Noble public official forgiver Keith Olbermann delivered one of his Digg-bait “Special Comments” last night, except this time he wasn’t devoting 10 minutes to assailing President Bush — he was extending an olive branch, and a “second chance to make a first impression,” to Sen. Barack Obama, who suddenly decided to vote for FISA, the federal wiretapping-without-warrants law that the Bush administration has so long wanted on the books, as well as blanket immunity for the telecom industry who’s been cooperating with officials who may or may not be violating Americans’ Fourth Amendment.
Nevermind that Olbermann was championing Obama just last week for “refusing to cower even to the left on the subject of warrantless wiretapping” — signaling a flip-flop of his own, since Olbermann was championing Obama when he was anti-FISA back when this campaign started — and got thrown to the lions by Glenn Greenwald, who pointed out the discrepancies in Olbermann’s logic. Video below. CONTINUED »
That Variety is weighing in on the Olbermann-O’Reilly feud pretty much means it’s time to turn in, doesn’t it? [Variety]
Glenn Greenwald, the Salon columnist, is usually scribbling down attacks on the GOP. But not always. Greenwald, who often gets trashed talked in pundit circles and at media parties, has a history of taking a break from Bush mudslinging to go on a tear against one media outlet or another.
Last year he did it to Time columnist Joe Klein (”For the sake of its own credibility, Time Magazine needs immediately to prohibit Joe Klein from uttering another word about the eavesdropping and FISA controversy.”). He’s also spit blood with Politico, criticizing its overly cozy relationship with the Drudge Report (perhaps because he covets it?) and effectively labeled it a “gossip rag masquerading as news organization.” (Us too!)
To be sure, Greenwald’s media crits are often based on his original premise: Playing nice with the right-wing makes you the devil. So anytime a media outlet violates this treatise, they’re fair targets.
And so too, then, is Greenwald’s latest victim: Keith Olbermann. The MSNBC host who was once a liberal hero is now — to Greenwald at least, though also to many others we’ve spoke with inside the industry — a double-talking liar. Worse: a centrist! And Greenwald has some pretty damning evidence. CONTINUED »
Was Keith Olbermann really playing diva when he wasn’t offered a first class train ticket — Oooh! Luxury on Amtrak! — to attend Tim Russert’s memorial in D.C.? Supposedly there weren’t any premium seats left, which sent the MSNBC anchor into a rage, says Page Six. Nevermind that there doesn’t appear to be a service class called “first” (just “business”), and those seats can be had for just a $35 upgrade (or about $100 on the Acela) on the NYC-D.C. route. Also: Didn’t these two guys not exactly care for each other?
Olbermann’s rep, meanwhile, issued this From Now And To Forever statement on all items written henceforth: “Since whatever you’re going to print is an outright lie, you can go ahead and write whatever you want. That’s on the record and applies to all future items you might make up.” Heh. Like we haven’t heard that before.
But the most dramatic part of all this? Knowing the item was going to appear today, Olbermann pulled his usual stunt — last week he did it to Paula Froelich — and named former Jossip editor and currrent Sixer Corynne Steindler to his Worst Person in the World list (she ranked behind Bill O’Reilly, for what that’s worth). Clip below. CONTINUED »
This new ad from Fox News promoting Bill O’Reilly is either an accurate forecast of The Factor’s eventual burying of Keith Olbermann’s show, or a very embarrassing artifact for the future. [TVN]
On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann preemptively named Page Six’s Paula Froelich his “Worst Person in the World” after finding out she was working on an item, for today’s column (here’s the item), that accused colleague Chris Matthews of gunning for the Meet The Press gig at Tim Russert’s funeral. Matthews denied the charge on the record, and said the “agent type” he was speaking to was real-estate developer Bob Monahan, and that their conversation wasn’t about his plot to secure the gig, but about an upcoming speech Matthews was going to give to a group of mayors. As for Olbermann, P6 quotes a source saying he’s threatened to quit if he isn’t named to the MTP gig; Olbermann also denies the claim. And it better be true, because everybody we’ve spoke with says Olbermann and Matthews are about the last people NBC News president Steve Capus plans to install on the Sunday morning talker. Russert himself took a liking to political director Chuck Todd, though it’s also unusual that Russert is said to have bandied about Todd’s name as his pick of successor, since Russert, while still alive, had no plans of giving up the show anytime soon.
