TMZ: Olbermann was fired, will be paid $14M

[somone]

http://www.tmz.com/2011/01/21/keith-olbermann-fired-comcast-countdown-msnbc-contract-cable-news-network-pay-or-play/

Keith Olbermann was fired by MSNBC sources tell TMZ, and we're told it had everything to do with Comcast's acquisition of NBC.

Sources connected with the network tell us ... Comcast honchos did not like Keith's defiance and the way he played in the sandbox.

Our sources say Keith has around two years left on his contract, and he'll be paid his salary -- around $7 million a year.

We don't know if Comcast will let Keith make a deal with another network as part of an exit agreement, but it's a good bet he'll be benched for a minimum of 6 months, and probably longer.

[FLAprogressive]

1. K&R

[krawhitham]

57. He QUIT

http://www.thewrap.com/television/article/keith-olbermann-leaves-msnbc-24127

[City Lights]

2. FUCK Comcast.

:nuke:

[Maat]

5. +1 (n/t)

[EFerrari]

11. Twice.

[pokerfan]

26. Thrice!

[snot]

3. Fired for practicing journalism.

This might also be viewed in the context of the lynching of Wikileaks.

[chill_wind]

15. And when SS and Medicare gets hacked up, that will be one less critic

with a mass following they'll have to hear from every night.

Actually a whole lot of critics will have one less major forum. KO constantly brought a lot of good, smart people on his show.

[alittlelark]

4. HOLY SHIT..... I just got on the computer.

I can only hope this is a bad dream.

[pacalo]

7. Welcome to the club. I just got home & saw this myself. It's disgusting!

[davidwparker]

24. You would be able to see it for yourself if MSNBC didn't

show Lock Down on Friday nights.

[WestSeattle2]

37. What is it with Lock Down?! It's the dumbest show I think I've

ever watched on TV. Looked like something a "Scared Straight" program would show to junior high school age kids.

Who would watch that show, and why? The only ones I envision watching it, are the cons themselves and their families on the outside. I can just picture an extended family of a con sitting in someone's living room, watching "Lock Down" and waiting for Uncle Johnny to make it to the big time; high-fiving each other when their violent and deranged relative is finally interviewed about what life is like on the inside.

Bizarre.

[Leopolds Ghost]

It's part of NBC's push to reality TV. It's all about driving viewers thru voyeurism.

They also want to kill broadcast spectrum and force remaining viewers who don't have cable to purchase TV by removing all qulaity programming from the broadcast channels, thereby killing the broadcast affiliates (Comcast is in on this, the broadcast affiliates do NOT support NBC corporate policy, they threatened to revolt when Jeff Zucker killed NBC prime time programming in its entirety and replaced it with Leno.)

My friend tells me many people he talks to, especially older people, assumed Digital TV was a mandate to buy cable television if they wanted to watch TV, period.

That's why the Obama administration is pushing to sell off all the broadcast spectrum that Digital TV just opened up, to further eliminate the "dying medium" of free over-the-air broadcast networks.

[pacalo]

6. Comcast stomped all over Keith's freedom of expression & that should negate any obligation

expected of Keith. Comcast is holding hostage Keith's opportunity for employment.

:grr:

[tridim]

14. Corporations shouldn't be able to buy silence.

Seems inherently unconstitutional.

[Monk06]

18. Or fire the outspoken. Time to bring back anti trust laws

[pacalo]

23. I agree. If Keith were put into a position where Comcast was demanding restrictions

in regard to what Keith would be allowed to say (I don't know what happened today, but I do know (1) today was the first day since Comcast's acquisition & (2) Keith has integrity & would refuse), then why would the new restrictions have anything to do with the contract that Keith signed with MSNBC before the acquisition? In other words, unless Keith signed a contract written by Comcast, then Keith may not be legally bound by Comcast not to seek employment elsewhere, plus the $14M should be his without any strings.

[slay]

32. +1

I said the same thing further down. This is a MAJOR problem - just one of many we face right now. People need to really start paying attention as shit is getting very serious very quickly with what IS the corporate takeover of America. It's happening right before our eyes.

[GCP]

40. We've been the frog in the hot water for a long time now

BY the time the majority of the people get a clue, it'll be way too late.

[tsuki]

8. Was there ever any doubt it was Comcast? nt

[glinda]

9. I think he should leave the Country. I know I would if I had that much money.

[CTyankee]

28. Where would you go? I know where I'd go...EVERYWHERE!

I'd run off to some of the world's greatest cities and make the study of their art a life quest (which I sorta do now...but much of it thru books).

