Olberman “suspended”

ROS and Old Trooper both sent links to us about NBC suspending Olbermann indefinitely here and here. I think NBC has been looking for a reason to fire him for a while and he broke their rules right on time.

NBC claims Olbie contributed to three Democrat candidates during the elections this Fall. Someone who had a grudge (no, that can’t be true) probably blew the whistle on him because I’m sure someone didn’t spend the whole Fall looking through public records.

I don’t like Olbermann at all…not even a little bit. The only time I’ve ever watched him is on YouTube in case someone is watching my viewing habits and mistakes me for a fan. I do appreciate him outing Tony Camerino/Matthew Alexander, though.

But I think it’s shitty for NBC to have a clause in his contract that forbids campaign contributions to political candidates. Like I told Old Trooper, it’s like they make employees hang their dicks on the wall before they go into the whorehouse. It’s not like Olbermann contributes to Democrats every time he opens his stupid yap. It’s almost rises to the level of the Juan Williams firing…except that he signed the contract. NBC probably did it to get ahead of the news cycle.

I’m glad he’s gone, I just don’t like the way he was “suspended”.

Operator Dan’s take below the jump;

TAH’s favorite MSNBC host Keith Olbermann appears to be on his way out of MSNBC as a result of campaign donations he made to three Democrats (Jack Conway from Kentucky and Gabby Giffords and Raul “Boycott My State” Grijalva from Arizona). The day he made a donation to Grijalva he also appeared on his show. Really Keith? We can’t get guests now on your show without paying them off?

Right now, he is suspended “indefinitely without pay” but I suspect he is on his way out and I also suspect that MSNBC has been looking for a reason to get rid of him for awhile. Keith doesn’t play well with others (including other leftists) and he has had problems with every other broadcasting job that he has held.

From Hot Air and Ace of Spades:

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann made campaign contributions to two Arizona members of Congress and failed Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway ahead of Tuesday’s election — a potential violation of NBC’s ethics policies.

Olbermann, who acknowledged the contributions in a statement to POLITICO, made the maximum legal donations of $2,400 apiece to Conway and to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. He donated to the Arizona pair on Oct. 28 – the same day that Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show. Grijalva, a prominent liberal who was only declared a winner in his race Thursday night, was in a tight contest against tea party-backed candidate Ruth McClung when he appeared on Countdown – one of several appearances he made on the show.

NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide range of news organizations prohibit political contributions – considering it a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin released the following statement Friday following the news that Keith Olbermann had donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle:

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

More from Jonah Goldberg. HuffPo highlights some of the issues MSNBC has been having with its hosts and frequent guests:

In recent months, Griffin has taken several bold steps to declare his authority over the network and its sometimes unruly talent: he sent a stern memo warning hosts to not publicly fight with each other, he suspended David Shuster indefinitely for filming a CNN pilot, suspended Donny Deutsch,banned Markos Moulitsas from the network, and reprimanded Ed Schultz for threatening to “torch” the network.

Of course people are losing it in the comments section of the above post and it is quite entertaining. I am sure Claymore will have some interesting DU posts for us.

Jonn added: Yes, indeed Claymore did find an interesting post on DU, and of course they blame Fox and Scarborough for Olbermann’s firing. And the fact that MSNBC violated Olbermann’s first amendment rights…not realizing, of course, that the Bill of Rights protects us from the government, not each other.

This is my favorite comment from the DU thread;

They’ll change their minds

He brings in way too many viewers for them to let him go.

The only viewers he brought in was conservative bloggers waiting to catch him make another blunder. I mean, he was commenting on stuff way above the head and outside the expertise of the average Cornell Ag school grad. Remember when the Olympics had more viewers in his time slot? And his guest host had more viewers when Olbermann was on vacation?

Category: Liberals suck, Media