Apart from that incident, however, he avoided public disputes or sanctions by his employers. If that had anything to do with his departure, Olbermann hasn't said so; he has yet to comment about why he's leaving.
Two people with knowledge of Olbermann's role at ESPN said the expenses associated with Olbermann and his New York City production were being targeted by executives at the network, partly because the weekday show is not particularly high-rated. Keith Olberman.
CNNMoney Sponsors. Did you ever intentionally make a defiant gesture toward the network, just because you knew it would bother them? No, no, not at all. My conduct on the air, never. Are you still close with her? I was normally in her office or she in mine, four out of five days, just to throw the crap around. Several times I talked her out of storming out of the place, and several times she talked me out of storming out.
You think they thought that? My manager and I had long discussed the prospects of going somewhere else. Keith, this is Al Gore. How soon was it that he contacted you? Saturday, the day after my last show. You broke the news of your departure on the show that Friday. At what point did you know that would be your last day? I was pretty sure that was the last day at the start of that day. There was a lot of emotion and a lot of regret.
What were your initial discussions with Al Gore like when he called? Can you afford to do it? It was that quick. I slept on it overnight, and we started going with it on Sunday. Everything since then has been like that. Do you think the Republican push for cutting the budget is going to blow up in their faces? This is about the nature of the authoritarian mind.
They are zealots, and zealots assume the last five percent of whatever their plan is will be taken care of by their own greatness or momentum or divinity. Do you really think Barack Obama would have been elected president of the United States if George Bush had been a moderate? We had laws broken in this country that involved the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in another country, and more than 4, people from our country.
It lets them know exactly what they can get away with. Everything else, particularly on health care reform, he was right and I was wrong. I thought he needed to be in there with a mallet, pounding away from Day One. Instead, he came in at the end and saved it. Two years ago I attended an off-the-record lunch he held for columnists. It was like watching a great play—just masterful. The last broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann will be this evening. But a spokesman did say that the acquistion of NBC Universal by cable and telecoms giant Comcast , which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.
As speculation swirled about the timing, Comcast later put out a statement denying any connection:. We pledged from the day the deal was announced that we would not interfere with NBCU's news operations. We have not and we will not. Sign In Subscribe. This article is from the archive of our partner.
They accuse Comcast "of forcing him out for political reasons," Carter says, adding that "several of Comcast's top executives have been financial supporters of Republicans. Olbermann were to quit soon after the takeover.
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