Yep, and take my family too, whoever wanted to go and could go...I wouldn't waste any time...

[Swamp Rat]

33. Me too!!

I want to go to Knossos, Crete. :D





and Machu Picchu



and Prague



and EVERYWHERE! :D

[CTyankee]

48. A trip to Vienna, Budapest and Prague is on my "bucket list."

I'm going to Paris in April, which I have wanted to revisit since my only other trip there was with my mother when I was 16. Southern Spain is also on my list (went to northern Spain in 08 and it changed my life).

I'd also like to go back to London and also the Dordogne Valley to see the prehistoric caves. And in South America I'd like to go to Chile, the Patagonia region and Buenos Aires.

[glinda]

46. Iceland, New Zealand, a little time in Canada. I would go visit my friend in Denmark.

[oh08dem]

10. This is horseshit!

I know the teabaggers are celebrating Keith's exit, but what they DON'T realize is they'll also get beaten into submission by the club of this emerging Corporatocracy along with us. It's clear what they're trying to do: silence dissent via neoliberal economic policies.

When the empire falls imagine how crazy that'll be.

[DesertFlower]

12. who will be the next one?

ed schultz?

[young_at_heart]

13. The comments on that site are very divided

What's interesting to me is the tone, vocabulary and above all, the nastiness of those happy with this story. It's made me miss Keith all the more.

[wisteria]

16. And let this be a warning to the others on the network who want to speak the truth to power and

defy Comcast directives.

[NoodleyAppendage]

19. Yep. This act was intended to "set the tone" for a new MSNBC.

Well, Comcast can kiss my ass. I'm looking for a good way to strike back, but I don't want to hurt Rachel or Lawrence.

J

[wisteria]

20. Frankly, they are going to feel so restrained, they are going to wish they were fired. n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

56. That is exactly what I thought -

a warning shot fired to get the other underlings in line from Day One.

[Monk06]

17. And the Corporate takeover of free speach rights continues. I hope KO

gets a new show somewhere and kicks them in the nuts 24/7

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. par for the course

and some of us have said that this was coming.

[Forkboy]

22. "You have just the right capacity for putting up with our nonsense,"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lJRSKfJP5CM/Scfn5CANoiI/AAAAAAAAA2E/eo-QO78I6u8/s400/DEAD+KENNEDYS+%5B1986%5D+Bedtime+For+Democracy+-+front+%2B+poster+1.jpeg

[Liquorice]

25. I would love to be paid $14M just for being fired. TV personalities sure have nice lives. nt

[WinkyDink]

35. Way to miss the point. How about if every liberal, decent voice were fired but paid?

[suffragette]

27. Just came on DU and saw this

Terrible, terrible news.

[Tunkamerica]

29. It's a good thing corporations are people now..otherwise this truth rhetoric might get out of hand

[strategery blunder]

30. I cancelled comcast eight months ago.

I told them the primary consumer of television in the household had passed away, and I had no use for paying $60 a month for MSNBC. Of course, they have ensured that a la carte cable pricing has never seen the light of day.

Keith Olbermann would have been the only reason for me to keep my cable, should I have decided to do so. Now, even that is gone. I won't look back.

I wonder how many like-minded individuals watch primarily MSNBC and wouldn't miss much by cancelling their comcrap.

[slay]

31. So.. $14 million dollars to silence the truth. Chump change to these corporate assholes!!

Now this sounds more like what really happened what a load of fucking crap - I hope Al Franken makes a HUGE example of this first chance he gets - he has championed the anti-Comcast nbc merger. I hope holy hell rains down upon corporate America thinking they can buy us into stupidity as they silence the truth with $14 million dollars!!! People should be furious!!

[glinda]

44. Wasn't his Renewal for $40 mil?

[WinkyDink]

34. It's all about a corporation's RIGHTS! Like putting security vids on You-tube!

Gander, meet goose.

[Enthusiast]

36. I asked the FCC

to prevent this merger. I asked the FCC to protect Net Neutrality. Why even have an FCC really, why?

[Brickbat]

38. "Defiance and the way he played in the sandbox" -- does that mean on camera, or off?

[mainer]

39. Just before we head into the election season -- when we need him most

This is terrible timing. I want Keith around when Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann begin their campaigns.

