listen to either nightly but the vultures circling are no different then the cowards who canned Phil Donuhue despite growing ratings but because he opposed illegal wars and profiteering and refused to be a propaganda talking head
I’m happy if they chop Keith off the block, but sadly they have millions of other left wing hacks to replace him.
Keith thought that abscess was a snake bite and sucked all 6 liters out himself. What a guy. Hey Keith, if you wanna put your dad out of his misery? Than kill Yourself.
You people are nasty! the guy is sharing a very personal story and hoping that all people get the health care his father has been given….yet you continue to rip him apart…..sick!
Keith is the only reason I watch MSNBC, and close to the only reason I even turn the TV on…
Keith Olberman is one of our best hopes that the New World Order might fail to enslave…who? (you should know who, but you might not be awake yet).
Alex Jones is the very best hope infowars dot com like the news should be…free iphone app also, “Alex Jones Show”
Whoever wrote this piece on Olberman is an abject imbecile. “Impending mental breakdown”?!? God forbid anyone in America have one of those, right? Nevermind that a rising many are, due to how royally f$#%&@ this economy and health care system are.
Do yourself a favor, ditch the partisan nonsense, and watch his piece with some empathy. Enough pushing stupidity amongst the public. Please.
So what? He is just a script-reading trained-monkey. His script and joke writers are the important thing…
Want to get away from all the BS? Ron Paul :)
Doug said – You people are nasty! The guy is sharing a very personal story and hoping that all people get the health care his father has been given….yet you continue to rip him apart…..sick!
I could not have said it any better. I went through a similiar situation with my mother. She got good medical care and died three years ago. I was her health proxy and had to make very difficult decisions when she was unable. She begged on two seperate occasions to “just let me go” as she put it. The treatmemts had become torture.
Here is a guy sharing his personal life situation with everyone willing to listen, ripping him apart for it makes you subhuman.
Msnbc will soon be gone right along with Keith. The vast majority of Americans are not in tune with the liberal nuts they air on this channel. Our government was not created to be a safety net for everyone that needs a handout. To the thirty million without insurance – you should have studied in school, got a decent job and you would have insurance. Why is it the taxpayers responsibility to provide for all of the lazy, uneducated, drug & alcohol abusers, and general wastes of space who by and large chose that life. Liberal hearts bleed away.
Olberman is a unceasing boor. A stupid little man.
Does anyone watch mainstream media anymore? If you do, you are out of your frickin mind. These people have an AGENDA that is not in the US best interest. They are pro-Israel, pro-war and anti-freedom.
Of course he wants you to kill him. He can't stand you so much he wants you in jail for life so he can die with respect and in peace you jerk
“Anonymous insiders” report this, huh? Typical wingnut bilge, swallowed whole by the cadre of anal-rententive psycho rednecks. It just shows the complete bankruptcy of brains (replaced by imaginary twaddle) characterizing today’s right-wing whacko dimwits.
Getting this nutcase off the air would improve the world…………..Madcow should be next!
For you ALL Americans, you are ALL asleep, have been asleep and still asleep. Awke, the cry is out there…The story of Olbermann, is not only what is going on in your back yard, but how your institutions treacts you, your family and the rest of your fellow men in your country.
Awake-up,Americans, you are still asleep. Olbermann story is just one of thousands out there. Your country, is going, going, going down the drain, before your very eyes, awake up.
D
Sadly for the United States there will always be that ignorant minority of people that willingly believe whatever political revisionism based on the partisan divide that the right wishes to impart on them.
When you have a political party that is so intent on destroying the administration of a sitting President as is the GOP then it becomes obvious that the GOP party itself is in effect out to destroy America or at least our DEMOCRATIC way of life. By saying “No” and fighting everything that the current administration and Congress is attempting to do to help the entire country move forward toward the better and out of the deep hole the last administration put us into they are showing everyone just how much they want to retain what they believe is control, be it much to the detriment of the middle class workers who support this country.
