Olbermann Lands on His Feet

It seems that Keith Olbermann, recently fired from his ‘Countdown’ gig at MSNBC, has found himself a new job.  According to Yahoo News; ‘Keith Olbermann will return to cable television this spring as host of a new primetime news and commentary show on Current TV’.  Current TV was founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2005.

I have never heard of Current TV, not even sure if my provider in the area carries it, and if it di, I wouldn’t ask for it.

I have been watching Keith Olbermann on and off for the past 23 years.  When I was stationed at George AFB in southern Cali, we got the LA TV feed and Olbermann was the sportscaster for KTLA and KCBS. He was a riot. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him every night dissect the sports news of the day. He liked to poke fun at the rich and famous athletes that played for the various teams in the LA Basin.

Suddenly he was gone. No explanation given. Just a new dude doing the sports.  Not too long after that, he shows up on ESPN, soon to partner up with Dan Patrick to form probably the most interesting sportscaster partnerships on the network. The back and forth between those two was very fun to watch. Olbermann had a biting wit about the games and the men and women who played them on the national and international stages.

Suddenly he was gone. No explanation given. Just the chair next to Dan Patrick was gone.  Shortly after that, Olbermann appeared on Fox Sports Net doing a SportsCenter-like show, The Keith Olbermann Evening News.  Fox also centered their baseball coverage on Olbermann.

Suddenly he was gone. No explanation given. Later it was revealed that he reported the Rupert Murdoch, his boss, was going to sell the Dodgers. Shortly thereafter he began his long running show Countdown on MSNBC. When I found his show on MSNBC, I decided to watch bet it didn’t take me long to figure out what he was all about. On this show he provided scathing political commentary on the political news of the day, focusing his ire on all things conservative. His long running segment, “Worst Person of the Week” was primarily a vehicle to slam anyone with a conservative view or idea. Then President, George Bush, was a favorite and frequent target.

Then suddenly he was gone. No explanation given. Well, not quite true. Considering his track record there were too many people asking why was he fired and it did not take long to reveal that his on-going feud with management led to his demise.

Back when he was a sportscasters I really enjoyed watching him, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of something harsh in his commenting on events of the day. But I remained a fan throughout his sports casting career. His gig on NBCs Sunday Night Football was something I could not watch because by this time his political leanings had become clear to me.  I was also able to figure out why Olbermann seemed to have this dark side. Looking back in hindsight, he just seemed like he was a jealous little man, always trying to tear down those who were successful. During his sports casting days, the dudes making millions playing kids games just didn’t seem to sit well with him and his biting commentary was probably his way of bringing these guys down to his level, in his eyes.

Now he moves on yet again, getting a show on the OwlGore owned Current TV. He also gets a management role that “allows Olbermann to help shape the network’s editorial programming.” (source: Yahoo News)  I wonder if he will fire himself if he has a disagreement with the editorial content that he develops.