Saturday, January 22, 2011
Keith Olbermann
WTF?
Nothing I'm reading really explains it. Keith has to explain it, & I think he will.
The guy is a big, profitable media star with a huge ego. He carried MSNBC for years. Being treated in such a subordinate, public manner by his bosses over a few campaign contributions - prohibited by contract, not by law - infuriated him. Comcast purchasing MSNBC brings with it a byzantine tangle of corporate relationships that include FOX. Keith may have felt increasingly trapped in his show's format & the part he was expected to play. He's now wealthy enough & famous enough to believe he has some career options.
When he looks at his right wing counterparts, he sees guys like Bill O'Reilly - numbingly shrill & repetitive, & Glenn Beck - whose demogogic over-reaching is losing audience & markets (including New York & Philly radio).
He might have looked at Rachel Maddow, with her generally calm demeanor & the intimate relationship she has with her viewers - the lovely smile that shifts ever-so-subtly into a smirk, & who isn't expected to produce mighty You Tube-ready sermons of moral indignation.
If Keith wanted to exact some revenge, denying MSNBC the ratings & ad revenue bonanza of "farewell shows" is a pretty good.
Nothing I'm reading really explains it. Keith has to explain it, & I think he will.
The guy is a big, profitable media star with a huge ego. He carried MSNBC for years. Being treated in such a subordinate, public manner by his bosses over a few campaign contributions - prohibited by contract, not by law - infuriated him. Comcast purchasing MSNBC brings with it a byzantine tangle of corporate relationships that include FOX. Keith may have felt increasingly trapped in his show's format & the part he was expected to play. He's now wealthy enough & famous enough to believe he has some career options.
When he looks at his right wing counterparts, he sees guys like Bill O'Reilly - numbingly shrill & repetitive, & Glenn Beck - whose demogogic over-reaching is losing audience & markets (including New York & Philly radio).
He might have looked at Rachel Maddow, with her generally calm demeanor & the intimate relationship she has with her viewers - the lovely smile that shifts ever-so-subtly into a smirk, & who isn't expected to produce mighty You Tube-ready sermons of moral indignation.
If Keith wanted to exact some revenge, denying MSNBC the ratings & ad revenue bonanza of "farewell shows" is a pretty good.
Labels: media madness, TV
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Actually, if you read a lot of the stories, a great many of them say several of the same things: he probably was not fired, but negotiated a way out of his contract because he knew it was only a matter of time he would be fired or he'd say something he could not retract on the air; (2) part of the negotiation most like contains a non-disclosure agreement, meaning he may never be able to tell the whole story; and (3) there is likely a period of time that had to agree to not go on any other show or program, or rather, not negotiate for his own show or other program.
We just may NOT ever know the real reason he was suddenly just not there anymore.
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We just may NOT ever know the real reason he was suddenly just not there anymore.
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