Keith Olbermann

[BrendaBrick]

33. They KNEW what they were getting!

EXACTLY!!!!

In some ways, this reminds me of what happened to Gilbert Gottfried about a year ago with Aflac regarding his tsunami jokes (from wiki):

Controversy

9/11 joke

During his monologue at a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner three weeks after the September 11 attacks, Gottfried joked that he had intended to catch a plane, but couldn't get a direct flight because "they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first." Audience members responded with hisses and a cry of "Too soon!". Gottfried then abandoned his prepared remarks and launched into the venerable Aristocrats joke, winning back the audience. Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza used Gottfried's monologue as a segment in their 2005 film, The Aristocrats.

Japanese tsunami jokes

In March 2011, Gottfried made jokes on his Twitter account in reference to the earthquake disaster in Japan. He later deleted the tweets and apologized. Aflac, which does 75% of its business in Japan, dismissed Gottfried on March 14, 2011 and announced a casting call for his replacement as the voice of its duck mascot. He was replaced by Daniel McKeague on April 26, 2011.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Gottfried

Now whether or not I personally condone Gottfried on his gallows humor is beside the point; what is interesting to note is that other *outspoken* celebrities such as Howard Stern and Joan Rivers defended Gottfried with Stern citing that Aflac knew what they were getting into:

<snip>

"Howard Stern also defended Gottfried on his show Tuesday.

"Here is the guy that as long as I know has been making jokes... you couldn't ask for a more inappropriate human being," said Stern of Gottfried (via TMZ), who frequently appears on his Sirius XM show. "When the Aflac people hired him to be the duck, they knew...his humor is offensive... There's no reason for him to be fired. But to be fired for offensiveness... he should never have been hired then."

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/howard-stern-joan-rivers-defend-167799

I sometimes wonder if Aflac was so concerned over his offensive remarks, then why wasn't he fired for his 9/11 jokes back in 2001? More than likely it had more to do with the amount of business Aflac does in Japan (75%) than anything else, imo.

I understand that Olbermann is slated to be on the Letterman show this Tuesday. I hope he does have something lined up with say, HBO because his voice and viewpoints will be missed by this viewer and as you stated (and I agree) his continuing coverage of the OWS movement was oftentimes the lone voice of anyone in the media keeping that important movement front and center.