[Hubert Flottz]

41. When you think about how a right winger loves his money above

all else, you realize how badly the culprits hated the truth that this man told.

[cbdo2007]

42. I don't believe it. Rachel Maddow is more dangerous than Olbermann...

so if it's about his politics and exposing the truth there's no reason they would keep her and not him.

[silver10]

55. I think she's next

But I hope not

[Leopolds Ghost]

61. Dangerous how? She speaks to the "I know we all agree, so I'll say no more" Coffee-klatch Party wing

Totally isolating and insidery.

I get more information from listening to Washington Weak in Review, which is where broadcast and print higher-ups go to talk AMONGST THEMSELVES about the true corporate-statist conservative agenda that they themselves subscribe to.

[GoCubsGo]

43. Something tells me Keith is not going to mind the time off.

The baseball season starts soon. He'll be able to enjoy it this year. $14 million to stay home and watch baseball? Wish it was me.

[glinda]

45. I thought that this morning. He had to have known or suspected and that is why his contract was

renewed so that he would have a safety net. Thank goodness for those who protected him!

[barbiegeek]

47. Keith I'll wait for you

[KatyBR]

49. Someone should start a PETITION to bring KO back to MSNBC...

If Comcast can get away with this kind of action, and tell us that corporations care more about ideology that the bottom (advertising revenue) line, then we should all know that our democracy is screwed and tatooed. Countdown had the highest ratings of any show on MSNBC...Comcast is clearly saying its not about the money - it's about exposing the real story on how extreme and false the Republicans have become.

[Blue-Jay]

60. yeah. THAT'LL work.

/not sure if serious

[nankerphelge]

50. time to cancel comcast

nt

[AsahinaKimi]

51. So are the right wing talk show hosts dancing on his grave yet??

Sounds like to me thats next...

[tpsbmam]

52. A taste of things to come. This is horrifying. nt

[deacon]

53. K + R

[krawhitham]

54. NOT FIRED

"This was all Keith's choice. He has several times over the years said that he wants out of his contract. He never meant it until this year. He started lawyers negotiating twice this year. He stopped them in the spring. Then, about a month ago with the guidance of his new ICM team and a new LA manager (who were making zero $ on his current deal), he once again said he wanted to leave and this time they negotiated the full package.

"Because of all the false threats in the past, it was impossible for the network to know if he was really going to sign the final document yesterday. That's why promos for his show were still running after he quit on the air. The network couldn't really believe it or act on it until he said it on TV. They couldn't tell the promo people to pull Keith's show out of the cycle until they were sure. His staff learned he was quitting when they heard him say it on TV.

[Leopolds Ghost]

59. Sounds like someone is spreading FUD... don't buy it.

[Leopolds Ghost]

58. Why did Obama allow a CABLE service provider to purchase a BROADCAST network?

Besides the fact that his FCC chairman STATED that his policy is to replace all old media with universal Cable TV Broadband Internet on one device, using a "universal set-top box" that would be operated via black-box security keychain, like a cable descrambler?

Obama's FCC guy also wants to sell off the digital broadcast TV spectrum so there is no longer any public airwaves or anything outside cable TV.

That's why Zucker fired Conan and eliminated all of NBC's scripted dramas. To prepare the way for Comcast to buy the network by forcibly driving people who don't own to buy cable.

When was the last time you met a fellow Democrat or affluent neighbor who didn't pooh-pooh people who don't own cable?

And people thought MSNBC would be some shining beacon in the cable wilderness?

[upi402]

62. Clinton Republican huh?

He said we can't afford a tax cut for the rich, but I don't buy anything he says by now.

[Leopolds Ghost]

63. Clinton's the one who signed the Telecom Act that made it all possible.

The five corporation consolidation of the media, all of it.

[upi402]

65. and tightening that noose even now, n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

64. I remember when I first came here, we did not get cable, everyone praised Cable News to high heavens

Saying that MSNBC was a voice in the wilderness of Fox News and de-funded broadcast journalism. They would say "the only reason I get cable is for quality programming like MSNBC"

Now that programming is being made to conform to the broadcast offerings (with the difference that all premium content is carefully engineered to appear only on premium, cable channels.)

That's possible thanks to the media consolidation and deregulation of the Telecom industries in 1996.

Do DUers still feel it's essential to get cable to stay informed? To have broadband Internet?

It'll all be owned by the same people soon anyways. You won't have a choice, you'll pay for the package they give you.

[Imagevision]

66. And of course Comcast is owned by the right...