Olbermann Watch - MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Our Work is Done but Olbermann is the Winner

Olbermann Watch, "persecuting" Keith since 2004

January 22, 2011

Our Work is Done but Olbermann is the Winner

OlbermannWatch's work may be done but Olbermann comes out on top.

I launched OlbermannWatch.com in November 2004 as on offshoot of my old The National Debate blog which was the first blog dedicated to covering political programming on the cable news networks. Since then I have moved on to many other projects, the most current being running on the biggest hyper-local blogs in New York, New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound.

Having grown up in a household where when the news was on TV it was always Huntley, Brinkley, and later Chancellor and where mornings always began with Barbara Walters and later Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley on the Today Show, I was alarmed at the sudden lurch to the left on Countdown. OlbermannWatch was launched, then, as a reaction to that and something of a warning to fans of NBC News like me and to the executives at the network that Keith was taking his show hard left and appeared to determined to take the rest of the network with him, down into the rabbit hole of Olbermann conspiracy theories. The result, I predicted long and loud would be the destruction of the reputation of NBC News built up over decades and exemplified by the men that Olbermann professed to honor and respect (Keith never mentioned women in his various paeans to broadcast journalism).

Today, for the first time since 2003, Keith Olbermann no longer has a TV show. He is no longer considered a News Anchor at NBC. For NBC News, however, it is too late. The reputation of the news division is left in tatters. MSNBC is nothing but a far-left outpost for the lunatic fringe. The broadcast news operation a fading shadow on a fourth place network -- fifth if you consider the nights when Fox News beats NBC News coverage of special events like the State of the Union Address or the national political conventions.

And in that sense, Keith won. He wanted to turn NBC News into liberal alternative to Fox News. He succeeded.

Few of Keith's fans who are bemoaning the end of the show last night were watching Countdown with me back in 2004. Even less will recall that when this site was launched, Olbermann was on the way out. Once the coverage of the invasion of Iraq died down, ratings for Countdown with Keith Olbermann began a precipitous decline and by the fall of 2004 Olbermann's closest competition was shows like McEnroe, a ill-fated talk show on CNBC hosted by former tennis great John McEnroe. Countdown with Keith Olbermann lost to every primetime shown on Fox News and CNN and to shows on Headlines News and CNBC and elsewhere on MSNBC. It was truly in the ratings cellar among a group of networks that, as a group, got low ratings.

Olbermann's viewership could be counted in the tens of thousands. His audience share was measured in fractions not whole numbers. As one of the few regular viewers of the show, it became clear to me that Olbermann was staring into the abyss and made a decision to go for broke by giving full-flower to his true personality. Unfortunately for him that personality is that of an angry, paranoid, man-child. Suddenly guests who Art Bell would not book on Coast to Coast AM were being given free reign by Olbermann. "Blackbox" conspiracy theorists alleging nefarious plots and proffering pseudoscientific theories to explain George Bush's victory over John Kerry found a home on MSNBC. Every crackpot with a web site, every loon with a wild allegation, every hack lawyer with a frivolous lawsuit, was cited by an ever more desperate Olbermann that Bush had "stolen" the 2004 election. It was not long before the liberal loons at Democratic Underground, Democrats.com, Daily Kos, and Fire Dog Lake were feeding Keith his talking points and "news" segments were direct rip and reads from far-left outfits like Media Matters and Think Progress.

A review of our first month of operation will confirm that OlbermannWatch.com was the first site to point out that Olbermann was seeking to turn MSNBC into a liberal antidote to a leftist caricature of Fox News.

MSNBC DEFINES DEVIANCY DOWN AS KEITH OLBERMANN'S INTERNET-FUELED JIHAD ON JOURNALISTIC ETHICS CONTINUES

This Attila of the CableNets has grown increasingly erratic as his ratings nosedive has begun to approach terminal velocity. Over the past couple of months Olbermann has descended into a journalistic netherworld where fringe web sites are news sources and fact-checking is no longer "cool" enough for the ultra-hip word stylist...For quite some time Olbermann has had the luxury of getting away with using his show to monger rumors of the web because no one watches his show (he gets about a .7 rating, or slightly better than the now cancelled McEnroe show on CNBC). But word is starting to get around that Olbermann is embracing the lunatic fringe, apparently determined to take the reputation of NBC News down with him.

