The surprise here is less that Keith Olbermann didn’t think to do this himself, but that it took this long for his critics to think about it.  Olbermann Watch has been operating for years as the online clearinghouse for the MSNBC host’s controversies, but they must have figured that Olbermann would certainly have done the basic due diligence of all public figures and purchase his eponymous domain name.  After a brief war on Twitter, Daily Caller did its own research and found the domain available:

The Daily Caller, one of the fastest-growing online media properties, announced today its acquisition of KeithOlbermann.com, expanding the company’s global reach into a new segment of the online political market.  For more than six months The Daily Caller has been a recognized market leader in commentary about Keith Olbermann.  Ruth Graham’s weekly Olbermann wrap-up, “We watch, because we’re paid to,” appears on The Daily Caller’s website each Friday.

“We plan to make The Daily Caller the one-stop online shop for Keith Olbermann commentary,” said Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson.  “We will be THE Keith Olbermann superstore.”

“This is part of our long-term growth strategy,” added Publisher and CEO Neil Patel.  “Our future acquisition targets include several other annoying cable news commentators.”

I suspect that the rest of the annoying cable news commentators are contacting hosting services as we speak to buy their own .com domains.  Frankly, that’s SOP for anyone in the business, especially for those who write books. Olbermann has written two, one with Dan Patrick during the ESPN days in 1998, and another in 2007 that repackaged his “special comment” rants about the Bush administration. Still, one would think that Olbermann would have wanted to promote those efforts himself.

Neil Patel is obviously placing his tongue firmly in his cheek with the “acquisition strategy” and rollout announcement.  It’s a parody of corporate communications, and a pretty humorous one at that.  That doesn’t mean they won’t exploit their new asset, of course, assuming they can hang on to it.  They already have a regular Olbermann column (“We watch because we’re paid to watch”) that tracks the host’s daily performance, and the new URL would be perfect for it.

However, Patel better enjoy it while he can.  I’d bet that the Daily Caller doesn’t get to use the name for long.  As I recall, courts have taken dim views of poaching eponymous domain names, and a concerted effort by MSNBC’s lawyers will likely return to Olbermann what he should have bought in the first place.  Meanwhile, keep checking KeithOlbermann.com to keep up with the war.

Note: For those who wonder, I bought my own eponymous domain name years ago.  I haven’t done much with it except as an e-mail domain, but it’s now redirecting to my public-figure page on Facebook.