Olbermann, MSNBC part ways

I wasn't going to mention it because I don't care much either way, but as you probably know, Keith Olbermann broadcast his last Countdown Friday night. Olbermann and MSNBC "have ended their contract," according to MSNBC's official statement. There's no word on what Olbermann will be doing in the immediate future.

Having given up on the cable news networks, I can't say I was personally affected: in fact, I haven't watched Countdown since early 2010. However, I found a nice piece by Niall Stanage in Salon entitled,"Why I'm glad Keith Olbermann is gone" that perfectly sums up my own feelings on Olbermann and his broadcast.

Here, for instance, is a key weakness of Countdown that bothered me for a long time:

... there was a years-long procession of pundits whose only apparent purpose was to confirm the correctness and brilliance of the host’s every utterance. The spectacle was one in which purportedly respectable journalists seemed to fall over themselves to play courtier to King Smug.

And Olbermann often seemed to be throwing his stones from inside an extremely fragile glass house:

Olbermann rose to prominence in large part through attacking other media figures -- most notably Bill O’Reilly -- for both their gloating self-regard and their rhetorical recklessness.

Olbermann’s claim to the moral high ground here was strictly relative.

What I wrote when Olbermann was suspended for two days still applies:

I wanted Olbermann to be as effective, if not as angry, an observer and critic of Obama as he was of Bush. I wanted Olbermann to channel his formidable intellect into constructive and illuminating avenues. Perhaps that was never in the cards. Maybe, having let his inner attack dog run loose for several years, he doesn't know how to rein it in again. Whatever is going on in his head, he stopped being a trustworthy voice months ago. It's too bad.

I still respect the man's "formidable intellect." I just hope he uses it more constructively and effectively in whatever he does down the line.