If you haven’t heard as of November 5th Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman (henceforth referred as Countdown for convenience) was suspended from his show for making campaign contributions to 3 different candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections and not seeking approval from MSNBC producers.
That’s it, that’s all that has happened. It’s not that Keith did it, but it is that he didn’t seek approval for something that would have been (and was) found out by contribution rosters that by law must be published.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb, as an Olbermann and Countdown fan, and say I’m alright with him receiving a punishment for what he did. I’d also like him to return. He’s the only reason I even watch (via podcast, mind you) any MSNBC show. I don’t care for Shuester, Maddow, or O’donnel. I like Keith, I like his format, and most of the time I like his opinions. I don’t think he should be shoved off his show for one simple reason.
He never ‘stumped’ for any of those he sent a contribution to, period. While I may think he might want to screw his head back on a little tighter given that he thought it was in his power to disobey a rule of his employment, I don’t think is firing (which could happen as ‘indefinite suspension’ usually means that) will do much for him or his network. Plain and simple, bring Keith back if you want to keep your ratings and more importantly your viewers.
So why, you might wonder, do I draw the line on it being ok to donate money but not say anything? I think I’ll leave it to Rachel Maddow to explain.
Bluntly, Fox News isn’t news. Keith, while liberal, kept his overall preference for candidates minimal. He also broke a rule. He’s been punished. He can go on air and apologize. So long as he doesn’t fall victim of his own pet peeve of “to those I may have offended” we’ll be able to move on, and Keith can come back to really what he does best: Entertain me and other on a political level and at least some lean towards journalistic integrity.
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