I was already back working here - and I've said this before here -- when the Donahue show was cancelled.
I know it is one of the cardinal tenets of this place that Donahue was cancelled because of his political viewpoints, but I must tell you, that wasn't the reason.
Did his opposition to the war hasten the cancellation? I'm sure it did. But had there been no war, or had there even been no push for war, all I know about that show suggests it would have been cancelled anyway. There's a New York Times article I stumbled across the other day, from September 2002 I think, that talks about how he was nearly cancelled because of expenses and ratings, then.
My last submission: the same people who pulled the plug on Donahue are the ones who started, fought for, defended, and aided Countdown -- especially in the politically dangerous times of 2003 and 2004.
"If you're going through hell - keep going!" -- Winston Churchill
by Keith Olbermann on Thu Aug 21, 2008 at 05:36:42 PM PDT
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I don't believe a word of that last sentence.
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I don't believe much that comes out of his mouth when it comes to talking about himself. The wonder of it is that anyone does these days. He's been caught in lie after lie and yet somehow people keep finding a reason to believe what he says.
You mean, "If you're going through hell, keep going?" Oh, you didn't mean that, did you....
The last sentence:
"My last submission: the same people who pulled the plug on Donahue are the ones who started, fought for, defended, and aided Countdown -- especially in the politically dangerous times of 2003 and 2004."
He is obfuscating in that he wants us to think that the execs were glad to see him through to the start of his 'politically partisan' newscast, while Donahue's politically partisan talk show was cancelled, and therefore, it wasn't the political content that got Donahue cancelled, but the expense.
What he's obfuscating about is whether or not those execs who "fought for him" had any idea what his show would eventually evolve into. They didn't know that. How could they have known?
I don't see any evidence that he's lying about why Donahue's show was cancelled, or that the same people who decided Donahue should go aren't the same ones who got Keith a show.
First off, I meant to save this instead of posting it. I wasn't finished with it. But I didn't have time to go back and fix it. Which it's too late now.
I don't fully believe his statement that they fought for him. I think Keith kissed ass, begged and sacrificed whatever and whoever he could to keep that job.
If I remember correctly, earlier this year or late last year, he said that Countdown was on the verge of being cancelled a couple of years prior.
That made it either 2005 or 2006 that they were going to do this.
In 2003 and 2004 he was doing good to get 300,000 viewers. Why would they fight so hard to keep him and then turn around a year or so later and threaten to cancel the show when it was clear his ratings were going up?
Something doesn't fit. And that makes me not believe that statement.
Not to mention the fact that his new contract in 2006 was a good one.
There's too much not being said, which makes it hard to swallow.
Excuse me, I believe his contract was in 2007. Sorry.
Why ask this as a question. We've already determined he's a liar, now we're just dealing in semantics to the degree. Shame really, he could truly have been one of the greats. Instead he'll be remembered as little more than a footnote in broadcast history, throwin in with the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and O'Reilly.
Robert Downey Jr.? LOL.
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