I'm feeling really sad about this, even though I know the rest of you don't care.

[Berry Cool]

Glenn Greenwald and the rest of the more ideologically-pure-than-thou left have essentially painted Keith into a corner. They're accusing him of:

a) having been muzzled by NBC re Billo, lest Rupert Murdoch and his minions somehow "expose" some sort of evil, illegal corporate doings by GE;

b) having acknowledged that while he did not agree to stop talking about Billo, he did allow himself to be muzzled because he had no choice in the matter;

c) lying about being muzzled.

In short, he's both an integrity-compromised corporate-lackey journalist AND a liar.

We're supposed to believe this because Greenwald has a bunch of emails from "an MSNBC insider." Yeah. For all we know, it's the same "insider" who keeps feeding Randi Rhodes all that information about how not-nice Keith is.

Keith doesn't have many choices about what to do in response.

Here they are:

1. Shut up and say nothing, essentially acknowledging tacitly that he is what they say he is. He will then keep his job, but have lost all his credibility with his audience.

2. Resign voluntarily, falling on his sword for a principle. The ideologically pure left, assuming he's never been faced with this kind of situation before, assumes he can do this with relative ease; that he will easily pick up a job someplace else, and even if he doesn't right away, it's not as if he's headed to the poorhouse. What they fail to realize is that Keith has developed a lengthy and infamous track record of this behavior, and that if he falls on his sword yet again, he may not be able to find another employer who will take him.

3. Deny again that he was muzzled, and not be believed, until matters are forced to a crisis. God only knows what'll happen then.

3. Confirm, live and on air without anyone prepared for it, that he was indeed muzzled, that he had no choice, and that he sheepishly allowed it to happen because he wanted to keep his job--and either be fired or forced to resign. See what I said about #2 above. Even worse, he won't be able to say at the end of it "At least I kept my integrity."

In short, I fear that Fox News may have finally accomplished what it tried and failed to do so many times with the more obvious salvos they have launched at him over the years: getting Keith off the air. And even sweeter to them, they'll have done it with the willing help of the left, who kicked him to the curb for his ideological impurity and said "Next!"

Only, of course, his replacement won't be any purer.

And see how long Rachel lasts after this. After all, she too is taking GE money. And then Ed. Just see.

KarmaBites couldn't have done a better job of it herself.

[SeattleGirl]

1. You aren't the only one, Berry. I just read the latest installment of

this "made-for-TV" drama, posted on Twitter by none other than David Sirota:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/05/keith-olbermann-playing-v_n_251901.html

Keith has apparently decided to deceive all his viewers.......

When did the left decide to jump on the Faux Noise bandwagon?

[Berry Cool]

2. I don't know, my dear.

All I know is, yesterday I listened to one of these Internet radio hosts go on and on with Glenn Greenwald on his show about how terribly disillusioned and disappointed he was in Keith...about how all his integrity had vanished.

It's like we're doing their work for them.

I still don't understand this whole story and where it will end. All I know is, Keith seems to be thumbing his nose at this supposed mass disillusionment of the left or at any idea that he has lost his integrity in any way. And he's back to Billo-bashing with a vengeance.

So, who's telling the truth here, anyway?

I have a feeling that just as in the KarmaBites saga, the infamous "emails" will never be released.

[Berry Cool]

3. This person probably came up with a more credible explanation than anyone else.

This is from the HuffPo comments...amazingly enough, their readers seem to side with Keith a lot more than the Salon gang.

This commenter was criticizing the idea that the only reason Keith went back to Billo-bashing on Monday was because GE wanted to cover their tracks:

f you honestly believe that GE all of a sudden gave KO "more leash" because of some bad press, then two things are clear:

1. You have never worked in a large corporation, and,
2. No factual information will influence your opinion.

If I were to speculate, I imagine one of the MSNBC execs told KO that the boys at GE would appreciate it if he could tone down his attacks on Bill-O. KO decided to put the personal attacks on hold to go along with the request. When the story broke about a "deal", KO demonstrated that it was his decision to give Bill-O a pass, reintroduced Bill-O to the worst persons list, (a place he richly deserves), and proved he has the final editorial say in what he covers on his show.

Olbermann has consistently demonstrated high journalistic standards and has exposed many stories that no other outlet even mentions. But, my goal here is not to defend KO, he can do that for himself. Rather, my goal is to demonstrate the faulty logic employed by the author to reach a false positive.

Now THIS is an explanation that begins to make sense. But, it fails to address one thing...unless Keith is white-lying about it...namely, his constant maintenance that he has never even been asked by his bosses to do anything.