Along the way, the far-left rallied to Keith. Members of the largest far-left TV Critics Association joined in the boosterism. Political groups like MoveOn.org held pledge drives. Once Nielsen began including Tivo data in its ratings, blogs encouraged readers to Tivo Keith's show whether they watched it or not just to boost Keith's numbers.

Then came the Special Comments, 10-20 minute sophomoric, self-indulgent rants that were more about Keith closeups than whatever Republican villain he was railing against that night.

By the time of the next Presidential election, the anti-establishment, lefty-schtick was pretty well set with talking points delivered by liberal think-tanks, a line up of guests pre-determined to nod their head in agreement at every "insight" that dropped from Keith's lips, and a preoccupation with Bill O'Reilly, Fox News and anyone to the right of Bill Clinton and Joe Lieberman. Facts were cast aside in favor or emotionalism. In the process Olbermann went from 110,000 viewers a night in 2004 to more than one million viewers a night by the 2008 election cycle at which point Keith became the co-host of MSNBC election coverage including a stint covering the Republican National Convention which ended badly with Keith being pulled off their air at the insistence of old hands at NBC like Tom Brokaw who had had enough. Sadly, by the time people like Brokaw woke up it was too late. Keith was by then the face of MSNBC and branching out with a deal to fill in on NBC Nightly News and a regular spot on NBC Sunday Night Football.

Unfortunately for Olbermann, Barack Obama won election to the Presidency in 2008 and suddenly his far-left heros were the establishment. The schtick got stuck and his ratings dropped.

All the while, Olbermann was working hard to remake the entire news division at NBC News in his image -- hysterical, liberal, and in your face. His protege, Rachel Maddow, has been a hit and is now widely liked within NBC and regularly booked on Meet the Press and the Today Show. Talk radio show host Ed Schultz and, more recently, Lawrence O'Donnell, along with Maddow and Chris Matthews now make up the MSNBC evening line up.

Given Keith's personality it was always only a question of when things would blow up. The final straw appears to have been Olbermann's decision to make campaign contributions to Democratic politicians in the 2010 election cycle. Keith went public prompting his long-time time supporter Phil Griffin to declare a state of war existed between Olbermann and network executives. With the sale of NBC to Comcast looming, less than 90 days after Griffin declared war, Keith signed off for the final time.

For OlbermannWatch it has been six and half years of pure misery having to watch Keith Olbermann night after night -- his making up "facts", lashing out without reason, yukking it up with jokes amusing only to him -- so our readers do not have to. This site served as the bellwether for exposing Keith's lies and hypocrisy, coining new terms that have entered the blogosphere lexicon such as OlbyLoons, Olbypocrisy. Along the way, we had our share of laughs.

According to the stats for the site, I have written 3,392 entries with 49,957 comments. Can that be true? Jeez. That's a lot of Olbermann commentary.

As Olbermann leaves the air at MSNBC, OlberannWatch is left to consider a future sans Keith, I would like to give thanks all around.

First and foremost to Mark K. who readers know as Johnny Dollar or his rap name, J$. He carried on long after I no longer had the stomach for day to day viewings of Countdown. J$ was beyond relentless in documenting the many lies, fraud and hypocrisy that came to define Countdown with Keith Olbermann. I founded this site, did all the technical work and managed the publication but over the years this became a J$ production. God bless your perseverance.

I would like to thank Alex Yuriev of Zubr Communications for hosting this site and dealing with the not-infrequent denial of service attacks and otherwise keeping us online. While Mark and I did our share, the site would not have been online at all without Alex's efforts over the years; he has truly been the silent partner in this endeavor.

To all the contributors and commenters and even your lurking readers. Thanks! What made this site fun was the back and forth in the comment threads.

For our blogfriends Allah Pundit, Michelle Malkin, Brian Malony, Matt Sheffield, the folks at Newsbusters, Matt Drudge, Ace, and the rest. To our radio friends including Mark Levin and Pat Campbell and our TV friends especially those at Fox News who often got a good chuckle from OlbermanWatch. A special note to Mark who at a dinner honoring Tony Snow in DC, once called OlbermannWatch the best blog on the Internet.

Finally, a special thanks to Keith Olbermann.

