Lawrence O'Donnell is in a contract negotiation.

[RhodeIslandOne]

He is not being fired. He is not being cancelled. No one wants to "get rid of him" as long as he takes the right price on the dotted line.

If in early June when his contract is up, he does not sign another one he is a free agent. Pure and simple. MSNBC will not be able to put on a Lawrence O' Donnell program because they won't have the rights to him anymore.

I just feel like this needs to be stated because some people here act like they've never seen this before. I guess if you don't follow sports or entertainment in general, you haven't.

If MSNBC wanted him gone, they'd have done it probably six months ago. He'd be a lame duck otherwise if they had another plan for his time slot.

I love Larry, I hope he gets every dollar he asks for....just don't be disappointed when you find out, it is about money. I've seen people shit on Rachael here for becoming too embedded in her "fancy Manhattan lifestyle". Larry is a talent who gets good ratings and his contract is up at the right time for him to get PAID or move on to something more lucrative.

[unblock]

1. Exactly. Both sides have incentives to plant stories that might not be accurate

He may have no intention of leaving, but he might get more money if he implies he has other options.

They may be desperate to keep him, but can get him for less if they imply he's not part of their overall strategy.

Howard stern was brilliant at this crap, he really used his airtime to his own advantage.

[MattP]

2. Hopefully it's a real offer they lowball some just so they can have clean hands

[BigmanPigman]

3. Thanks for the info. Good to know.

[hlthe2b]

4. and you know this, how? Your view would be reassuring if it were not in conflict with every other

source over the past two weeks--many which apparently are tied to those within O'Donnell's staff or inner circle. Granted, in contract negotiations tactics can include leaking information to pressure the other side. But,given the actions already taken by Andrew Lack (removal of many progressive voices in order to bring on more conservative or RW pundits), to suggest that is not a credible issue behind the negotiations, is just not logical to me.

[octoberlib]

5. Your sources?