Keith Olbermann fired from Current TV!

[Gouge]

Couldn't have happened to a better piece of shit!

...

Keith Olbermann has been fired from Current TV, the network announced Friday.

?We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before,? network co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt wrote in a letter to viewers. ?Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.?

Olberman?s dismissal comes less than a year after he was hired by the network, following his firing from MSNBC.

His primetime show will be replaced starting Friday night by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose CNN show was canceled last summer. Spitzer resigned from office in 2008 after he was implicated in a prostitution scandal. His show will be titled ?Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.?

According to the New York Times, which first reported Olbermann?s firing, the decision to dismiss him was unanimous among the network?s senior executives.

[2MuchMark]

Thats too bad - I like that guy.

[SuckOnThis]

Originally Posted by Gouge

Couldn't have happened to a better piece of shit!

How many orgasms have you had over this?

[MovieMaster]

Awesome guy is a nutjob

[uno]

It's not really a shock. He doesn't have a great track record in dealing with his bosses.

I liked him too. I'm sure he'll be back up somewhere soon depending on his contract and the lawsuits that will fly.

[ilnjscb]

Originally Posted by uno

It's not really a shock. He doesn't have a great track record in dealing with his bosses.

I liked him too. I'm sure he'll be back up somewhere soon depending on his contract and the lawsuits that will fly.

Exactly, he promptly threw Al Gore, the beloved Nobel prize winning icon of the progressives, under the bus. How would any executive hire him when he is impossible to work with and will dump on you publicly?

[uno]

Originally Posted by ilnjscb

Exactly, he promptly threw Al Gore, the beloved Nobel prize winning icon of the progressives, under the bus. How would any executive hire him when he is impossible to work with and will dump on you publicly?

No idea, but it keeps happening anyway. I can see him winding up on HDNet or something, unless Cuban hates him, which i wouldn't doubt.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Olbermann released a statement disputing Current?s version of events:

I?d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I?ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current?s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt?s ?values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,? I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee?s name was Clarence B. Cain.

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

It began with some lighting problems in his Countdown digs, and ended, today, with Keith Olbermann?s firing by Current TV for what sources close to the situation say is ?serial, material breach of contract.?

Olbermann, for his part, says the claims against him by Current are ?untrue,? and that he plans to sue. He?s currently engaged in a Twitter tirade against Current executives Joel Hyatt and former VP Al Gore.

Olbermann was fired via a written letter delivered Thursday morning to Nick Khan, agent for Mr. Olbermann, and the source says that the decision ?reflected a unanimous agreement amongst the senior management? at Current TV, based on ?Mr. Olbermann?s serial, material breach of his contract, including the failure to show up at work (Unauthorized Absences); sabotaging the network (Failure To Promote); and attacking Current and its executives (Disparagement).?

Current executives fired Olbermann because ?Mr. Olbermann did not respect the viewers of Current, as he was contractually obligated to do so; and did not support what Current is trying to do when it comes to being a progressive media platform at a time of major corporate consolidation of media properties per his contract,? the source says.

Olbermann may disagree with the way Current has characterized their philosophical differences (disrespecting viewers, for example), but their factual claims about him missing work are pretty tough to argue with. In January and February, he missed 19 out of 41 working days, including the nights of the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary. At around $50K per show, that?s almost $2 million worth of ?bronchitis.?

At least two of those absences appear to have occurred with little or no notice, and according to this source, no authorization. On March 5, Current ran a two-hour version of The War Room with Jennifer Granholm from 8-10 pm, and on March 9, a two-hour episode of The Young Turks. Olbermann?s requests for time off came with insufficient notice to find a replacement.

According to our source, on February 27, after missing almost half of his scheduled shows at that point in 2012, Olbermann asked for a vacation day on March 5, the night before Super Tuesday ? one of the most significant news evenings of the entire campaign. Olbermann was told it would be a breach if he took it ? and, nonetheless, he took it.

Olbermann?s threat of legal action, especially given the above facts, figures to be posturing similar to previous threats to sue, among others, Tucker Carlson, which never came to fruition.

Since Olbermann?s troubles with the network began to surface late last year, I?ve been in touch with various sources at Current TV, who have all along expressed admiration for Olbermann?s talent, and a desire to accommodate him whenever possible. The attendance hiccups were treated sort as ?Keith being Keith.?

As the network?s marquee talent, they seemed to have little choice but to put up with it, but it?s my sense that Olbermann?s growing rebellion, coupled with the network?s increased confidence in the rest of its slate, finally precipitated this action.

While Olbermann?s ratings have been, by far, Current?s best, the show has generally not suffered steep declines under guest hosts, and the performance of The Young Turks has been impressive, actually delivering Olbermann a host of new, younger viewers at 8 o?clock. Olbermann?s departure (he?s being replaced by Eliot Spitzer) will certainly mean some major rethinking by the network

ADG

[Gouge]

Originally Posted by SuckOnThis

How many orgasms have you had over this?

None