At its heart, this was site always intended as satire -- at least by me. To understand that you need to understand that when OlbermannWatch launched Countdown was down for the count. No one, and I mean no one, was watching the show. Keith was on the canvas, KO'd, literally. The satire then was to give Keith the sort of paranoid-obsessive coverage that a megalomaniac like Keith would feel he deserved even when he was hosting a show that had less viewers than a Michigan-Notre Dame football game at "The Big House" in Ann Arbor. Along the way a strange thing happened. Keith not only survived but thrived and eventually became a revered icon of the American left. He became a bigger than life figure who, at times, dominated, political discourse in this country and gave the left a rallying point the likes of which they had never had in the media. Although Keith focused much of his venom on Bill O'Reilly, his real media doppelganger, in terms of influence, was always Rush Limbaugh, who has dominated the discussion on the right the way Keith has come to dominate discussion on the left.

While the show is gone, Keith is most certainly not and so this site will likely live on. Keith has an audience that is rabid, loyal and will follow him anyway. Keith has shown, in leaving Fox Sports News, that he is perfectly willing to sit on the beach and collect a fat paycheck for doing nothing. But Keith is not done, far from it. The most obvious next step for Keith would be talk radio; god knows he could easily fill three hours of air-time a day. But if I had to guess, I would expect Keith to sign a deal with a network like Showtime for a weekly series or maybe something in tandem with Bill Maher. Anything is possible. Of course, a book in inevitable but maybe not a simple repackaging of his old scripts but a real story including his recent experience at MSNBC.

Of course, OlbermannWatch readers will gloat and rejoice but the simple fact is that Keith Olbermann took a show that was dead on its feet, breathed life into it and single-handedly remade his show and then an entire cable news network, generating millions upon millions of dollars in profits for a network with little else to brag about. To that extent, we tip out hat to Keith and wish him well.

After all, what would Olbermann Watch be without Olbermann.

This traffic data chart showing the spike after the news or Keith's signing off for the last time ought to give readers some indication of that:

Posted by Robert Cox | Permalink | Comments (37) | | View blog reactions

37 Comments

By Katy Turic on January 22, 2011 1:30 PM

Great thanks to OlbermannWatch
For giving Keith a kick in the crotch
The daily bitch slap
For Olby's claptrap
The comments were always topnotch

By ryder20

on January 22, 2011 1:43 PM

Katy...wonderful. Olbermann, I'd wish you well, but I don't like you. So, I hope things go very poorly for you in the future.

A washed up, ego-maniacal, former cable news host? If he's got a jet ski, I smell a premium cable spin-off of East Bound and Down...

By merkle923 on January 22, 2011 1:44 PM

Thank you OlbermannWatch for providing an outlet to vent. Many thanks to Robert Cox, Johnny Dollar, and all the commentors that made OW a great blog over the years As a long time contributor, it's a bittersweet occasion. I'll miss OW, but not it's namesake. Keith, it's been one day since MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, where is your job?

By America47000

on January 22, 2011 1:58 PM

Sorry, couldn't resist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRvAAYjmqkE

By Wolverine on January 22, 2011 2:10 PM

Me thinks you give way too much credit to the next "Murrow" for after all, as you say, it was the "crackpots" and "loons" that helped him rise from the ashes, because it was never about his journalism that garnered any ratings spike, but more about the circumstances of the times. As you say Bob, with a Democratic President there was no one prominent enough for him to go after with his mean spirited attacks, and therefore his ratings suffered. This is a man whose success depended entirely on the political climate and the crazies whose hatred for anything from the right he fed daily, and certainly not a man who could carry his show strictly on good journalism or any talent he was born with.

It all adds up to what he really was, and as you so adroitly put it an "angry, paranoid, man-child." In other words a fraud (a bitter one at that) no different than a Bernie Madoff, who fooled God knows how many people, except instead of stealing millions of dollars from innocent people he stole their souls. His lies and hateful attacks on so many innocent people without an ounce of proof should never be commended, and in reality should never be forgotten.

Hopefully all the powers that be will not forget, and to wish this hateful man well, is akin to me of wishing one of the worst human beings well, as his moronic sermons on what was "right" with America bordered most times on treason, and at the very least he seemed to dodge a bullet nearly every night with his libelous attacks on so many innocent people.

However, although I have a problem with your last sentence above, I personally want to thank you for opening up this format as it gave me an outlet to vent my point of views towards this dispicable man when I first joined back in 2005. Before that I thought I was going nuts seeing this man lie day after day without anybody saying anything to stop him, or at least to counter his lies, and then I thankfully found it through Olbermann Watch.

