Keith Olbermann will premiere new show on Al Gore's Current TV this spring [Updated]

Keith Olbermann, the controversial broadcaster who abruptly exited MSNBC last month, announced Tuesday morning that he this spring will join Current TV, the little-watched but rapidly growing cable outlet founded by former vice president Al Gore and legal entrepreneur Joel Hyatt.

Olbermann, who will have an as-yet untitled nightly program on Current and also become chief news officer and take an equity stake in the network, said in a teleconference that he was looking forward to a platform offering “news produced independently of corporate interference.”

Current, which is available in about 60 million U.S. cable and satellite homes and has 15 million more subscribers internationally, is a private company and does not report financial results. But the 6-year-old network is supported by advertising and is seeking broader support among cable carriers as well as a larger audience. Perhaps not coincidentally, the network will offer its "upfront" preview of programming to advertisers on Wednesday, with Olbermann's hiring expected to be central. "Advertisers have certainly looked at Keith as advertiser-friendly," Gore told reporters.

Olbermann and his new bosses offered few details about the host's new program, although the broadcaster hinted that it would be similar to "Countdown," the nightly opinion show that showcased liberal opinion and newsmakers. "Countdown" was MSNBC's top-rated offering, but the host frequently clashed with management at NBC Universal before he left abruptly last month. During the height of the election season last year, Olbermann was briefly suspended for making donations to Democratic candidates in violation of NBC policy.

Olbermann said Tuesday that he did not "want to stay stationary in that sort of mainstream news environment."

With Olbermann's hiring, Current would seem to be lurching into the cable news race where MSNBC and CNN have long run behind Fox News Channel. Hyatt insisted the network would not consider itself a player in cable news, even with its new talent on board, but deferred details until the network's upfront presentation.

That Gore -- a lion of the Democratic party who won the Nobel Prize for his environmental work -- has hired the leading liberal broadcaster would seem to establish Current as a base for left-leaning opinion. Gore said he considered himself a "recovering politician" but that he found himself in "substantial agreement" with Olbermann's views.

Olbermann has said little about his falling-out with MSNBC since he left the network. On Tuesday he promised he would have more to say about that in the future, but that "this isn't the time to do it." An MSNBC spokesman said the network would have no comment on Olbermann's new deal.

As for Current, its leaders are confident that the Olbermann hiring will finally mark its entry into the big leagues of cable TV.

As Gore told reporters: "We have more subscribers today than MSNBC had when Keith Olbermann began working for them" in 2003.

-- Scott Collins
twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT

Photo: Keith Olbermann, who left MSNBC abruptly, is joining Current TV. Credit: MSNBC.

[For the Record, 9:49 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Olbermann would be news director at Current TV.]

About (Late) Last Night: Stephen Colbert bids farewell to Keith Olbermann [video]

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On Friday night, "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann shocked his fans by abruptly announcing his immediate departure from MSNBC. Since the surprise disclosure, speculation over his resignation has run amok. Was Olbermann booted in order to smooth NBC Universal's upcoming merger with Comcast? Or were his corporate overlords still smarting over the host's defiant response to his brief suspension this past fall? 

Whatever the case may be -- and, rest assured, we'll hear lots more about it over the coming weeks -- Olbermann's swan song has provided some premium fodder for his talk-show peers, especially Stephen Colbert. Monday night on "The Colbert Report," the faux-pundit bid his own ironic farewell to the bombastic Olbermann. 

"After eight years, Keith is hanging up his thesaurus," Colbert began. "Now the worst persons in the world will include whoever made Cheetos so delicious."  

He feigned surprise over the news, joked that "I just never imagined there were ramifications for publicly crapping on your employer," and claimed that he'd always been complimentary to his boss, Viacom honcho Sumner Redstone. Cue the montage of Colbert telling Redstone to "suck it, old man."  

Now that Olbermann is off the air, Colbert explained, it's his obligation to absorb the pundit's essence. A few lightning bolts later, and there was Colbert, wearing a thick gray wig and a pair of designer lenses. He launched into a "special comment," full of the GRE words that Olbermann delights in tossing around:  

"The storied notion that power corrupts or absolute power corrupts absolutely seems never to have occurred to this Cosa Nostra we're calling our Congress, who are willing to defy their constituents and genuflect to their corporate masters no matter what the deleterious effects."

The transplant appeared to be successful. But it was not to be.

"I can't do it," screamed Colbert, throwing his wig and glasses to the floor. "My body is rejecting Keith like a pompous kidney."  

