According to NBC insiders, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann may have worn out his welcome with network bigwigs. What took them so long?
Capitol Hill Blue reports the incident that caused this man-made human resources disaster:
Olbermann, who fancies himself as a cross between news legend Edward R. Murrow and Howard Beale, the mad prophet newsman of the black comedy movie “Network,” went after former MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams Wednesday night, claiming Abrams had been fired and had a grudge against the network.
The tirade left NBC executives red-faced because Abrams, a lawyer, is still employed by NBC as a news analyst on legal issues.
Olbermann castigated Abrams in a new segment of his show “The Countdown Hall of Shame,” which replaced the tired “Worst Persons in the World Segment” that had turned into a nightly tirade against Fox News personalities Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.
Obermann named the media website Mediaite — founded by Abrams — as runner up in the Hall of Shame Category because it reported on the Tea Party calling Obermann out for his claim that the grassroots movement lacked diversity when MSNBC anchors are mostly whitebread.
Said Olbermann:
Perhaps the reason that Mediaite took a Tea Party’s word for it is that this is the same site of a fired MSNBC employee. And in his attempt to implant his bitterness toward this place, to plug or weave it into his website, he has wigged out. He would like us to sweep his failure under the rug as if it were a bald-faced lie, or there will be hell to pay.
It appears that NBC execs have never actually watched Olbermann’s show. If they had, they would simply shrug this off knowing full well that being 180 degrees away from the truth is pretty common on their network from 9-10 pm EST.
A much more likely reason for the state of unease among NBC execs might be Olbermanns rapidly dwindling audience, which now routinely numbers under 1,000,000 viewers per night.
After all, network executives aren’t offended by liars. But they are highly offended by liars with small audiences.
Source: CapitolHillBlue.com
