Cable news personality now unemployed.
The story so far...
1. One company/organization/entity took over another company/organization/entity.
2. The company/organization/entity did a little light housekeeping, after which there was at least one empty desk that made a lot of people say "Oh shit!" and start looking over their shoulders.
With two exceptions, this has been the story of every company/organization/entity I have ever worked for.
In days gone by, I might have tossed this to Steve Gilliard for his insight, but of course Steve is long gone.
I might have linked to Jon Swift, but he too is no longer a member of our vale or tears.
I might have linked to a couple of blogs that briefly and with great fanfare took on the task of shouldering Steve's legacy, but they have ceased operations.
I might have gone to Google Blog Search for a sampling of what some of my peers are saying, but the top search results when last I looked were from places like The Hollywood Gossip, TMZ and The Daily Beast. It appears that "blog" no longer means what I thought it meant.
Which is not to say that the world is not full of well-spiced commentary: at First Draft, Adrastos has some good insight, as does Nicole Belle, as do other
It is merely to say that things change.
Then they change again.
That the distant grinding you hear is the sound of the tectonic plates of commerce and power in constant motion and heedless of our little problems and concerns.
And in the room the women still come and go
Still talking of Michelangelo.
20 comments:
I'm sad to see KO being made to leave, but this is only the beginning to what the next two years will hold. Conservatives are in full on orgiastic mode to dismantle our society. Late this year, it will be Issa getting serious with the Obama investigations, leading to impeachment hearings just in time for the 2012 election season.
And if we get a Repub in WH and/or a Repub Senate? Privatize Social Security & Medicare, allow states to reduce/cancel their state employee pensions, complete elimination of taxes on corporations and taxes on all forms of wealth-related income (capital gains, estate, dividends). They are already talking about a follow on act of eliminating public education, the minimum wage and child labor laws. This isn't some goofy anonymous email, or out there friinge blogsite spouting these things. Its elected Repub officials and they are on record (print and video) with their plans.
I bring this up to my (few remaining) conservative friends, and they hem/haw, say "they don't really mean that," and other excuses.
Yeah, Keith has been a "difficult" employee over the years and no doubt rubbed a few employers the wrong way regardless of his political views. Still, I fear this may have been an early warning shot in corporations tamping down dissent.
When we saw it, me an' the wife just looked at each other and said, What the fuck? Definitely one for the books.
As for left-blogistan, I assume people are waiting for more facts to come out before opining, though obviously some weird shit is afoot.
Where do you suppose Olbermann will wind up? When is he going to be able to talk, and when will the word get out anyway?
Finally: I swear to God I will not be surprised to see Limbaugh's hand somewhere in this.
And re to Habitat Vic, who hits the much bigger picture: These are some revolutionaries, arent' they, as they basically seek to undo the very government the Revolutionary
War generation set up. Sorry, folks, the Founders were liberals and they would tell the Republican Party to get the fuck out of town. Their Second Amendment bullshit coupled with recent radical Supreme Court decisions are just about to make Franklin's worst nightmare come true.
Rachel Maddow was on the Bill Mahr show right after KO's announcement, and she looked just as surprised as everyone else. I'll miss his show.
MDW; I suspect Keith has some sort of non-compete similar to what Conan got. As such, we wouldn't see KO on air in a political venue for a good six months, maybe a year. Its possible that MSNBC exempted sports-related talking, so maybe KP will show up sooner that way. I think/hope we haven't heard the last of Olbermann.
Re Rachel Maddow on RT w/Maher: Yes she was surprised. And related to my earlier post, I was rooting for Rachel to turn to her left and throttle that sniggering (literally) conservative bag of shit Stephen Moore. Christ, he was "correcting" Maddow as to the intent of Reagan's economic policies, even after David Stockman - the actual fucking creator of those policies! - tried to correct him on his mistakes.
And so it begins, again.
As soon as I heard Comcat/NBC had been approved, I thought, "well, Olbermann probably doesn't have much time now." I thought they would at least give it a few months so it didn't look so, you know, obvious. But instead they opted for a new Shock Doctrine. What else will happen while we're all too stunned to act?
It did feel good to send MSNBC a FUCK YOU email though.