Olbermann's essence was deflected elsewhere -- into Colbert's coffee mug -- and just like that, "Keith Olbermug" was born.

It was a sublimely funny segment, showcasing Colbert at what he does best: pointing out the vanity and self-importance innate to talk-show hosts of all political stripes, without ever taking himself too seriously in the process. (Watch his segment with Charlie Rose, also from Monday night's episode, for further evidence of this.)

I confess that in the great Colbert-versus-Jon Stewart debate (a false dichotomy, but a persistent one nevertheless) I've always been on Team Colbert. He's both a nimble comic performer and a whip-smart interviewer, able to play a character while steering the conversation in a substantive direction.

Stephen Colbert, I raise my Keith Olbermug full of bourbon to you.

What did you think? Was this a fitting sendoff for MSNBC's biggest star?

-- Meredith Blake
twitter.com/MeredithBlake

 

President Obama's speech at Tucson shooting memorial draws lower-than-expected viewing

Nearly 31 million people watched President Obama's speech at the Tucson memorial on Wednesday night — a surprisingly low figure considering how much attention the shootings in Arizona have received.

According to the Nielsen Co., an average of 30.8 million total viewers tuned in to the address, which was carried live at 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. PST on seven networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

While the size of the audience was large by most standards, it was lower than has been seen for some other recent Obama speeches. Last June, the president's address on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis was seen by 32 million viewers. And the 2010 State of the Union speech averaged 48 million. However, the timing of the Tucson speech meant that it occurred earlier than prime time in much of the country, including California.

— Scott Collins (Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT)

Photo: President Barack Obama addresses a gathering for the victims of a mass shooting in Tucson. Photo credit: Mike Segar/Reuters.

 

 

 

Keith Olbermann returns to Twitter after (a very short) self-imposed exile

Take heart, fellow tweeters: Keith Olbermann's self-imposed exile from Twitter has officially ended. The host of MSNBC's "Countdown" began his vow of silence on Thursday, when viewers took issue with dismissive comments that he and his guest, filmmaker Michael Moore, made on the show regarding rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Moore also repeated a false claim that Assange was accused only of his condom breaking during consensual sex.

After online critics complained, and the website Tigerbeatdown.com started a Twitter campaign to get Moore to issue a correction, Olbermann announced that he was suspending his Twitter account “until this frenzy is stopped.” He even took down his profile picture.

But by Sunday he'd apparently reversed his decision. "And we're back!" he wrote on Twitter. "Tweeting will resume tomorrow." He even had a new photo, which he dated as 1971 at Yankee Stadium.

Overall, the exile lasted only three days — about as long as his recent suspension from MSNBC. Who says the guy's not open to changing his mind?

— Melissa Maerz

Photo: Keith Olbermann. Credit: Fred Prouser / Reuters.

On eve of Larry King exit, CNN tries to paint happy face on record low ratings

The folks at CNN -- where Larry King will wrap up his talk show Thursday night after 25 years -- must be possessed of some crazy magic. How so? Well, it takes strange alchemy indeed to transform the network's worst year ever into ratings gold worthy of a news release.

In a bit of holiday sugar sprinkled in reporters' e-mail boxes Wednesday, CNN bragged that it reaches more than 96 million monthly viewers, the most of any cable news network. Ten million more than Fox News Channel, in fact, and 13 million more than MSNBC. This might lead a casual observer to think that CNN is No. 1, its programming plans are firing on all cylinders and its rivals are left choking on its dust.

But of course, that's not the case at all. CNN for the year to date is actually mired in third place in prime time, where the most lucrative advertising is, and is a distant No. 2 to Fox News in total-day ratings (1.1 million vs. 435,000 average). In fact, 2010 has been CNN's worst year since at least the launch of Fox News back in 1996. The network has shed more than one-third of its prime-time viewers, thanks to erosion in King's ratings and a disastrous start for the talk show "Parker Spitzer." And it is about to lose in prime time to MSNBC for the first time ever.

So how can CNN boast of reaching more viewers than Fox News or MSNBC? It has to do with the way Nielsen computes ratings. CNN is using what's known in the biz as a "reach figure" -- that is, not an average but rather an estimated figure of the total number of viewers who tune in for at least a few minutes. This type of metric favors CNN, which historically has done best with breaking news stories, where viewers flip on the channel to see what's happening and then quickly tune out. However, such a figure doesn't carry much weight with advertisers, because viewers who watch for six minutes and then leave aren't likely to see many commercials. And it's at best a misleading snapshot of what people are really watching.

