• Keith Olbermann

    Update: Olbermann Responds – Keith Olbermann Fired by Current TV

    +++++ Scroll down for the Update +++++

    Not really surprising – Keith Olbermann is just too high maintenance.

    Current TV has fired Keith Olbermann, a network spokeswoman told TheWrap.

    The controversial news host has been at the fledgling cable channel for less than a year.

    Eliot Spitzer will replace Olbermann starting Friday night, the network announced.

    Olberman got into a contretemps with the network over his role during Republican primary election coverage last December. But the host has a history of butting heads with management and other bosses, starting with ESPN, including MSNBC and now with the leadership at Current.

    In its move on Friday, Current was clearly fed up with its star newsman.

     “Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it,” the network wrote in a letter to viewers published on its website.

    So long, Keith.

    You really won’t be missed and I hope you have some savings/investments, since I think you are pretty much finished in television.

    Update:

    Keith Olbermann responds:

    My full statement:

    I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

    Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

    It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

    In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

    Good luck, Keith, with that next job.

  • Keith Olbermann

    Keith Olbermann Fired by Current TV

    Not really surprising – Keith Olbermann is just too high maintenance.

    Current TV has fired Keith Olbermann, a network spokeswoman told TheWrap.

    The controversial news host has been at the fledgling cable channel for less than a year.

    Eliot Spitzer will replace Olbermann starting Friday night, the network announced.

    Olberman got into a contretemps with the network over his role during Republican primary election coverage last December. But the host has a history of butting heads with management and other bosses, starting with ESPN, including MSNBC and now with the leadership at Current.

    In its move on Friday, Current was clearly fed up with its star newsman.

     “Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it,” the network wrote in a letter to viewers published on its website.

    So long, Keith.

    You really won’t be missed and I hope you have some savings/investments, since I think you are pretty much finished in television.

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