It was easy to gloss over most of the material in today’s New Yorker profile of Keith Olbermann. Namely, the revelation this his name was on the short list of candidates when, in 2005, Les Moonves and then-CBS News president Andrew Heyward (later replaced by Sean McManus) wanted to shake up the newscast following Dan Rather’s exit, they reached out to Olbermann. Meeting at his Manhattan apartment, as the Countdown host was nearing the end of his MSNBC contract, he told the duo that he didn’t imagine himself completely revamping the broadcast right away, but would do so gradually. And also: He argued networks waste far too much cash on anchors, who so often hand off to correspondents. (For what it’s worth, CBS pays Katie Couric an estimated $15 million per year; Olbermann was looking for $4 million per year when he renegotiated with MSNBC.) As you probably surmised from the way history played out, Mr. Olbermann was not offered the job. CONTINUED »
… based on reports from earlier this month, the Countdown host posted this item on Daily Kos:
Kindness to the grieving - even if it’s forced, even if it just augurs a later pouncing - is appreciated.
For what it’s worth, he didn’t position himself publicly on this for obvious reasons, and we had had a very pleasant, very constructive “what can we do to keep our two styles from hurting each other’s broadcast, or the whole organization,” conversation. But Tim Russert was as supportive of what I did as anybody else at NBC, and his role on the MSNBC election coverage was voluntary and enthusiastic.
So that matter is all cleared up now. Right? Right?
One might think 30 Rock wouldn’t be particularly excited about Peter Boyer’s 6,200-word New Yorker profile of Keith Olbermann that’s intent on revisiting every charge of polarizing bias aimed his way in recent weeks and months. But, apparently, they weren’t, since everyone from MSNBC head Phil Griffin to Olbermann himself participated in the article. Then again, the profile isn’t as anti-Olbermann as, say, Fox News’ PR department could have hoped.
Olbermann, who says he chose his 4th floor corner office at 30 Rock because it has a view of Fox News’ studios across Sixth Avenue, has enjoyed both Jesus and pariah status atop his Countdown post. His fans are legion; his critics are loyal. Some of his biggest naysayers have, rightly so, come from across the avenue: Names like Bill O’Reilly and Steve Doocy come to mind, and those are just the ones with public soapboxes.
But many of the folks who have tired of Olbermann’s routine also walk the same halls of 30 Rock he does. CONTINUED »
NBC News is doing the respectable thing and not commenting, publicly, about their plans in naming a successor to Tim Russert, whose death on Friday at the network’s Washington studios has left them without a Meet The Press anchor, or a D.C. bureau chief. As a show of respect for Russert’s family and his colleagues, 30 Rock is holding off on telling anyone what they plan to do come this Sunday.
While NBC News chief Steve Capus and NBC head Jeff Zucker wisely selected Tom Brokaw to moderate yesterday’s MTP Russert tribute, with a line-up of the guests the late anchor would’ve booked himself, there’s nothing firmed up for the weeks ahead, claims NBC.
None of that means media’s chattering classes aren’t placing over-unders on who’s going to fill Russert’s slot, at MTP or leading the network’s Washington unit. There’s a list of usual suspects, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. So who’s the most likely to take the very big reins?
Let’s take a look. CONTINUED »
How did we go from naming Rupert Murdoch the “Worst Person in the World” to adding America’s sweetheart Katie Couric to that list? Ah, right: Because Keith Olbermann’s popular segment is as much a place to criticize world leaders guilty of human rights violations as it is for him to defend his own. And thanks to Couric aiming some “anonymous” critical comments at the NBC family, there she is, Keith’s No. 1 target. CONTINUED »
Hoping for a week of beating Bill O’Reilly in the advertiser friendly demographic of 25-54, Keith Olbermann gets upset by Tuesday night’s results: FNC won 582,000 to 368,000.