A CNN spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-- Scott Collins (Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT)

Photo: Larry King at the White House Correspondents Dinner in May. Credit: Olivier Douliery / Pool/EPA 

 

 

 

 

 

MSNBC suspends Joe Scarborough for making unauthorized political contributions

Like Keith Olbermann before him, Joe Scarborough has been suspended from MSNBC for making unauthorized political contributions. On Friday, MSNBC announced that the host of "Morning Joe" would be forced to take an unpaid two-day hiatus from the network for making eight donations of $500 each to local candidates in Florida between 2004 and 2008.

When MSNBC president Phil Griffin suspended Olbermann earlier this month, many critics pointed out that Scarborough had also made contributions. But in a statement, Griffin claimed that Scarborough initially "did not recall" that he'd done so, and only informed Griffin of the donations on Friday morning.

"Since he did not seek or receive prior approval for these contributions, Joe understands that I will be suspending him for violating our policy," Griffin said. "He will be immediately suspended for two days without pay and will return to the air on Wednesday, November 24th. As Joe recognizes, it is critical that we enforce our standards and policies."

Scarborough promptly responded to the suspension in a statement. "It was recently brought to my attention that I made political contributions over the past several years that are not consistent with MSNBC's guidelines," he said. "I recognize that I have a responsibility to honor the guidelines and conditions of my employment, and I regret that I failed to do so in this matter. I apologize to MSNBC and to anyone who has been negatively affected by my actions."

Scarborough said he gave these contributions to his brother and three family friends. "I gained nothing personally, politically, or professionally from these donations," he said. "To be blunt, I had no interest in their campaigns other than being kind to longtime friends.Because the contributions involved local, non-competitive races -- and were given for personal rather than political reasons -- I mistakenly believed I did not need approval from MSNBC. I also apologize for that oversight."

"I am proud to work for the NBC News family," Scarborough said. "There is nothing more important than maintaining the integrity of its highly respected brand."

--Melissa Maerz

Photo: Joe Scarborough, with his "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski. Credit: Michael Loccisano / Getty Images

About (Late) Last Night: Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart talk in smart, still dizzying circles [video]

"You're in the game," Jon Stewart told Rachel Maddow last night on her show, capping off an extended conversation,  which jumped from waterboarding to tea-bagging and beyond above a constant current of media criticism. "You're in the game too," Maddow replied. "We're in the same game."

"You're on the playing field, and I'm in the stands yelling things," Stewart explained. Maddow wasn't having it. "Everyone sees you as on the playing field too," she offered. It was the underlying disagreement around which a flurry of other topics swirled, but it was not an acute enough case of navel-gazing to render the entire discussion unwatchable. In fact, it was unexpectedly riveting television, assuming you have positive feelings toward one or both hosts. 

Stewart, obviously ill, looked pallid and spoke softly, putting Maddow in a somewhat downcast mood to match, and their calm collective tone lent a seriousness to the talk. The severe black background probably helped as well. For more than 40 minutes, the pair spoke on what could be perceived as minutiae, low on sound bites and talking points, burrowing deeper and deeper into a liberal rabbit hole of endless questions and few, if any, answers.

Keith Olbermann laughs it off upon return to MSNBC

The opening shot of Tuesday night's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" showed only a dark, empty desk and a still screen. After a few seconds of quiet, curious buzzing, Olbermann peeked in from the left side of the frame. He was making a point.

"Oh ... hi. So, uh, what's new?" Olbermann asked. He promised he would get to his "little adventure" later in the show. "But I need to address one thing right now," said Olbermann. "I read in a couple of places that this has to have been a publicity stunt. This was not a publicity stunt. If I had known that all this would happen, I would have done this years ago!" He didn't seem too upset.

Olbermann raised his voice, but he was smiling, probably in part because he knew that for more about his suspension — and make no mistake, many were tuning in for that reason alone — he was going to make you watch the entire show.

"So how was your weekend?" Olbermann teased. Then he dealt with the news — President Obama in India, former President George W. Bush's interview Matt Lauer and Wall Street reform. But substance was beside the point; the people were waiting for drama. Instead, they got mostly jokes.

