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Opinion: Countdown to Keith Olbermann’s ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ begins; calm urged on his fan

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Finally, after what seems like a couple of days of waiting, the folks over at Current TV have announced the start date for Keith Olbermann’s old show there.

Because of Olbermann’s chronically messy departures from previous employers and the needless ego-engendered controversies, the Current TV folks have decided to take Olbermann’s show in an entirely new direction, beginning with the title.

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It will be called ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann,’* a reference to the tall but feisty recovering sportscaster with one of the largest heads in TV commentating.

He will provide predictable political commentary on the day’s random events with endearingly faux outrage reminiscent of the actors in the ring of a WWF match. All designed to make his audience comfortable with its cliches.

One of Olbermann’s current Current bosses, who doesn’t get out much, called his new employee ‘one of America’s most gifted thinkers and communicators.’

Olbermann, in turn, called his new employer ‘the model truth-seeking entity.’

The program will appear at 5 p.m. weeknights in an attempt to spare Pacific time zone commuters.

Olbermann will try to resuscitate a sagging media career on a little-known cable channel that claims to be distributed into 75 million homes, several of which actually watch. In lieu of a large salary, Olbermann was given an expensive title, Chief News Officer.

‘Nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media,’ Olbermann said in a canned statement, adding in typical down-to-earth manner, ‘and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news produced independently of corporate interference.’

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That’s a subtle reference to large media companies where Olbermann’s employments have ended. At least one of those evil empires had rules that forbid such things as show hosts contributing money to the political campaigns of guests that they also promoted on their show, if you can imagine anything so ethically confining.

Olbermann got caught doing just that and was suspended briefly, generating protest letters from all four viewers. Fortunately, that won’t happen when Current suspends Olbermann because no one will notice.

Related:

Pat Sajak says he’s profoundly sorry for infecting the country with Keith Olbermann

-- Andrew Malcolm

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