Bob Cesca of the Huffington Post notes that The NY Daily News has a story concerning an ass chewing handed to Keith Olbermann by MSNBC president Rick Kaplan after Keith's personal revelations of his own smoking-related cancer scare at the end of Monday's Countdown show which paid tribute to Peter Jennings.
According to the NY Daily News, Kaplan accused Olbermann of being "out of control" and "not to be trusted" and ruining the lead-in to Rita Cosby's new show @9pm ET.
I hear that MSNBC staffers in the Secaucus newsroom-studio watched in horror Monday night as the volatile Kaplan, the president of the cable outlet, publicly laced into the eccentric Olbermann, anchor of the 8 p.m. show "Countdown," after the latter eulogized lung-cancer victim Peter Jennings with a graphic rant about his own cancer scare.
Olbermann - a former pipe and cigar smoker - is said to have looked stunned as Kaplan raced onto the set and shouted at him after he signed off.
What an asshat! Is this the first step to ousting Olbermann and replacing him with a more "controllable" right wing commentator?
I'm told that the anchor quietly asked the news exec to move the discussion to a private location, but the enraged Kaplan wouldn't hear of it.
"I don't care if you don't come to work tomorrow," Kaplan told Olbermann, according to my spies.
Yeah, well, Rick, WE care if Keith doesn't come into work, as Countdown is the only show that doesn't SUCK on your network.
Personally, I thought Keith's revelations about his own personal story were touching and real. And if Rita Cosby's rating suck it is because people don't want to watch her trash, not because Keith isn't serving up his audience to her. What, is he responsible for Tucker sinking too?
Show Keith some love at: KOlbermann@msnbc.com
Tell MSNBC what you think of this situation at:
MSNBC Viewer Services: 201/583-4385
MSNBC.com: Kelly Frederick;
Kelly@dbcpr.com