Back from exile: Olbermann thanks fans, criticizes MSNBC

On Monday night, Keith Olbermann finally responded to his two-day suspension, which MSNBC imposed on him after discovering that he'd made unauthorized political donations to three Democratic candidates. In an open letter to his fans, which his management team sent to the Times and other media, the “Countdown” host  criticized NBC for enforcing a donation policy that was "inconsistently applied" and insisted that he wasn’t aware of the netowrk's standards. While he admitted that he should have discussed his donations with NBC executives, he took issue with the fact that, instead of warning him internally, the network suspended him, leaving him to hear about the suspension through the media.

“You should also know that I did not attempt to keep any of these political contributions secret; I knew they would be known to you and the rest of the public,” he said. “I did not make them through a relative, friend, corporation, PAC, or any other intermediary, and I did not blame them on some kind of convenient ‘mistake’ by their recipients. When a website contacted NBC about one of the donations, I immediately volunteered that there were in fact three of them; and contrary to much of the subsequent reporting, I immediately volunteered to explain all this, on-air and off, in the fashion MSNBC desired.”

Olbermann credited his fans for getting him back on the air with what he called a “ground-rattling” outpouring of support from viewers. He apologized for “having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama,” though he also said that the public uproar “should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small.”

The full text of the letter follows:

A STATEMENT TO THE VIEWERS OF COUNTDOWN
by Keith Olbermann

I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support. Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small. I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.

Keith Olbermann's suspended suspension: Why did MSNBC move so fast?

Keith Olbermann has just emerged from one of the shortest exiles in cable news history.

On Friday, MSNBC President Phil Griffin announced that the “Countdown” host had been suspended indefinitely for making unauthorized campaign contributions to three Democratic candidates. The move was widely criticized: Over the weekend, an advocacy group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered 300,000 online signatures directly to Griffin, demanding Olbermann’s return to the network.

By late Sunday night, Griffin was stating that Olbermann would come back to MSNBC on Tuesday. Even Olbermann’s critics wondered: If he really did violate ethical standards, why did Griffin change his mind so quickly?

MSNBC declined to comment. But Joel Meares, assistant editor for the Columbia Journalism Review, says, "I’m not particularly surprised that they reversed their decision, given the amount of blowback they’ve gotten. Most media critics have been saying that it wasn’t the wisest move because no one watches Olbermann expecting to see both sides played out."

Meares questions the timing of Olbermann’s suspension, however. “MSNBC’s midterm election coverage and Olberman’s in particular was roundly criticized for being far less balanced than Fox’s,” he says. Acknowledging that the news also came less than a week after the Rally to Restore Sanity, during which Jon Stewart blasted Olbermann and the Fox News Channel for their politically divisive commentary, Meares admits, “People might read something into that.”

Keith Olbermann suspended from MSNBC over Democratic donations

"Countdown" host Keith Olbermann has been suspended from MSNBC over recent donations he made to three Democratic candidates.

The website Politico called the cable network Thursday night and began asking about the contributions of $2,400 apiece to Democratic Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky. Conway lost, while Grijalva has declared victory; votes in the Gifford race are still being counted.

"I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night," MSNBC President Phil Griffin said Friday in a statement. "Mindful of MSNBC's News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

In a statement, Olbermann said he had made the Arizona contributions on Oct. 28 after a discussion with a friend about that state's politics. "I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level," the host said.

Newsgathering organizations generally frown on journalists openly supporting political candidates or causes, but Olbermann's partisanship — on full display in "Countdown" — has gotten MSNBC in trouble in the past. Although he anchored the network's election coverage Tuesday, critics complained about his lack of objectivity back in 2008, when he was temporarily replaced by David Gregory.

Friday's "Countdown" will be hosted by Chris Hayes, a familiar "Countdown" guest. An MSNBC representative said he had no information on when Olbermann might return to air.

— Scott Collins (Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT)

Photo: Keith Olbermann. Photo credit: Peter Kramer / Associated Press.

 

 

Midterm election ratings: Fox News Channel beats CNN and MSNBC

Does the Fox News Channel fare better during conservative-leaning elections? That's what early ratings for midterm election coverage suggest. On Tuesday night, Fox News scored more viewers than CNN or MSNBC. Nielsen Media Reserch indicates that Fox News' prime-time average was 7 million total viewers, while CNN earned 2.4 million and MSNBC earned 1.9 million.

Compared to the 2006 midterm elections, Fox News' prime-time viewership was up 128%, while CNN's was down 18% and MSNBC's stayed the same. Early reports hint that FNC might also dominate the broadcast network election coverage, but the final numbers for the broadcast networks will not be available until Thursday morning.

— Melissa Maerz