Posted on 06/14/2006 9:43:36 AM PDT by Quilla
Now that Dan Abrams has given up his MSNBC show to run the third-place cable news outlet, he might want to focus on the rising tensions between two of his prime-time personalities: Keith Olbermann and Rita Cosby.
Olbermann, whose "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" airs weeknights at 8, apparently has precious little respect for Cosby, whose "Rita Cosby: Live & Direct" airs at 10 p.m.
"Rita's nice," Olbermann wrote to a fan from his MSNBC E-mail account, "but dumber than a suitcase of rocks." Yesterday Cosby retorted: "Keith got it wrong. I'm not that nice."
But a Cosby intimate gasped when informed of Olbermann's E-mail. "That's incredibly disappointing," he said.
An MSNBC spokesman didn't dispute the authenticity of the months-old E-mail, which came to light this week after the recipient shared it with this column on condition of anonymity.
In his E-mail, Olbermann was also dismissive of then-MSNBC President Rick Kaplan, who left the network last week with six months to go on his three-year contract.
"And Kaplan?" Olbermann wrote to his fan. "He was the producer of that special last night now known as the Kanye West Show." It was a reference to an embarrassing incident during NBC's Hurricane Katrina telethon on which the popular rapper departed from his script to claim President Bush "doesn't care about black people."
Olbermann, who didn't comment yesterday, was said to be on vacation though he managed to turn up Monday night at a book party for Al Gore at the American Museum of Natural History.
There, the media blog Jossip.com asked Olbermann who was accompanied by "his self-described 'friend' Katie" if he'll now be answering to Abrams.
"I don't answer to anybody," Olbermann insisted.
We'll see.
Isn't Olbermann one of the guys at ESPN that urinated in public off a hotel roof or balcony?
Rita and Kieth...
Now there's a pair to draw to...
He'll be hyping progammable voting machines on the Home Shopping Channel.
"Olberman comes off much worse than Cosby in this story. It seems he has quite an unjustified opinion of his own intelligence."
I think being voted "Best looking" in a rigged poll has gone to his inflated ego.
The only problem is, her 'sources' are all Bakeries.
This is the same sort of garbage that cost him his TelePrompter reading job at ESPN. Everyone there just hated his guts. Looks like he's still making nice with his co-workers and bosses.
Olberman's show is one of the highest rated (if not the highest rated) "show" on MSDNC, while Cosby's show is circling the drain. Not much question who comes out on top of this little catfight.
Rita needs to go on a diet. She's gotten huge. Keith is a mind controlled zombie controllers are the far wacky left.
Yes, most are.
I would also be very suspicious of this. Is it possible that Rita and Keith are drumming up a little publicity for their shows?
It's interesting, but I still will not watch either one.
Meow!!
While she thinks this is a clever response.....it is actually an admission that the "suitcase of rocks" part is true...
"..,but dumber than a suitcase of rocks."
Way overrated. Maybe a cup of beach sand, but definitely not a suitcase of rocks.
Disappointing, but not surprising. Olbermann's a petty little man.
Diebold no less...half cost...don't go anywhere yet Mr.Kerry! Your fight might not be through!
I never liked Rita Crosby when she was on Fox and I could not tolerate her 'gaspy' voice either and her hype for some sensational stories...I agree, however, she had a nice comeback for Olbermann
Rita may have annoyed the living $*&#^ out of us with her "sources" but she is an unquestioniably highly intelligent person. Same can't be said for doofus Oberman.
Leaving ESPN
In 1997, Olbermann abruptly left ESPN, under a cloud of controversy regarding the reasons behind his departure that to this day remain unanswered. The sudden nature of his departure led towards a floodgate of rumors circulating regarding the reason he left, especially after it was revealed that Olbermann's departed from ESPN on bad terms and that Olbermann purposely "burned his bridges" with the network's top brass as a result of his personal discontent with the network.
Olbermann and ESPN were long to reconcile, which led to Olbermann being publicly snubbed by the channel when he was not asked to participate in ESPN's 20th Anniversary "Reunion Week" Celebration of SportsCenter, which featured past SportsCenter hosts returning to host episodes of the show.
Olbermann now participates daily on ESPN's Dan Patrick Show on ESPN radio, marking the end of his long-running dispute with ESPN management.
