Mistah KURTZ's snarky piece on Keith, and "exit strategy"

[UTUSN]

I'd be surprised if anything (this) about Keith has not already been posted, so if so, please delete as dupe. It's pp 1&2 out of 3. It's a pleasant surprise to hear positives about KO from his current bosses, since KAPLAN (who is on the way out?) screamed at him, "I won't care if you don't show up for work tomorrow!" the night KAPLAN's pet, Rita COSBY, debutted, because KAPLAN thought KO had not puffed up the pass-off enough. KO was doing a heartfelt slam on smoking and lung cancer as a tribute to Peter JENNINGS that night, by the way.

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/02/AR2006040201273.html

A Gadfly With Buzz
MSNBC's Olbermann, Exercising the Right

By Howard Kurtz
.... "I find myself currently aligned, not in the sense of having membership, but being in the same part of the ballpark as a lot of liberals," says the host of MSNBC's "Countdown." ....

The former sportscaster denies that he's pushing an ideological agenda,... ....

These days, he recently told C-SPAN, there are executives at NBC and parent company General Electric "who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all." But Olbermann says he's gotten no interference: "If my reading Marx every night got them great ratings, they'd be happy with that." ....

"Keith's show is the best show on television, period -- interesting, edgy and really well written," says MSNBC President Rick Kaplan. He says Olbermann is "incredibly aggressive" toward anyone in power: "In the same way that people who think the president needs to be supported more have turned to Fox, a lot of people who think the president needs to be taken on more have found a friendly voice in 'Countdown.' "

NBC News President Steve Capus says "there's no question he's stepped up his opinionated discussions, but the audience is smart enough to know what is straight news reporting and what is opinion-driven talk." ....

Olbermann seems to thrive on controversy. But just in case, he has an exit strategy: "If it gets too hot and I have to get out of the kitchen, I'll go do sports." ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[wtmusic]

1. How in the hell can GE sell their jet engines

with this guy telling the truth about the "war on terror"?

Jeez, it's getting harder and harder to make a dishonest buck these days...

[NYCGirl]

2. With the money Keith's making for MSNBC, GE can do just fine. NT

[wtmusic]

3. drop in the bucket

Keith is a small part of the income generated from NBC/Universal, and they make up about a tenth of GE's total revenues.

[NYCGirl]

6. But as long as he's making money, he'll have no problem. NT

[wtmusic]

7. It will be interesting to see

how his career plays out at NBC. You're right, Keith is making money for NBC, and the network as a whole is losing money. And although he must peeve the industrialists at GE, the fact that his show is in the black makes it very hard to justify canning him to stockholders.

[Faygo Kid]

4. Crappy, predictable hit piece

Kurtz is one of those who believes a right wing, Bushbot ideologue on one side and a fair minded journalist on the other represents "balance." He grows ever more tiresome and predictable.

[NYCGirl]

5. Hit piece? I thought it came across as a good article.

:shrug:

[AX10]

8. kick

It must hard for GE to keep him on board, seeing that he makes money for the network, yet GE needs to sell it's weapons to the military.