One can only hope that the majority of Americans can and will see through the rights inability or unwillingness to work with everyone and do what’s right for the country as a whole but I doubt that they will ever get past the special interest that they are bought and paid for to represent over the voting public.
Think about this, when was the last time that America ever prospered under a Republican administration in your lifetime?
Stop buying into the LIES that these people sell and THINK for yourself !
The Jewish people as a whole will become its own Messiah. It will attain world dominion by the dissolution of other races, by the abolition of frontiers, the annihilation of monarchy and by the establishment of a world republic in which the Jews will everywhere exercise the privilege of citizenship.
In this New World Order the children of Israel will furnish all the leaders without encountering opposition. The Governments of the different peoples forming the world republic will fall without difficulty into the hands of the Jews. It will then be possible for the Jewish rulers to abolish private property and everywhere to make use of the resources of the state. Thus will the promise of the Talmud be fulfilled, in which is said that when the Messianic time is come, the Jews will have all the property of the whole world in their hands.”
— Baruch Levy, Letter to Karl Marx, ‘La Revue de Paris’, p.574, June 1, 1928
Keith spit in ‘Baby Doc’ Bush’s eye. He is therefore a saint. QED
There is a special place in hell for all conservatives and repubs. BillO, GlenB, and Rusbo will lead you guys down there. We love you Keith, keep up the good work in brining truth to the American people.
Olbermann’s a clever, erudite American. It’s just a shame that 3/4s of the population of the US are no more than materialistic chimps these days, and so can’t appreciate him.
Keith O is the best and along with Rachel the two best news going
I was channel surfing when I stumbled on Keith Olberman, after listening for a few minutes, I suddenly realized why I never watch him, Goodbye Keith
Boring teleprompter reader!O’Reilly Rules!
I only knew the dude from the NFL stint…he sucked at that.
Hey Keith!!!!
What if Daddio had to have Obamacare–yeah that wonderful liberal shit they want to force down our throats so that Marisol and Pedro can get in line in front of AMERICAN citizens???
We know, of course, that YOU will never have to have Obamacare as you are among the $$$ wealthied elite who can pay YOUR way out of it. However think just for a moment if someone in your family did have to have Obamacare….
If your Daddio had that, he’d be DEAD by now.
Capice????
My Tivo grabs 4 shows each day..
-Countdown With Keith Olbermann
-The Rachel Maddow Show
-The Daily Show With John Stewart
-The Colbert Report
Give me those four and you can have the entire rest of the dial.
Keith Olbermann is at the top of his game and is head and shoulders above his peers.
As for this crap about him being a teleprompter reader… he writes every word of every "Special Comment"… his words are then fed into the prompter.
~R
This has been coming for a long time. Olberman's leftist leanings are delusional. Chris Matthews is identical. Neither talking head shows an ounce of objectivity. Reporting has hit an all time low with these clowns. The duo are simply cheer leaders for Obama's losing team.
Everybody in this right left game get a clue. Israel runs this nation, Zionist Jews run all media, banks , and communication technology in this country. They also run our government and Bush, Obama, and whatever lackey comes next. Look foward to 2012 when things will be revealed, not the end of the Earth, just the end of the elites power.
Keith Olberman is a legend in his own mind. A truly rare idiot, that has been allowed to blow his hot air at the American public for way too long. Even as a sportscaster he leaves much to be desired. How do idiots like him get into these positions anyway?
please don’t fire him…he’s absolute comedy…or better yet…its like watching a train wreck….he is completely out of his mind….he really needs help…maybe he could jump off a bridge while doing one of his comments, or whatever the hell that is, and go out with a splash….Ohbo…please don’t go…you’re tooo funny, awful, weird…stupid, arrogant
Well well…once again another right wing induced lie that came to naught.
Yep…he’s still on the air months later now and still going strong.
poor rightwingnuts…you guys need to get your heads out of the sand in order to see instead of relying on your dreams in the dark sand.
Americans need people like Keith who question the government, who question authority and even ourselves to keep American politics transparent. So what if he donates personal money to the left? So what if Rush donates to the right? they are individuals as well as mouthpieces.