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After SportsCenter
In 1997, Olbermann left ESPN to host his own primetime show on MSNBC, named The Big Show. The news variety program covered three or four different topics in a one-hour broadcast. Olbermann also occasionally hosted the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News, and he was the co-pre-game host (along with Hannah Storm) of NBC Sports coverage of the 1997 World Series.
When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in 1998, he began hosting another news program, White House in Crisis. Olbermann says he became frustrated when the Lewinsky story constantly consumed his regular show. In 1998 he would state that his work at MSNBC would "make me ashamed, make me depressed, make me cry." [1]. He left MSNBC after 17 months to return to sportscasting, although he has said that even if Lewinsky never happened, he still would have left to return to sports.[citation needed]
In 1998, Olbermann became an anchor and executive producer for The Keith Olbermann Evening News, a sportscast similar to SportsCenter which aired weekly on Sunday evenings on cables Fox Sports Net. While at Fox, Olbermann was again a host of the World Series and also Fox Broadcastings baseball Game of the Week.
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Return to reporting
Olbermann left Fox Sports in 2001 for other opportunities and kept a relatively low profile. He worked for a time as a regular contributor on CNN and provided twice-daily sports commentary on the ABC Radio Network. The September 11, 2001 attacks provided the impetus for Olbermann to return to full-fledged news reporting. He won an Edward R. Murrow Award for reporting from the site of the attacks for 40 days on ABC Radio.
Olbermann wrote a weekly column for Salon.com from July 2002 until being rehired by MSNBC in early 2003. On his return to MSNBC, he served as a substitute host on Nachman and as an anchor for the network's coverage of the war in Iraq. His own show, Countdown, debuted shortly thereafter on March 31, 2003 in the 8:00 p.m. ET time slot previously held by programs hosted by Phil Donahue and, briefly, Lester Holt. On October 13, 2004, Olbermann launched Bloggermann, his Countdown weblog, hosted on MSNBC.com.[3] Olbermann leverages the open format of the blog to expound on facts or ideas alluded to in the broadcast, to offer personal musings and reactions, and to break news at odd hours.
Olbermann and Chris Matthews Hardball, also on MSNBC, tied for 1st place on MSNBC (and 21st place in all of cable news) in February 2006 with 400,000 viewers each for the month, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN and FOX News Channels top programs for the month were Larry King Live with 901,000 viewers and The O'Reilly Factor with over 2.2 million viewers.[citation needed]
In June 2005, Olbermann returned to ESPN Radio every Friday, co-hosting with his friend and former colleague Dan Patricks three-hour weekday program. On November 28, 2005, Olbermanns co-hosting duties on the show expanded to Weekdays, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET.
I haven't watched either one for years, and hadn't thought about changing that practice. You might be onto something--wouldn't put it past either one of them.
Accusations of Bias
In an interview with Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, Olbermann noted that his ongoing criticism of the Bush administration places him "in the same part of the ballpark as a lot of liberals". [2] However, Olbermann has addressed accusations of liberal bias by claiming that he would be equally critical of a Democratic president who had invited criticism by his actions: "I mean, no one in 1998, no one accused me of being a liberal in 1998 because I was covering the Clinton-Lewinsky story. And whatever I had to do about it, I tried to be fair and honest and as accurate and as informed as possible, and allow my viewer to be the same way. And nowadays its the same thing. And now all of a sudden Im a screaming liberal."
At the same time, Olbermann has stated he departed MSNBC the first time as a result of the relentless Clinton-Lewinsky coverage which personally "sickened" him, but now says he enjoys his new role in taking on President Bush [3] [4]. Olbermann says the main difference between the coverage of the Lewinsky scandal and his criticism of the Bush administration is because of the different formats of programming (Big Show versus Countdown). As such, he doesn't have to cover a singular story for an entire hour.
There is a website, Olbermann Watch, [5] that attempts to document examples of Olbermann's bias. The website's owner, Robert Cox (a conservative activist), has claimed that "there is one remaining show on cable news that has an overt liberal bias - Countdown with Keith Olbermann..." [6] Cox claims among other things that Olbermann insists on criticizing conservative politicians and commentators - naming many in his daily "Worst Person in the World" segment - while at the same time lauding Democrats. He also claims that most guests Olbermann has on Countdown seem to be satirical social commentators, not experts [7]
The Cornell Review, a conservative publication associated with Olbermann's alma mater, has claimed that Olbermann is a "partisan hack" because of his frequent reporting on voting irregularities during the 2004 presidential election. [8].
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