RIP COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/keith-olbermann-countdown-over_n_812506.html?igoogle=1
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/olbermanns-msnbc-exit-was-weeks-in-the-making/?hp

So, as with Phil Donahue before him, Keith Olbermann finds himself a victim of changes in American politics (including a temporary false-equivalency form of discourse etiquette which will let the likes of Beck, O'Reilly, Coulter, Hannity, Palin, Malkin off the hook) and what looks to be ill winds blowing onto NBCUniversal from its soon-to-be-new-owner Comcast (or Kabletown, as 30 ROCK euphemistically calls it).

Sidebar #1: Early in 1975, the Smothers Brothers began a short-lived comeback variety series on NBC.  In their opening monologue, they joked about how they were evicted from television when Richard Nixon became President--and then were re-hired after Nixon's resignation.

Sidebar #2: It's really difficult to perpetuate an opinions-and-commentary show when your network is part of a too-sensitive-to-controversy corporate empire.  Just ask Bill Maher, dropkicked by Disney/ABC from POLITICALLY INCORRECT in 2001 when he made the statement about the 9/11 hijackers not being cowards

Sidebar #3: Keith Olbermann's show probably peaked when he, along with the rest of the mild-to-moderate progressives making up the audience, could rail in unison at the perfidies of the George Butch Jr. administration.  I'm presuming Olbermann felt squeezed by the NBC brass when the "change we can believe in" incense of 2008 Barack Obama wafted away to be replaced by the acquiescent, "demonize the Left" Republicratism of 2011 Barack Obama.  And, very likely, the temptation of NBC to dispose of Olbermann (attempted late last year when he was harassed for, as a host of a "commentary" show, making donations to political candidates--including the recently-wounded Gabrielle Giffords) and claim a victory for "civility" was huge.

Letting Vic Richie have the last word on the Jay/Conan talk-show turf-fest.

Take a look at Nikki Finke's DEADLINE story from Thursday about NBC plotting to move Jay Leno back to 11:35 p.m. and Conan O'Brien to 12:05 a.m.
http://www.deadline.com/hollywood

And scroll down quite a long way in the Comments section to read what Vic Richie says about the whole mess.

Paraphrasing Vic: He's quite right to complain about overpaid execs who make stupid, shortsighted decisions and then go home to their elegant big houses (which they're not likely to lose).

Except he says it so much better than I (or a hundred other legitimate TV "critics") can.