Oh Keith Olbermann, how are you doing? As has been exhaustively covered by all members of the media, because the press loves nothing more than reporting on itself in what amounts to journalistic masturbation, you have, at least at the time of this Mixtape of being put together, have been suspended without pay from your post at MSNBC due to making campaign contribution to three politicians including one whom he donated money to the same day as appearing on Countdown. With your absence from the airways, we're done to just two silver foxes that we adore greatly, Anderson Cooper:
Roger Sterling of Mad Men:
Above, Roger expresses the belief a lot of people are having towards both you Mr. Olbermann and the MSNBC brass.
Number one, there is a policy in place at MSNBC that says that it is okay for reporters to give money to political candidates and such as long as they ask/tell the higher-ups first. According to various reports, Olbermann never gave the heads-up about his donations so he could very well much be in the wrong.
BUT, it's also been reported that this whole kerfuffle is also a power struggle between Olbermann, who has pretty much become the de facto face of MSNBC, and MSNBC's President Phil Griffin as they engage in a pretty public pissing match.
The policy seems to be giving MSNBC a lot of headache since Chris Hayes of The Nation, who was supposed to fill in for Keith On Friday, had to decline the offer since he had done some giving to political campaigns without clearing it.
We here at the Mixtape think the policy makes sense for, say, any news organization that remotely wants to appear to have some unbias integrity. MSNBC is not that place. We enjoy it, but we don't pretend that it's remotely balanced in the opinions it offers. As a way to carve out a niche against the the Fox News Monster Machine and the CNN, MSNBC has made a successful bid for the left. So when you forgo a lot of the basic rules they teach you in journalism class, it's sort of fool-hearty to then put these standards on people who aren't even reporters but talking heads.
*gets off soap box*
Anyway, we've put together our own little soundtrack for this debacle in what we're calling our "Mixtape Forward" mix.
Crying Glenn Beck is distraught about the situation.
First up, Ringside and their song "Tired of Being Sorry" off their self-titled debut album.
From what has been reported, the reason why MSNBC might be mad is not the violation of their policy per se but because Keith has, so far, refused to apologize on-air for said violation.
So far, the only response Keith has given to whole situation is on his Twitter: "Greetings from exile. A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug & obviously left me tweetless XO." Leave it to Twitter to make even the most silver-haired commentator sound like they are doing narration on Gossip Girl.
We figure that this won't last too long. With protests from pundits all sides of the political spectrum, guests saying they will boycott the program until Keith returns and viewers saying they'll boycott both the show AND the advertisers, we're pretty sure that MSNBC will probably get on the phone with Keith Olbermann and say:
But there is also small chance that they might wash their hands of Mr. Olbermann. He is getting paid some 7 million dollars a year for doing his show. The additions of Lawrence O'Donnell as well as Rachel Maddow have been doing better in the demos than Olbermann without having to be paid as much.
And he's sort of an a-hole to work with allegedly. Olbermann has long been stigmatized with a reputation since his days of being on ESPN as being a bit of a:
For the sake of everybody involved, we hope a come-to-Jesus meeting happens and everything works out because Keith is an enjoyable part of the talking heads landscape that is cable news. So we end this mixtape by asking:
Somewhere Smash Mouth is asking, "Why can't we sell shows? Why can't we sell shows?"
ETA: Keith Olbermann will be back Tuesday! And there was much rejoicing in the land.
Happy Monday y'all. Come back tomorrow when it is New Tunes Tuesday where we take on Cee-Lo Green's new album as well preview the Glee Christmas album.
Ben Affleck as Keith Olbermann thanks you for your time!
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