Thanks Bob, and to you J$ for your honest evaluations of this deplorable man, as you both made me see there was hope for the clear thinking among us. If Olbermann Watch is truly to end I have to say that it was a great ride and brought a lot of hope for a lot of us out here who still believe in the basic values that has made America such a great country.

And to all you other posters that contributed with your honest and intelligent comments I'd like to say thanks too. You brought not only a smile to my face, but a hope that America surely needs in a time where the liberal bias and hatred towards its own country left so much to be desired...

By cjflan32

on January 22, 2011 2:55 PM

An open letter to Carlos "MKDAWUSS" Lejjena

MKDAWUSS,

For those who believe in the truth and honest, responsible journalism, today is a great day. It is a great day because Keith Olbermann, an enemy of truth and journalism, has been removed from his responsibilities at MSNBC.

For approximately a year you have come here in an effort to defend Olbermann. At first it was little things, like you not understanding the ratings system. No biggie, sometimes people need clarification on some issues.

Then you started making excuses for Olbermann, such as "He said that a while ago and he's entitled to change his mind", "Who cares? That's not a relevant argument" or the always popular point out bad conservative behavior to justify bad liberal behavior. Fine, you're an Olbermann fan and you don't want to bash your hero.

Eventually your behavior deteriorated into full blown lies as you rushed to defend Olbermann and yourself. The latest was this "responsible journalist" garbage you started. Through this you showed a clear lack of intelligence and understanding in politics, debate and what the role of a journalist is but more importantly, showed complete and utter contempt for the truth.

However, what is and always has been a constant with you is ignoring comments. It's one thing for someone to come here rip people and walk away. It's another to continually call people out, ask questions, and when things don't work out for you, proverbially run away.

When you asked a question, you didn't come back. When you were called out you didn't come back. When Johnny Dollar posted something that couldn't be described as being "insensitive" towards Olbermann, meaning stone cold proof of his lies and hypocrisy, you were gone until a new topic was posted.

For a year now you have had more than ample chances to prove that everyone who posts here was giving Olbermann a raw deal. You didn't. In fact, when you weren't ignoring comments you were proving our points. If you honestly believed in the truth there is nothing that would have stopped you from proving us wrong. WE would have been the ones ignoring YOUR comments. You would have had the drop on us.

But the truth is you are a coward. You are a hypocrite. You are a liar. And your self-proclaimed stance as an "independent moderate" is a joke. You are an embarrassment and have done such a terrible job "defending" Olbermann Mr. Cox should give you a monetary settlement.

Unless for some reason you stopped being a coward and feel the need to continue your lying, hypocritical behavior, I will do my part to leave you alone. Olbermann is gone and as stated before, you have had more than a fair chance to debate your position. You have failed. Miserably. Therefore there is no need to continue this correspondence.

Good riddance,

cjflan32

By cjflan32

on January 22, 2011 3:11 PM

Again, congratulations to Robert Cox and Johnny Dollar for their continued efforts regarding the end of Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The champion of the Progressive movement has fallen and the foes of truth and honest journalism have been given a great defeat.

And to all the regulars who posted at Olbermann Watch and took the time to aid J$ in this battle (whoops), thank you too. It's been a pleasure reading your comments and sharing thoughts with you.

By cjflan32

on January 22, 2011 3:12 PM

Robert, I do have to disagree with one of your your assessments. While Olbermann was instrumental in mainstreaming MSNBC, he was also instrumental in turning a once proud brand of news into a carnival sideshow.

If the rumors are true that Comcast is to revamp NBC and MSNBC I applaud the move. But it will take more than Comcast to restore my faith in the NBC brand. Many Americans feel the same way and unless they continue to clean house on the journalism side of things (meaning bye bye Contessa Brewer, Luke Russert, Kelly O'Donnell, etc.) they will never shake that image of dishonesty.

By djwolf76

on January 22, 2011 3:28 PM

A perfect sports ANALogy for Fans of The False Murrow:

The Dallas Cowboys hire Wade Phillips as their head coach. History shows wherever Phillips was a head coach, he was bound to get fired due to bad decisions. And to boot, his team was worse off than when he got there. Der Kommissar may find another home, but buyer beware.......The Pitchforks and Torches may be soon to follow.

I can't wait to hear the joy from John Gibson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin on Monday. I will be curious if Bill O'Reilly weighs in on it too. Maybe he will just refer to him as the "Guttersnipe".

