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.

My choices for People of the Year.

Purely subjective choices for People of the Year:

1. Joe Lieberman--the man who gives aid and comfort to Republicans,

conservative Democrats and the health insurance lobbyists who love them.

2. Stanley McChrystal--this generation's version of the general

who once croaked "old soldiers never die, they just fade away"

and prompted President Harry Truman to remove him for defiance

regarding the Korean War; President Obama, facing a similar situation

with Afghanistan, meekly rolled over instead.

3. Lloyd Blankfein--head of Goldman Sachs, the bank

which apparently keeps Gordon Gekko's motto "greed works"

to heart.

4. Jeff Zucker--the man who has made NBC what it isn't today.

5. Oprah Winfrey--the talk-show megamogul who's moving from

syndication to ruler of her own cable network (acronym OWN)

6. Tiger Woods--from all the recent chatter, one would think

that he's the first-ever sports celeb to ever have affairs. Now

the media has shifted to wondering how much endorsement

money he stands to lose.

THE JAY LENO SHOW: insert your punchline here.

At this point, I'm wondering if NBCUniversal still thinks the continuing spectacle of THE JAY LENO SHOW (which now seems so hamstrung due to apparent restrictions on booking guests, it's turning to members of the George Butch Jr. family and the lame-duck California Governator) is worth the effort because it keeps Leno from being a competitive late-night force on some other network.

A modest proposal: do away with guests altogether and cut the show to a half-hour--giving network affiliates some slight relief and an earlier start on late news.

This way, Jay can merely do his monologue--plus all the hoary, fan-pleasing old bits (Jaywalking, Headlines, etc.). And maybe someone at NBCUniversal can strongly insist that he dump the sour "smirking about being gay" schtick that seems left over from, say, the latter years of THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW--yes, that may mean getting rid of the demeaning, ridiculously stereotyped "Ross The Intern."

Or, if NBCUniversal really wanted to save money, they can turn the new soundstage over to another tenant and just tape Jay doing his Sunday evening joke tryouts at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. Five half-hour timeslots filled just like that.

[UPDATE 11/9/09: A better proposal might be to move Conan O'Brien to 10:00 (where his younger-skewing demographic may be more compatible with some of NBC's primetime lineup) and call Conan's show EARLY TONIGHT. This can allow Jay to return to 11:35 and keep doing the same old stuff; it could even be rebranded as TONIGHT SHOW CLASSIC.]

When corporations run network news, corporations exempt themselves (and each other) from news coverage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-not-everything-i_b_244050.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/ge/index.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/04/olbermann/index.html

Something interesting I read in the last link above. Glenn Greenwald links to David Sirota's article re the "Keith Olbermann told to stop criticizing Bill O'Reilly so Fox News can quit reporting on General Electric" mess. In the comments section of Sirota's piece, one gets the idea that some people are okay with Olbermann standing down in this matter as long as he has an opportunity to be a "progressive" voice on a cable news channel.

Question is: How progressive can you be if you work for a news organization that has no firewall between its operations and edicts from the corporation that owns it?