Despite managing to anger Keith Olbermann’s audience by suspending the Countdown anchor, MSNBC actually reaped the benefits of much higher than normal Friday night rating for Countdown. 1.2 million viewers tuned in to MSNBC at 8 PM on Friday night. This represents a 20%-33% increase over Countdown’s usual Friday night performance.
The twist and turns keep coming in the saga of Keith Olbermann’s suspension, with the latest being that Countdown was suspended for refusing to apologize on the air for his political donations. Instead of a rules violation, what we have here is a power play between MSNBC and their top anchor. If the network holds firm, Olbermann could be sitting at home for a long, long time.
News of Keith Olbermann’s indefinite suspension has been met with a show of support for the MSNBC anchor from both the worlds of news and politics. Not only have MSNBC colleagues Rachel Maddow and substitute Thomas Roberts voiced their support, but also Sen. Bernie Sanders and former CNN anchors Rick Sanchez and Aaron Brown have chimed in on Olbermann behalf.
MSNBC announced today that Countdown host Keith Olbermann has been indefinitely suspended by the network for making political donations to three Democratic congressional candidates. Olbermann said that he didn’t encourage other to donate, but the network suspended him for violating their policy against political donations. This once again proves that MSNBC is not Fox News where the money flows freely to the GOP.
