The Media

Excuses, Excuses

There's simply no way in hell Keith Olbermann was suspended because he donated to several Democrats this year. It's inconceivable to suspend the highest-rated moneymaker on that struggling network over a relatively minor contract breach.

It's more likely that the donations were merely cover for something happening behind the scenes.

Everyone knows Phil Griffin and Keith Olbermann aren't the best of friends, plus MSNBC has been very obviously repositioning itself as the "both sides suck" network, rather than as the liberal alternative to Fox News Channel. And the results of Tuesday's election have probably vindicated the decision to move to the center.

More often than not in television, it's either a direction change that trumps ratings success, or it's behind-the-scenes relationships. In this case, it could be the clashing of Olbermann and Griffin, or it could be executive kibitzing about how bombastic (and therefore embarrassing) Keith is -- especially now that "sanity" is all the rage.

Meanwhile, Twitter is ablaze with debate about this issue. I'm squarely in the outraged camp, mainly because the ranks of liberal hosts on cable news just grew even smaller. Think about it. Three major cable networks. 72 hours of daily programming between them. 72 hours. Only four of those hours are hosted by obvious liberals: Olbermann, Maddow, Schultz and O'Donnell. And now, that minuscule representation has dropped to three hours.

Damn right I'm pissed.

Adding... Remember when Pat Buchanan defended Hitler in his column and wasn't suspended? That was awesome, MSNBC.

Also... There's the Comcast thing, too.

UPDATE: Gawker heard from NBC News employees who confirm the standards rules don't really apply to MSNBC hosts like Olbermann.