Keith Olbermann Suspended Indefinitely by MSNBC

By PopEater / Wire Services Posted Nov 5th 2010 02:50PM

MSNBC has suspended prime-time host Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for contributing to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates this election season. Olbermann acknowledged to NBC that he donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.

NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president - effectively a ban. Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations.

"I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night," Phil Griffin, MSNBC's chief executive, said Friday. "Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

Olbermann was not immediately available for comment.

His "Countdown" show, which airs at 8 p.m. ET, is MSNBC's most popular program. His on-the-air transformation from the host of a straight news program to a liberal commentator led the network itself to go in the same direction, filling its prime-time lineup with left-leaning hosts and doing better in the ratings than anytime since its 1996 launch.

Olbermann was a co-anchor of MSNBC's election coverage this week. The network's performance drew some criticism, particularly with Chris Matthews' contentious interviews with Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn.

Chris Hayes will fill in for Olbermann on Friday's program, the network said.

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Comments

(115)

Friday 05 November

By Zenda

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

LOL, LOL, LOL!!!!! OlberBamann is gone...don't look for him to return, he seems to find a way to loose every job he gets. Congrats Keith...now you can go on the government dole with the rest of the losers!

By peggy

delighted to see him go. It should be forever.

By J B Riekstins

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Have we devolved to the point that we all have to have the same conservative views, and agree with the people at Fox now? This world and most of the people in it are not evolving, but going backwards. And then there are the many who haven't an original thought in their heads, and they agree with the conservative medias' point of view. God help us all.

By H Tippett

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

rachel madcow might be next

By Julia

His sarcasm made me sick and so does Rachel Madow. Can't you get rid of her too?

By KELLY

He wasw a boring moron...glad to see him whacked!

Saturday 06 November

By goda

And you can't spell or type, obviously you are a winner.

By Teresa

People hold your horses, Keith will be back in the air in no time. Don't clap yet.

By marina

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!You get what you give!!!!!Evil is as Evil does.

By Om

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

YAll just Mad because he's not prejudice towards democrats( well the BLACK ones)!! Yall wish this white man was a under cover Racists like MOST of them are........If he would've helped Republican Candidates, I bet you he wouldn've got suspended....

By ronoct12

Yall talk like the south end of a north bound cow

By dotybear65

boycott watching msnbc lets all do the teaparty thing to msnbc

By Brand

Yea. Another Democrat bites the dust.

By Marianne

What if the three democrats returned the money to Keith...would that fix it? It seems like such a slight thing...so he donated to a few candidates...we don't even know where millions that were spent on the recent campaigns came from...anonymous large business conglomerates...even people overseas...foreign interests...at least he was honest and supported the people you would expect him to support...I think it is too slight of a mistake...I mean he did not steal from anyone, he did not report something falsely...I just don't get it...Republicans don't get called on taking all of the money out of the economy and stiffing the American people for huge war debts, and the bailout on President Bush's watch, etc., and he gets blamed for a few measly donations? Really?

By notaceleb

Do you think he will apply for unemployment benefits?

By sul520

i feel so bad for the five people across this country that actually watch his show.i mean what about them?

By sulton

Good bye to an elist self absorbed ready to explode liberal,biased,FREAK! Who isnt even worthy to clean Becks toilet.

Monday 08 November

By charlette long

keith's news is my favorit news show. I guess the rich & powerful repuglicans got him out. my family & friends & i will not be watching msnbc.

By karen Rubin

So glad MSNBC found out about his hypocritical ways. How's the liberal lineup working for you? Fox beats you up all the time. I changed from watching at that time slot because of his views and rantings. Glad his big mouth is off for a while.

By mdbcg

How incredible gutter ball of all of you that have chosen to attack Olbermann with such viciousness and hatred-- everything that is wrong in this nation's political discourse!!! You fail to see how the same pejoratives you have hung on this man also neatly fit O'Reilly and Beck, et al but then you agree with them, right??

Showing that none of you have ever been members of the 4th estate, when I graduated from college in 1998 EVERY news institution worth its salt had the SAME rules for its employees as NBC does here. As a reporter- and it was in my contract-, I wasn't allowed to attend political rallies unless I was covering them, have political bumper stickers on my car OR make donations to political candidates. Why? Because it undermined the charge of being as unbiased as was humanely possible. The difference is that FOX News didn't have the platform in our society then that it does now. Then, too, you didn't see such blatant abuse by those who are fortunate enough to have access to this nation's airwaves with their political opinions. Yes, NBC was absolutely right to take the actions that they did in this instance. If they weren't going to enforce the rule, why have it anyway? And the 24/7 news cycle continues its path of destruction on our discourse in this country.

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