By America47000

on January 22, 2011 3:35 PM

http://www.tmz.com/2011/01/22/keith-olbermann-msnbc-countdown-comcast-cable-news-network-nbc-universal-secret-deal/

Don't want to vouch for the accuracy of this, but it seems to fit the facts and this concept of "mutual decision."

Basically, Keith knew Comcast was going to throw his ass out and asked NBC to protect him with a healthier severance than he might have gotten with the new regime, and they obliged. So a little shrewd maneuvering on Olby's part, more bad business from NBC, and a whole lot of KO bluster goes up in smoke.

As to any future "Internet presence," what do you think, featured blogger on DailyKos or HuffingtonPost or Media Matters?

Also, that moron Eric Boehlert from Media Matters doesn't seem to get it. Check out this tweet:

"Brilliant @Newsbusters analysis: MSNBC lineup now more liberal, therefore Comcast is moving MSNBC to the right!; http://bit.ly/f0Qbnv"

Well, duh, dumbass. Although I dispute his assessment of it being "more liberal" without their ringleader (which means he must have considered Keithy-poo a centrist or something. Yikes). I don't know what this guy is looking at. Olbermann left before they could put in a proper replacement, so swapping the current shows makes sense. And if Comcast was so quick to ditch Olby, there's no reason to think they wouldn't retool. So either this guy is in denial or is experiencing a huge leap in logic. If Newsbusters thinks Comcast is taking MSNBC out of the Liberal news territory, it's not because they looked at the current lineup without Olbermann. It's because they've seen other trends or know something else that gives them that idea.

Geez, what an idiot. Where will Media Matters go now that their primary echo chamber is off the air?

By djwolf76

on January 22, 2011 4:09 PM

"Brilliant @Newsbusters analysis: MSNBC lineup now more liberal, therefore Comcast is moving MSNBC to the right!; http://bit.ly/f0Qbnv"

Maybe it is all just a ruse. Comcast cut the head off of the snake. After a week or two, the pseudo-JOURN-O-LISTS will follow him out the door.

By LucasCop on January 22, 2011 7:05 PM

Let it be known that the true villains in this ordeal were the NBC brass working behind the scenes. They managed to turn a historically highly respectable news organization into a suspicious, mean, and outright ideologically statist propaganda machine that, because it lacked even a somewhat respectable audience base, had to resort to serial killer reruns every weekend from sun up to sun down.

After the passing of Mr. Russert (God rest his soul), there was no turning back. To hear Olbermann's words last night as he paid tribute to the man only pains me, for it was in his death that Olbermann was able to finally remove whatever shackles he had left.

The villains at NBC let Olbermann and his ego assume command. NBC lacked the courage - moral or otherwise - to hold him accountable. The unabashedly leftist coverage during conventions lacking even any respectable attempt for straight news coverage, the conspiracy theories, the endless snark and crudeness that could only attract the lowest common denominator. Still, NBC did nothing. Even in his resignation prior to COMCAST's ownership, NBC apparently awards him. History will show that broadcast journalism died at the turn of the 21st century. The era of Olbermann is but one example of that death.

By prodav18

on January 22, 2011 7:35 PM

The Countdown has finally reached zero! Although it was fun to point out the idiocy of this bottom feeder, it will be good for the country to have him off the air. Thanks Robert Cox and Johnny Dollar for all your efforts. Keep this going. There are others you know.

By JeffE on January 22, 2011 8:11 PM

Thank you, OlbermannWatch, Robert Cox, J$, and all the regular contributors here at OW for your hard work. I think that this website's documentation of Olby's lies and hyprocrisies and helped to speed the process of Olby's Countdown show ending.

One of the things that caused Olby to get my attention was when I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore and I saw Keith Olbermann's book, The Worst Person in the World and 202 Strong Contenders.

The relevant part of the book (no link, though for those who are curious, go to Google Books and type in the title of the book) is in his prologue, when he wrote (paraphrasing) that Bill O'Reilly in response to Olby's criticism of him, just points to ratings and doesn't rebut or refute anything that Olby said. Or basically, that just because Bill's show has more ratings, doesn't mean that his show is better. And as I have been watching Bill's show and alternatively switching to Olby's show for WPITW, I was wondering why Bill has not been responding to Olby.

