I know its tempting to draw parallels between NPR's firing of Juan Williams and MSNBC's sacking of Keith Olbermann, but the similarities on the surface don't immediately speak to the very real differences.
Here's the major difference, as I see it. Juan Williams was fired because certain influential patrons and donors to NPR had wanted him gone for a long, long time. In Olbermann's case, he was fired not to appease MSNBC's supporters, but their critics, who had over the years acquired a multitude of mostly good reasons to come to despise this shill.
I can't feel sorry for him. He was a hypocrite who lambasted his critics, stifled dissent, criticized Fox News for their own advocacy and support for the right while never allowing the opposite side nearly a third as much rebuttal time as Fox or any other competitor allowed its own ideological opponents, was due to his own ego and arrogance impossible to get along with according to those who worked with him and would know him best, and finally-and here's maybe the main point-he involved himself in hiring and personnel decisions to the point that he had people fired from the network if he did not agree with their own point of view or they did not tow his ideological line.
Do I think MSNBC should have fired the jerk? No, really I don't, but that's their call. I just wish they'd be a little more honest and forthcoming as to their real reasons, which probably had more to do with the up-and-coming acquisition of NBC by Comcast than it did to any amount of air time or donations he gave to Raul Grijalva or to Jack Conway. There is also the little uncomfortable fact that his ratings were in the ditch. That was acceptable for a while, as over the last few years the network had little to no chance to supplant Bill O'Reilly in that time slot. They had to field somebody, and it would appear to be a judgment call that Keith Olbermann could at least staunch the bleeding.
But after so long it got to the point that he was such an albatross around the network that he was dragging the entire enterprise down the tubes with him. That's what happens in a train wreck. When one car goes off the rails it tends to drag most of the others off with it and in the end derails the entire system. On the night of the election, Keith Olbermann's antics, along with those of his compatriots involved in the coverage, were in fact akin to a train wreck. If you happened to be driving past, you couldn't help but crane your neck in a perverse need to see the blood. It wasn't a pretty sight. But in reality, this was a long time coming. This last election, with all its implications, insured the need of a sacrificial victim to appease the ratings gods. Keith Olbermann was the obvious victim to place upon that sacrificial altar.
All that being said, I will miss Olbermann, assuming it is true that he will not be coming back. So will many others on the right. One could not help but appreciate the spectacle of Olbermann as the perfect illustration of the kind of thought process employed by the left laid bare for all to see, warts and all, with no pretense of impartiality, or for that matter any kind of rational thought process to speak of. Olbermann was the left, a true personification of all of its nuttiness-ordinarily a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. But in his case, the insanity blazed forth with a kind of perverse pride and demanded not just recognition, but vindication, much like the insane uncle you keep locked up in the attic because you know if he ever gets out, it won't be long before he does the same thing that made you lock him away to begin with.
This has probably been coming for a long time, in reality. NBC was probably just waiting for the right excuse and thanks to Politico, they were able to finally make that break. They had their opportunities at various times in the past. After all, this is a man who, as a journalist, has a tendency to rely on the kind of disreputable sources that make the Weekly World News seem like the Weekly Standard.
Naturally, he was not a real journalist, he was a pundit. And as such, he has always had his proponents, advocates, staunch defenders who will still rally to his cause, and who are in fact supporting him now and demanding he be reinstated.
Maybe they will successfully plead his case and this too will blow over. After all, its pretty obvious that the stated reason for Olbermann's suspension is not a reason, but a mere pretext.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that a new day has dawned. If Olbermann does return, what you might well see is the cable news version of a chemical castration.