The MOTU's -corporations- are no longer trying to hide what they're doing, or the fact that they are in charge. They have, or think the have, so much power they cannot be touched.
It's the nature of things -Natural Systems and entities such as countries and corporations- to grow. Bigger and Bigger, more and more difficult to manage, and tho they don't usually know it, more likely to collapse and break apart when small variables stop working. Sort of the Big Bang Theory being repeated in miniature. The economic system- banks and brokerages nearly collapsed and broke apart in 07, but our Government, which is also teetering, propped it up.
I think there's gonna be an almighty huge crash, pretty soon.
Beyond infuriating and downright scary.
I don't have cable so have never regularly watched this show, but IF Obermann remains silent in the aftermath of all this, I would have to question his true progressive creds.
Speaking in general terms, a truly courageous progressive would not accept a pay-off to protect evil people.
When I read on TPM that Josh Marshall hadn't noticed a thing off during his ko visit last night, except a few extra people in the studio "watching", and the fact of silence from sp's twitter/fb blather and fox's no mention of it last night (yes I checked) when cnn was covering it.... I thought that odd. You'd think these people would be declaring a flat earth national holiday! Nothing. I think, I bet, KO was given an ultimatim to apologize on air to sp for corretly pointing out the obvious about tucson shootings OR this would be his last show. I think they did it right before his show and offered buyout whatever and they did not know until he said it on air that this would be his last show. That's my bet. I bet there is pending litigation or the threat of it if anyone speak on how foxnews/sp went to Comcast/msnbc and made their demands. Its really the only thing he's done since the suspension... and why are they so quiet? odd.
Here's a story on how billo/comcast fired another guy ...
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_oreilly_factor.php?page=all
KO took any credibility msnbc had, even with Rachel (who also could not react because of whatever threat or litigation), right out the door with him. And LO? A snake. Total snake.
Great post driftglass. Thanks for being here.... still :-)
I hope you're wrong, Myrtle June, but I'm afraid you may be right. Apologize to Palin? Yikes! Verison has been bugging me to switch from Comcast to Fios, so now may be the time.
The Corporate takeover of our country continues....
Reading some Vonnegut now, this 20 year old quote stands out:"Monster fuck-ups engineered by your own government are not to be treated with disrespect until the damage done is absolutely unforgivable, incomprehensible, and beyond repair." P.S We're in lovely chicago this weekend for some comedy to cheer us up. Cheers Drifty!
Is dropping Comcast immediately for one of the TV satellites a worthy Something?
I WAS impressed with the DirecTV CEO on a undercover CEO story...and Comcast IS MURDOCK...
Bil: I have Dish Network and I've been pretty happy with it for the last decade. I have some issues with HD when the trees are leafed out, but that is because of one of my trees, not Dish. Their service is pretty good. The price is more than the cable company "bundles", but you are getting a good company instead of an evil one. And you get WorldLink and FSTV, which NO ONE ELSE gives you.
Thx Jil!
Ah, yes. Comcast did its spring cleaning a bit early.
On the plus side, David Gregory had a brief moment this morning where he actually did his job. I wondered if his lapse was due to Olbermann's departure.
I fear that things will continue to slide to the right... and then off the edge. "And, in short, I was afraid."
Rumor has it that aside from right wing managed Comcast's takeover at MSNBC, there is another reason for Olbermanns abrupt departure. Seems he was given the alternative of apologizing on air for implicating Sarah Palin and her kill the Democrats rhetoric for the Gifford shootings, or announce that it would be his last show.
Obviously Keith choose the latter option. In hindsight, perhaps we on the left HAVE been a little too quick to blame Glenn Beck, Palin and their ilk for fanning their followers to violence.
I post this in the hope that our overlords will read this and have a change of heart, and perhaps give Keith his job back if we all start heeling like good little puppies.
That in mind, I'll go first.
I apologize, Sarah, for calling you a corporate peter puffing bimbo whackjob illiterate. Sincerely. The sun is shining in Erie Pa. :)))
Drifty, me darlin', you just get better and better. Your Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock (in your Saturday post) just knocked me out! T. S. Eliot is still relevant, amirite?
@Yardley - Surely, you jest! And, no, I'm not calling you Shirley, ya wuss!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ioa1homaDQ&feature=related
I'm with KO.
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