Sometime later, I found this website and found out both the answer to Keith's challenge and my question of why Bill has been refusing to respond to Olby. Bill doesn't need to call out Olby on his
lies/hypocrisies, etc. This site has been doing the job for him, and at the same time shows as to why Bill's show has been doing so much better than Keith (and everyone else combined for that matter). Bill's show is informative while Olby's is overly partisan and gives misinformation, and the ratings have been a reflection of that.

Anoher thing that got my attention was that Keith has been refusing to have on his shown anyone with an opposing point of view (sometimes I watched other parts of the show) and I was looking to see, including on MSNBC websites, why that is. But it said nothing, and as I saw Keith do his interviews and his Worst Persons schticks, it seemed to me that Keith's viewers weren't supposed to notice that. Of course, this site has gone after Keith on that, and there's no need for me to elaborate.

Thank you again Robert Cox for creating this website and for J$ and others for holding Keith Olbermann accountable for his lies, hypocrisies, etc.

By JeffE on January 22, 2011 8:14 PM

*show* (fourth paragraph)

By JeffE on January 22, 2011 8:16 PM

Correction to my correction:

*show* (fifth paragraph)

By Mike C.

on January 22, 2011 8:30 PM

I linked to this post over at my blog where I drew compared Olby's sudden end at MSNBC to my sudden end at WCWP last August. I link to that in the previous thread, but I'll link to it once more for good measure.
Bob, J$, thank you to both of you. Without this site, Keith's nonsense would go unchecked. In the three years I've contributed here, I learned how painful it is to recap the Hour of Spin. As you put it, it was "pure misery having to watch Keith Olbermann night after night -- his making up 'facts,' lashing out without reason, yukking it up with jokes amusing only to him -- so our readers do not have to." As a big Bill O'Reilly fan, Keith's attacks were hard not to take personal. I remember transcribing those attacks verbatim. It drove me to tears and made me want a proverbial [Ding!] shower. Those days are over. Whatever attacks Olby's proteges lob will be nothing compared to his garbage.
So, thanks again. I also extend Great Thanks to my fellow registered users, sans the trolls.
If any of you want to keep in touch, my contact info is at my blog's About page.
To combine two sign-offs, good night and good luck 'cause we're definitely looking out for you.

By lugnuts6

on January 22, 2011 8:45 PM

I get this feeling O'Donnell Watch will be born !!

By syvyn11

on January 22, 2011 10:04 PM

Does the site die off now. Hate to burst the bubble, but the rest of the gang at MSNBC are there. We need to keep it up and tell the people when these clowns smear and lie. Olby was the first. WE DON'T STOP TILL MADDOW, CRAZY LARRY, SGT. SHULTZ and CYRK(?) ARE ALL UNEMPLOYED!

Olbermann watch is dead, LONG LIVE OLBERMANN WATCH!!!!!

By bluenose177

on January 22, 2011 10:54 PM

I agree with Syvyn, we have to keep the site alive and take the other MSDNC morons to task when they lie and smear.

Although, I guess part of that is the fact I was able to post for just over a week and now Olberdouche is gone (can I take credit for his demise LOL)

if this is how it ends, then thanks to the creators of the site to those who contributed and made it enjoyable reading when i couldn't post anything and especially to those who made Wuss very uncomfortable while telling him the truth about his hero.

and to Syvyn, for your nightly abstracts that always made me laugh..God bless you, my prayers are with you for a speedy recovery

By America47000

on January 23, 2011 1:52 AM

It'd be fun to keep this site around as long as the Olby-lites are, especially when they embarrass themselves with such frequency:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/22/rachel-maddow-sdi-cant-work-because-missiles-cant-shoot-missiles-out-

By twelvepackaday

on January 23, 2011 2:52 AM

Thank you Robert Cox, J$, Katy Turic and all of the rest of the Olbywatch regulars.

Robert, I hope this site stays around. Anytime there is a Keith sighting please instruct J$ to put up a post. I would hope you could send out an email anytime a new post is put up and I will come to visit and comment. With all of us regulars on the outside who knew that this day would come, there has got to be some great stories from Countdown insiders. Please do your best to find these stories and share them with the loyal regulars here. Thanks again.

One last ENOUGH! RESIGN! (FIRED!)

This is the 472nd day since the current President was awarded the Nobel peace prize.

