Meltdown With Keith Olbermann!

If you regularly tune in to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, you may remember that Olbermann was mysteriously absent from the show for three days at the end of April. But Olbermann didn’t just “have the night off,” as David Shuster, his fill-in, said on the air three evenings in a row. According to a source inside MSNBC, it was a bizarre temper tantrum on Olbermann’s part that led him to storm off the set in protest. Even stranger: The drama was all Ben Affleck’s fault.

Olbermann was not scheduled to take a vacation at the end of April. But he ended up missing three shows: Friday, April 17; Monday; April 20, and Tuesday, April 21. It’s what happened on April 16, though, that prompted Olbermann to exit MSNBC’s studios in such a rage.

According to a source at the network, Olbermann was livid when he learned that Rachel Maddow had booked Ben Affleck as a guest on her show. Olbermann, it turns out, had been interested in having Affleck on his show, too, and when he heard that Maddow’s producers had secured the actor instead, he demanded that the interview be switched from Maddow’s nine o’clock broadcast to his own an hour earlier. Maddow and her staff have been known to politely give in to Olbermann’s whims in the past—it was Olbermann, after all, who helped bring Maddow to the network. This time, however, they didn’t budge. (With ratings for Maddow’s show a bit lackluster as of late, parting with an A-list celebrity guest isn’t a decision to be made lightly.) Olbermann took the matter to senior management at MSNBC and NBC Universal and asked that they step in and “correct” the situation. That didn’t happen, though, and Affleck went on Maddow’s show as scheduled on Thursday, April 16. And Olbermann’s three-day protest commenced the next day.

Olbermann’s temper—and tendency to hold grudges—is nothing new. When Dan Abrams was the host of the 9pm broadcast, Olbermann famously refused to “toss,” or introduce, Abrams on the air, as he now does with Maddow. At Olbermann’s insistence, five seconds of footage of the exterior of 30 Rock appeared between the two programs instead. What did Abrams do to earn Olbermann’s enmity? Nothing, really, although one popular rumor floating around MSNBC at the time was that they’d both asked out the same woman a number of years ago and she’d accepted Abrams’s invite instead of Olbermann’s.

But Olbermann’s unpredictable behavior can even put the colleagues he doesn’t have a grudge against in an uncomfortable position. On April 21—day three of the stand-off—David Shuster was asked on Twitter about Olbermann’s absence. His reply speaks volumes. Shuster doesn’t actually state that Olbermann has the flu. He merely points out it’s “flu/allergy season,” a nice little hedge in case the real story was ever revealed. He then awkwardly adds that “KO is a great guy. He will return soon, I hope,” indicating that, at the time, no one really knew when Olbermann would return. (Not to mention that whether or not Olbermann is a “great guy” or not doesn’t make much sense in the context of having the flu.)

This “man” is such a joke. I can’t believe he has the nerve to mock anyone for anything. He’s truly the worst person in the world.

Read and leave comments here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fire-keith-olbermann

OBERMANN SHOULD BE FIRED.

I don’t think it will be difficult to identify the real loser.

[Kirk is fighting with Martia disguised as Kirk]
Captain James T. Kirk: I can’t believe I kissed you.
Martia (appearing as Kirk): Must have been your lifelong ambition.

Just saying.

Nothing I enjoy better than you people consistently confusing uproarious laughter and derision with “fear.”

Letterman did a great Top Ten for sarah’s book tonight.

benny shakar on May 14, 2009 at 3:06 AM

Don’t you ever get tired of the laughter and derision that your every comment illicits?

I’m very curious as to what sort of character flaw a person suffers from when they enter a room and shout insults at the occupants. It reminds me of a scene from a short ShowTime series that I think was called the “Cell” where a depressed and self-loathing terrorist enters a gay bar, shouts insults at the patrons, and promptly gets the sh.. kicked out of him.

Is that you Benny? Are you particularly depressed and self-loathing so much so that you need to come back here over and over again just to have your self-image confirmed?

Or perhaps your life is so dull, boring, and powerless that this is your only source of excitement – this constant baiting of the wolves. Is that it? Are you just a sad and lonely little man lost and forgotten in the herd of like-minded, small-minded, liberal-minded sheep?

MSNBC might as well change its name to TMZNBC

Like someone said, you can only describe these guttersnipes so many times and then it becomes redundant.

the Audacity of Hype is good too.
;)

strangelet on May 14, 2009 at 8:38 AM

Sarah can’t use that; Obama already copyrighted it for the title of his third fictionalized autobiography. But maybe Sarah will get lucky and Obama will decide to go with his second choice: Hahahaha, I Can’t Believe All You Idiots Fell For It: How I Conned Enough Liberal Morons to Get Myself Elected President

Let them keep overplaying their hand.

Jim Treacher on May 13, 2009 at 11:58 PM

I agree.

More desperate flailing. MSNBC ratings are down 60% since October.

marklmail on May 14, 2009 at 7:41 AM

stupidity is its own reward

He could do about fifty “Top Tens” on The One! Like the 57 states, sitting in Reverend Wright’s church with attention disorder, claiming to be the Messiah, Rezko, the burgeoning debt, ubiquitous teleprompters, supporting unions that have destroyed major industries, and…need I go on? Of course, like the pathetic KeithO above, going after Democrats would not be chic or left wing cool by the late night jester.

And it is Governor Palin who, even if the corruption charges are true, has about three times the executive experience of The One (or is it infinitely more) and interview gaffs amounting to less than a third of The Dunce from Delaware.

What great cards Democrats hold; and watch the clowns entertain while our nation sinks.

So this is why Matthews and Olby’s ratings are off the charts and beating FOX in the ratings war eh?
Topsecretk9

Their not “ off the charts”
Your just looking at the wrong end of the charts!

The woman in the video is Shannyn Moore who basically stalks and is obsessed with Sarah Palin in Alaska.
Look, she is even wearing glasses
joey24007

“Look, she is even wearing glasses”

OMG, this is starting to look a little creepy