I'm really bummed.

I'm really bummed out today. I was watching Count Down with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. At the end of his show he pop the news that this was his very last show. He is signing off from MSNBC and Count Down. WHAT! I was stunned. There had been no articles in the TV industry trade journals about issues between Keith and MSNBC, so it was a big shock.

But after pondering this for a moment, I remember an article a few months ago about the Comcast buy in of 51% of NBCUniversal which owns MSNBC. The article talked about how corporate culture of Comcast was very conservative and supported many in the Tea Party this past election, so would they change the programming on MSNBC that has been very progressive in ideology. Keith being the most controversial of all of the shows; as he has taken on Fox Fake News and Rupert Murdock. Since the official close of the sale to Comcast is next week, it might be coincidence that his departure is at or near the same time as Comcast signs the documents and hands over the money to GE Corp.

However, I don't have any proof that is why he was let go, but I do not know of any other reason. His rating have been good, though he did loose out to Gretta Van Susteren on Fox this week. But he has consistently out paced CNN in his time slot and been very close to Fox who dominates all time slots for cable news programs.

UPDATE: TMZ reports that a person close to the Countdown show told them that beside tension between some in management and Keith over the past year, the real reason is the upcoming Comcast take over on the 28th of Jan. They had to terminate him before the take over because Comcast is prohibited from any involvement in programming on any of the NBCUniversal networks after the deal closes. So my hunch appears to be right. He had two more years on his contract at about $7 million a year. They are required to continue to pay him as though he was on-air. He may be prohibited from being on-air for a period of time under a non compete clause that most contracts have. It could be as little as 6 months to 2 years.

(UPDATE 2: Another little fact has emerged. 2010 was a very difficult year for him. Both is parents, who he loved and supported were very close, and with their respective illnesses  and deaths that year, it was very difficult emotionally for him. The grueling task of writing a hour long op-ed piece five nights a week was becoming overwhelming. Most columnists say it takes them a week just to do one 800 work column. Imagine what it takes to do a full hour with arranging the pundit guests, graphics and all that it takes to put on a TV program. Yes he had an excellent staff that did a lot of the background work. But it was Keith that did the final copy before going on-air. With the intersection of the work demand and the personal situation he had to deal with, I can clearly understand him being worn out and could not go on. So with the change in ownership, he might have felt it was his time to depart. Someday we may know how and why it went down. But until then, we can only speculate why and hope he return to some venue to continue his great work.) 

Part of the tension between management and Keith was his "Worst Persons in the World" segment. He frequently had politicians and Fox Fake News commentators listed as worst persons. His frequent comment about Sarah Palin that "She's an idiot" irritated some in the higher level management. Main NBCUniversal management and board members did not like the way he took on these people. They were afraid of a backlash from people in power that could make life more difficult for them.

Jeff Zucker who was president and CEO of NBCUniversal was a strong supporter of Keith and was glad he brought him on. Interestingly Zucker has been terminated also this week. Keith basically saved the network with his Countdown show. Countdown was to be a satirical read of the days news. He then did a "Special Comment" about George W. Bush that hit the internet and the show took off.  He took a cable network that didn't even show up on the ratings list and placed it in front of CNN and just behind Fox in just six years. That is remarkable in the TV business. Keith helped attract others to the network like Chris Mathews, Rachael Maddow, and Lawrence O'Donnell. He was a pioneer in counter balancing the hard right voice of talk radio and FOX News. But he was too powerful in mobilizing his audience into action on causes he supported. That put fear into Comcast management. He was not afraid of taking on NBC management on his show and Comcast did not want any descenders that might make Comcast look bad within the political and business arenas.

BTW: Keith was dropped from his sports commentary jobs as well for NBC Sports. It was a total elimination. Of interest is that during the Clinton scandal his bosses wanted him to talk negatively about the scandal during his sports commentary. He would twist it more in that it was not important and made fun of it and the Republicans going after Bill. However, Brian Williams was the prime time news anchor at MSNBC, before moving up to NBC Nightly News to replace Tom Brokaw, and did in fact do as commanded by making frequent negative comments about Pres. Clinton and the scandal. He will not admit that he was asked to do so, but I would place money on it.

I think you will see even Jay Leno stop joking about NBC management. He has such high ratings that they left him alone and tolerated his jabs at them and the networks poor ratings. Even though there is suppose to be a hands off of programming, I'm sure Comcast's displeasure will be conveyed in such a way that NBC management will get the hint and adjust programming to their liking. As long as there is no smoking gun to upset the FCC and FTC, then they can get away with it.

I hope Keith can find another media outlet to continue his journalistic and opinion work. He is needed in these very difficult times in our country.

Now the question is what will happen to all the other shows? Will Rachael Maddow, Chris Mathews and Lawrence O'Donnell be dismissed next. Is MSNBC going to turn into another Fox Fake News channel? Will they terminate "Dan Rather Reports" show on the HDNet channel, which is owned by NBCUniversal? Only time will tell what happens to this great channel.

A sad day for American journalism.