This broke at the end of Keith's show earlier tonight - details are still being revealed as the evening progresses
I'll have further details as we have had the chance to identify and investigate the scene - he's reading his last Friday Thurber story right now
If this is true, this is really a shame, as we are losing one of the more influential voices on the left.
FURTHER: Home pager Jed Lewison has now posted this on the DK home page, and kindly linked to our story and discussion - Thanks Jed
LATEST: Rachel is on RIGHT NOW (10:15 PM EST) on Bill Maher - no big news, other than to say Keith hosted his last show tonight, and it was "between Keith and MSNBC"
UPDATE 1 - while no specific details have yet emerged, my guess is that this development is one of ut MANY that will now take place since the merger of NBC and Comcast has bee all but approved.
Forgive my editorializing, but in its own way, this follows on the heels fo Citizens UNited as one of the worst developments of the last 12 months - NOW we have a truly conservative corporation controlling muzzling the voices on what used to be free speech in the USA.
UPDATE 2 - NYTimes.com now has a headline ( no article yet) indicating this
MSNBC Says It Has Ended Keith Olbermann’s Contract
UPDATE 3 - HuffPo now has a headline (no full article yet) saying
Keith Olbermann Ends Contract With MSNBC
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
UPDATE 4 - NBC Producer Jesse Rodriguez (of the Dylan Ratigan show) tweets this:
Keith Olbermann announcing tonight is his last broadcast of Countdown #msnbc
UPDATE 5 - MSNBC now has Keith's video clip posted
For the benefit of those who may not be able to view the video, there IS a transcript mode available on the MSNBC video clip
FURTHER: Bill Carter has now posted on this on New York TImes Media Decoder blog:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...
UPDATE 6 - Politically Illustrated offers this
This is now hitting the main stream of online news, although stories are still quite sketchy!
UPDATE 7 - CNN's Anderson Cooper tweets this
Comcast deal is approved. Jeff Zucker leaves. #keitholbermann gets fired. Coincidence? Find out #ac360 at 10p
UPDATE - NY Times now has this ON THE FRONT PAGE!
(it links to the Media Decoder story we posted above)
Washington Post has picked up the AP feed on this, and this paragraph jumps out:
A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquistion of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.
Not sure what YOU all think, but this sounds suspiciously a lot like "nothing to see here, move along"
10 PM EST UPDATE: there will be NO further word on this from MSNBC, as their programming has now lapsed into the traditional weekend fare: "let's visit with the guys in lockup and get their comments".
Has anyone ever pondered if this programming is sponsored by the private prison companies in the USA?
Regrettably, I have much work to get back to, so I will leave this discussion to continue on its own, and likely the FrontPage postings will pick up the thread of the details being revealed on this story.
I sincerely thank you for your recommendations, and also refer you to CityLightsLover's fine diary on the same topic
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