Goal of Al Gore’s Current TV? ‘Compete with MSNBC from the Left’
It’s too bad — the Al Gore of the mid-1980s would have likely built a populist vehicle to compete with ratings leader Fox News. (Maybe PJTV or Reason TV should look at going cable to give it a try from the right, though why go technologically backwards?) Instead, ideology has caused him to build a channel to compete with MSNBC, a channel mostly watched by coastal elites and the Occupy Wall Street crowd when they’re not occupying their bedrooms at mom’s house. It’s very much akin to radio’s Air America (remember them?) thinking that their opponent was Rush Limbaugh, when in reality, it was NPR and the rest of the MSM, which serves up the same leftwing news, but in dulcet tones, rather than with spittle-flecked in-your-face invective.
Incidentally, this passage from Kurtz’s article is a riot:
What is clear from the correspondence is that the relationship was dissolving amid a flurry of mutual recriminations. Gore had welcomed Olbermann as the new face of a little-watched network, anointing him chief news officer and giving him an equity stake in the operation. Gore had dealt with big egos in politics, but he and Hyatt told colleagues they had never dealt with anyone quite like Olbermann.
Translation: Keith Olbermann makes the even more misogynist Bill Clinton seem like a grown-up in comparison — and, similarly, Eliot Spitzer a welcome alternative. Especially when you add these details to the equation:
According to Mediaite, a source at Current TV said the former Countdown host went through eight different car services while working at the network, complaining that the drivers “smelled” and “talked to him.”
Furthermore, though Olbermann’s $250,000 studio was built to his exact specifications, he allegedly refused to use the set when there were lighting problems back in December. Not only that, but he refused to let guest hosts use the elaborate studio.
Current TV is also claiming that Olbermann refused to publicize the network and the show when he wasn’t hosting his program (and he took about half of January and February off). They say he even barred his staff from sending out related Twitter updates, and prevented guest hosts from promoting the show. (Jealous that they would get better ratings, perhaps?)
As the late Andrew Breitbart told me when I interviewed him for the first time in 2005, and as John Nolte repeatedly notes at the Breitbart-created Big Hollywood, ideology trumps bottom-line profit time and again when it comes to Hollywood. The same is true on cable TV as well. (See also: Winfrey, Oprah — and CNN as well.)
Update: If Spitzer doesn’t do the trick, there’s another former NBC “newsman” nearly as petulant as Olbermann, whom Current could turn to.
I hope Keith does sue. Because then all the stories of going ons at ESPN & MSNBC will be put in evidence along with the Current ones, as a way of establishing a pattern of behavior that justified his firing.
I hope he sues and wins, and Current TV has to flush $50 mil into Olbermann’s pocket.
Another fun scenario: Olbermann offers to settle and Current refuses.
Wonder if Al Gore is now “The Worst Nobelist in the World”?
What we need here is another call for civility. Wait, that’s only for Republicans.
This feud couldn’t happen to two more deserving people, crazed sex poodle and angry man. Agree with the other commenters, hope there is a law suit.
It’s like watching two cockroaches trying to step on each other.
HAHAHA!
They actually believe this!
Olbermann has been a slow speed train wreck for the past few years – fascinating to watch (and read about) but painfully slow arriving at it’s climax. Seems we’ve about seen the last of him except for the sprinkling of stories that’ll come about as Olbermann files a lawsuit or two against Gore and his network. If ESPN et al are smart they’ll never employ this azzhole for anything other than cleaning commodes.
Gore’s desire to make his network in the image of MSLSD seems foolhardy since a good long look at the bell curve shows there are only so many loons inhabiting the left side of the political bell curve. And besides, I do believe most of them are already engaged on the front lines in the OWS movement. But Al must feel he has to make it big somewhere since his cap and trade scheme seems to have petered out. Having 10′s or 100′s of millions of dollars apparently isn’t enough for The Goracle – he wants to remake himself in the image of Ted Turner – or something like that.
