Keith Olberman (Dec 1998) The Scandal That Ate My TV Program...

[kentuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/opclassic.html?ref=opinion

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It was evident that Tim Russert and I were trying to out-gravitas each other, and just as evident that he was winning.

It was Jan. 21, and Mr. Russert, the host of ''Meet the Press,'' was at the calm center of the hurricane that was a new story involving President Clinton and someone named Monica Lewinsky. ''One of best friends told me today, 'If this is true, he has to get out of town,'' said Mr. Russert, more in sorrow than in anger.

I looked as worried as I could -- as newscasterly, as stricken. This was undermined somewhat by the fact that while Mr. Russert was sitting in the New York headquarters of my MSNBC program, ''The Big Show With Keith Olbermann,'' I was in the kitchen set of the sitcom ''Third Rock From the Sun.'' He had the full weight of NBC News as his backdrop. Behind me was a refrigerator with a banana magnet.

It was then that my show began to mutate into an entity called ''White House in Crisis'' that for 228 consecutive programs -- ending with my final appearance last Friday -- would be wholly or mostly about the Lewinsky matter.

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