Keith Olbermann, who was fired from MSNBC in January, made his long awaited announcement about his new show on Current TV today.

Olbermann showed that he isn’t above mocking his former employer by keeping the name of his old MSNBC program “Countdown,” explaining that “Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Or in other words, the suits at MSNBC forgot to prevent me from using the name of the show, so I’m going to throw it back in their face.

He also went on to say that his “newscast,” as he called it, will be a place where “journalistic integrity and analytical honesty would never be compromised by corporate synergy,” alluding to the corporations that own Fox and MSNBC.

In displaying more transparency than President Obama, Olbermann disabused his fans that his show would hew to any notion of journalistic balance  by saying that “no one would proclaim the ultimate dishonesty that balancing a lie for every truth was somehow fair.”

Olbermann is now free to express his left-wing views and makes no bones about it that he will do so starting June 20th. But the big question is, who will be watching? With Current being much less familiar to most viewers than MSNBC, and being in far fewer homes, Olbermann will have a much smaller impact on the political scene than before. It may only be a matter of time before he looks for a larger stage.

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

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2 Comments for Olbermann’s New Old “Countdown”

ted

His followers will most certainly follow him to CURRENT … and I’d guess he’ll develop a significantly larger following than he had on MSNBC … EXACTLY because he likely won’t be as constrained by “management” as he was previously. And … why shouldn’t a left-wing partisan prognosticator take advantage of a willing cable-TV outlet in the same way the right-wing radio rockheads take advantage of willing radio stations ???

Do Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, et al, exude “journalistic integrity” ???

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

good riddance

Olbermann will be long forgotten in a year. People like him are banished to Current TV no one goes there willingly as a choice. It’s a place of last resort. His viewers will consist of the Marxists, Blame the US first crowd, and hate mongers but little else. He will be off the air in less than a year. Wait, Wait I can already see the headline in 2012; Olbermann left so he can spend more time with his family.