Hey Al – maybe you can market the next enlargement pill for men – ya never know. You’ve always come off as being a bit stiff. Gotta be a marketing angle there somewhere eh?
And the saddest and/or funniest thing, depending on your point of view about this, is that you know somewhere out there in the wilds of Sixth Avenue or areas west of the I-5 in Los Angeles there’s some producer or network exec who is thinking to themselves, “Wow, I’ve got a chance now to get Keith Olbermann!” Keith’s tirades against Bush and others on the right have given him the equivalent of a neverending series of “Get back on TV free” cards.
Showtime and HBO already have been bandied about as possible landing spots – Showtime as a competitor to Bill Maher’s show, and HBO as a companion piece to “Real Time”. The former ignores the point that while Maher may have conservatives on just to treat them like a pinata in a 3-on-1 setting, he does have conservatives on — A “Real Time With Keith Olbermann” show would be 60 minutes of five liberals sitting around agreeing with each other how Nazi-ish conservatives are while buttering up the show’s host. The latter might finally be the bridge too far for even HBO’s liberal execs — not that they don’t love Keith’s views, but turning over 20 percent of their weekly prime-time lineup (including repeat showings) to a bunch of leftist commentary might even strike the folks who green-lighted “Game Change” as not the smartest way to keep people shelling out $10 a month for your service.
Olby’s the least annoying when he’s talking baseball, so his best landing spot might actually be the MLB Network or Sirius/XM’s baseball channel. But he’s damaged his reputation so much with 50 percent of the audience, MLB may not want to deal with that kind of baggage, and while Mel Karmizan has never met a liberal celeb he wasn’t ready to throw satellite radio $$$ at (Rosie, Oprah, etc.), Keith’s ego would probably keep him from stooping to mere words-without-images, unless he got a deal close to what Mel’s giving Howard Stern (including, I presume, use of the Sirius building’s car elevator for Howard, so Olby could get his mouth-duct-taped-shut limo driver to take him right to the door of the studio. Where he’d sooner or later make a snarky remark about Mitt Romney’s new car-elevator equipped luxury home).
Keith O & SCTV’s Julies Caesar- What a PERFECT comparison!!! Eugene Levy could stand in for the Clown any time. That stuff is what comedy should be.
Get your popcorn America, now it starts getting good.
Powder is dry
The only thing “ferociously talented” about KO was his jealousy of everybody else. His mom was right: the boy needed psychological help. In bringing his act to teevee, Olbermann showed the world what goes on inside the brain of a true Lefty – the seething rage at anything and everything, the unbalanced view of humanity Olbermann shares with Chomsky, Alinsky, Ayers and Obama.
It didn’t help matters when Olby smashed his head against a subway door when he rushing to get to a Mets’ game. That certainly made things worse.
Struggling to write words about a guy I could care less about in any sphere. Whoosh,,that was hard.
This whole scenario is laughable. Has anyone in Olbermann’s past ever considered the possibility that he has some serious mental health problems? Anyone foolish enough to employ Olbermann deserves him and his lawsuits.
‘Maybe PJTV or Reason TV should look at going cable to give it a try from the right, though why go technologically backwards?’
– Yes! Please! 2 answer to the “why” question:
1.Money and …
2. Opportunity to dramatically increase your impact on the so called “public discourse.”
Unfortunately, MSNBC has 10 times as much of such impact than all of the “right wing” bloggers taken together. And, Bill O’Reilly is definitely not up to the task of stimulating conservative thinking and motivation in these very interesting times.
The only reason the FOX’s ratings are high is because it’s free in most markets.
Wait ’til they move into airports.
CNN is free in more.
In just what market is cable or sat services “free”? Zero, that’s how many. Next I suppose you suggest the reason why left-wing programing ratings are low is because liberals are to busy being smart to watch TV.
Wonder if misogyny and narcisscism are closely related maladies? The first time I watched Olbermann I saw that combination. Fascinating to watch. Finally got bored of watching and that is very likely why he finally crashed and burned, nobody was watching and narcissistic supply was cut off poor Keith.