This is the 2nd day with no Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

By djwolf76

on January 23, 2011 11:19 AM

Hey Wuss & M-Shitty:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2011/01/23/daily-kos-end-olbermann-show-end-democracy-free-speech

Face it, your boy sucked and you got sucked. This was a business decision based on Terrible ratings, failure to compete with Fox News, oh, and The False Murrow was a douchebagger! Did you ever stop to think that a person who demeans people and curses on The TWITter while using the name MSNBC would survive? This isn't about Der Kommissar's Freedumb of Speech. He has the right to it as do you, I, and all the rest of you out there. When you are reckless in the way you carry yourself (and The Hefty One sure has alot of weight to carry around) on and off the set, or in and out of the bathtub, actions lead to consequences. I am pretty sure that Comcast had gotten plenty of letters by customers threatening to cancel subscriptions if MSNBC didn't stop their crap. The $$$ that they charge here in NJ is rediculous anyways, so consumers WILL find an alternative. it is all about the bottom line and the bottom $, and the False Murrow wasn't cutting it.

It is exactly 3 days since I moved out of the skid row called Obamaville and The False Murrow is moving in. Life is Great.

By tonyome

on January 23, 2011 11:43 AM

Don't be surprised if you see Joe Scarborough given an evening show. And I have a feeling Chris Matthews days may be numbered at MSNBC. His ratings were (gulp) only half of Olbermann's, the worst rated news program on cable.

Why is there so much praise for Madcow out there? She's not very intelligent and is filled with almost as much lies and hate as Olberdork is.

By cjflan32

on January 23, 2011 12:30 PM

This may not be the end of Olbermann Watch, but it is the end for me.

Being a jackass on television is nothing new. My problem with Olbermann wasn't his mean-spirited, untruthful rants. It was his mean-spirited, untruthful rants masked under the guise of journalism. Telling people what you think of someone is not journalism. Lying like a rug is not journalism. Using a Twitter account to insult people is not journalism. Insulting your competition is not journalism.

If Olbermann had presented himself as a political commentator, which is what he was, then I would have passed off the majority of his behavior as the ramblings of a political commentator.

It was Olbermann that crossed that line. He wanted to play journalist. He wanted to pretend he was Murrow reincarnated. Half his criticism would have been thrown out the window if he just admitted what he was: a political commentator.

To my knowledge the knuckleheads that are taking over the MSNBC lineup haven't proclaimed themselves the next Walter Cronkite. At least not to the extent Olbermann did.

With that said if political commentators want to stay political commentators I don't care what they do. When they cross the line Olbermann did I'll go after them.

By djwolf76

on January 23, 2011 2:04 PM

"Don't be surprised if you see Joe Scarborough given an evening show."

He did on M.S.S.R. at 9pm EST during the Iraq war. Ratings were abysmal. Morning Schmoe AND Bubbles Brzezinski was on 770 WABC radio in NYC last year from 10am till noon and it was a major failure. He was claiming to be a true conservative (hard to believe that with all of the innane babbling and Bill Clinton ass kissing from him on his TV show) and she was promoting national socialism for the USA.

The re-birth of M.S.S.R. with The False Murrow in 2003 was just like the birth of Rosemary's Baby. The creature was hideous. I am hopeful Sgt. Schlitz will get to meet his compadres) you know, the people he now turned his back on, to claim the stimulus worked) the 99ers on the welfare line.

By djwolf76

on January 23, 2011 2:17 PM

I just have to do this: just saw this headline in Yahoo news:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110122/ap_on_re_us/us_dangerous_bath_salts

Bathtub boy, are you addicted to your bath water?/??? hahahahahahaha

By JeffE on January 23, 2011 9:31 PM

Fox Haters Week in Review

http://tinyurl.com/468ajyx

Keith Olbermann is featured in the final section, which I will also quote here. The words that follow are Johnny Dollars's:

The End of an Error
A few words about Keith Olbermann, possibly the biggest, loudest Fox hater on any news channel. We first dealt with Olby back in 2004, and still recall how his behavior then served as a template for so many smears that were yet to come. It was one of Olby’s trademark O’Reilly attacks, and this one was about ratings:

OLBERMANN: He told his audience that, on election night, at this hour, nine times as many Americans were watching Fox News Channel as were watching MSNBC. Actually, they had 7-1/2 million viewers at 8:00 Eastern last Tuesday. We have we had 2.6. That wouldn‘t be nine time as many. That would be less than three time as many. It‘s too bad Billy isn‘t as good with a calculator or a brain as he is with a loofah.