The Countdown host was supposed to take some time off this week — until he found out from Nielsen that he might beat The O’Reilly Factor in the key 25-to54-year-old demographic for the first time in his Countdown’s 5-year history. Of course, O’Reilly still has about twice the total audience size of Olbermann, and Laura Ingraham subbed for Bill on Friday, but is that what advertisers care about? Or MSNBC, when it gets bragging rights and gets to throw more stones at News Corp.?
Scott McClellan’s latest public service for his country – that would be writing the book What Happened – was so he could have a chance “to talk about the important truths,” not “[help] the president’s critics.” Which, uh, he’s so doing. On Keith Olbermann’s show last night, the White House’s least favorite summer author talked mostly about his upcoming testimony in the Valerie Plame/CIA leak case. But there was also a visit to the state of McClellan’s book tour, which, as Olbermann helpfully reminds him, has been full of interviews that have “not been sympathetic.” CONTINUED »
On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann named Rupert Murdoch his “Worst Person in the World” for the inside baseball decision of firing HarperCollins chief Jane Friedman, supposedly because she quashed the O.J. Simpson book and fired Judith Regan, despite Murdoch wanting the book out.
But maybe Friedman’s fate was sealed much earlier? Like, three years ago? When her ally Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, left the company, and she had to begin reporting to COO Peter Chernin? And had to start meeting certain financial targets? Which would’ve meant layoffs? That Friedman would’ve had a problem with?
The “Students, Adjunct Faculty, [and] Policy Committee of the Women and Gender Studies Program” at Hunter College aren’t exactly thrilled with who their school picked for its commencement address, which took place Wednesday.
That would be a one Chris Matthews, noted cable news talking head and woman-hater.
In a public letter published Sunday, the aforementioned write, in grandiose terms, “It is, in our view, disgraceful for Hunter College, for all of us who love this institution and most of all for our present and future students who look to Hunter as a bastion of women’s empowerment, to confer this honor on someone whose words in public so contradict the most basic feminist and civic values. Inviting him to be our speaker is asking him to represent Hunter College on this important occasion, and this should never have happened. We are outraged.”
Worth noting: Hunter College originally invited Keith Olbermann, noted ratings machine and ire of his colleagues, to speak. But he backed out, and Matthews filled the spot.
Also worth noting: Hunter College junior Yin Chang was cast in Gossip Girl as the recurring character Nelly Yuki, which, we’re pretty sure, is written into the script as “one of the Asian girls.” And if that isn’t an achievement for all women to celebrate, what is?
The full letter, below. CONTINUED »
Bill O’Reilly has made a career out of bashing MSNBC and Keith Olbermann. Now Fox News’ morning show, Fox & Friends, is getting in on the action, picking up on reports that Tim Russert is fuming over Olbermann’s leadership role at the network.
Bizarrely, the co-hosts’ chatter sort of props up Russert, at least in a backhanded way. Even more reason to find that leak, eh? [Video via JDP]
It gets real good around the 4:20 mark, when Gretchen Carlson starts calling for Olbermann’s education credentials and demands to know why Olbermann is still single, the biggest affront to a cable news host evs! And then Steve Doocy has to ruin things by whining about Olbermann picking on his son again.
Steve Capus, Phil Griffin, and the rest of the NBC good old boys are on a vigorous hunt for the leak behind today’s scathing Tim Russert v. Keith Olbermann item, which the network has flat-out denied.
But there’s one place in particular, Jossip hears, that their attention is aimed: CONTINUED »
We’ve spent much space chronicling the unrest inside the walls of 30 Rock, from the arrival of NBC News correspondent at David Gregory at MSNBC to tension between Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. Now comes word that Tim Russert, the well-respected and well-liked poobah of NBC, has officially joined the ranks of the perturbed. Well, he already did that when he had to scold Gregory about mouthing off to a waitress, but now his ire is aimed at “activist” Keith Olbermann. CONTINUED »
“… in 2003 the New York City Finance Department socked Keith’s “Empire” with a $46,055 judgement for failure to pay taxes to New York City. The judgement, since vacated, was filed on June 30, 2003.
“This latest tax problem, the fourth to surface in as many days, shows Keith struggling to pay his taxes on time in either New York State, New York City or California for five of the past nine years: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2008.” [OW]
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