Olbermann’s source (which he didn’t credit, in order to make people think he saw the comments himself) was a blog posting that read:

On election night, "nine times as many Americans watched us than MSNBC," O'Reilly said late last week. "That plurality has never been seen before in the history in network news...With respect to our colleages at that other place, they're as arrogant as they get.”

Only that blog posting from TV Newser was incorrect. Here’s the truth:

O'REILLY: Fox News Channel is up against CNN and MSNBC, all right? Last night, on the Fox News Channel, at 8 o'clock, the Factor time, nine times as many Americans watched us as MSNBC. Nine times. That plurality has never been seen before in the history of network news.

That statement was made on Nov 4 2004--a Thursday. The ‘last night’ mentioned would’ve been Nov 3--a Wednesday, the day after election night. And the ratings that night:

THE O'REILLY FACTOR: 5,400,000 viewers
COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: 596,000 viewers

Nine to one, just as O’Reilly said. Olbermann was informed that his O’Reilly attack was based on a falsehood and was asked if he was going to do a correction. The blogger who asked him that (now better known as Brian Stelter of the New York Times) told us that Olby had no plans whatsoever to address it. And of course he didn’t.

That set the pattern for years of slanders. Lift a story from a blue blog or Fox hater website. Don’t check the accuracy. Broadcast it without attribution (aka ‘rip ’n’ read’). When it proves to be false, stonewall--do not correct. Move on to the next smear. Now all that’s over...for a while. Keith will be back in some venue or other, and if you think he will be chastened by any of this, think again. The standards and practices at NBC News were shredded during eight years of Olbermann’s influence. When Olby returns it could be in a venue with even flimsier standards, or none at all. What sort of atrocities will that bring?

By ramjet90th

on January 23, 2011 9:42 PM

Well done, good and faithful servants.

By syvyn11

on January 23, 2011 10:53 PM

Hitler finds out that Keith got fired

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHP2g4N3S8

By tonyome

on January 24, 2011 10:40 AM

The news articles have been saying that he probably has a "non compete" clause in his severance agreement, meaning that he won't be on television anytime soon. Even without the clause, Fox and CNN and the networks will have nothing to do with him. What will end up happening is that he will end up with a show on Showtime or HBO and his audience will be about 10% of his MSNBC audience. Or he may start a website. So what? He just became irrelevant.

I can't help but think that Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Sharon Angle, Rand Paul, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck were all smiling over the weekend.

By Robert Cox on January 24, 2011 10:59 AM

I appeared this morning on the Pat Campbell Radio Show in Tulsa, OK to discuss the "sad" news of Keith's departure from MSNBC.

go here: http://www.1170kfaq.com/patcampbell.html

To listen, click on the podcast link for Monday January 24, 2011. I was on at about 6:35 AM Central Time.

By Robert Cox on January 24, 2011 10:59 AM

I appeared this morning on the Pat Campbell Radio Show in Tulsa, OK to discuss the "sad" news of Keith's departure from MSNBC.

go here: http://www.1170kfaq.com/patcampbell.html

To listen, click on the podcast link for Monday January 24, 2011. I was on at about 6:35 AM Central Time.

By cjflan32

on January 24, 2011 11:47 AM

Great job on the radio Robert.

You put to bed any thoughts your detractors had about you being a partisan hack.

By tonyome

on January 24, 2011 1:11 PM

Good interview Robert. I'm not sure I agree with you on Olberdork having "won". I think he was a symptom of the short rise of the far left to power, not a cause or a power broker. He simply recognized a wave and rode it for personal benefit.

By tonyome

on January 24, 2011 1:56 PM

New York Times article not exactly friendly to Olbermann -

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/media/24olbermann.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&adxnnlx=1295871136-ccIusYPnrGZWwOLe4CCaPQ

Get a load of this: Olbermann for U.S. Senate in Connecticut!
Hey, if it can happen to Franken, it can happen to anyone.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/23/938260/-Senator-Keith-Olbermann

LOL! LOL!

By cee on January 25, 2011 10:26 AM

OW was always a place to go to know the truth. Good job and thank you Mr. Cox and J$.

Keith Olbermann can now return to the obscurity he deserves. The left will have to find someone else to be their conduit of lies, demagoguery and hate.

Good night and good luck.

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