So... Comcast inks a deal to buy NBC and then, a few days later, Olbermann is apparently shoved out the door.
Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Brian Roberts is the CEO of Comcast, he lives in Philadelphia, PA. In the `10 election cycle, he gave ten grand to the PA Democratic party, $2,400 each to Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln and to some guy running for Congress (but nothing to Joe Sestak). He was an early donor to Hillary Clinton ($4,600 in 2007) and he tends to give money to Democratic heavyweights. He also coughs up donations for Comcast's PAC. His wife seems to give matching donations, but early in `07, she gave $2,300 to McCain.
Ralph Robers, Brian's daddy, founded Comcast and Ralph also gives to Democrats. On the other hand, Stephen Burke, who is the COO of Comcast (the guy who probably does the work of running the place) and he tends to give to Republicans; he was a donor to both McCain and Willard Romney.
Maybe Comcast greased the skids for Olbermann's departure. But if "money talks" and the surest indication is where the big boys donate their own cash, then the case isn't clear at all.
UPDATE: Comcast denies any culpability, which cuts no ice with me. I would have expected them to deny it in any event.
UPDATE II: Jill pointed out in the comments that Comcast's chairman, Ed Snider, is a prominent Wingnut who has thrown lots of money behind the formation of some half-baked pseudo-intellectual nutbarn for the study of
(I know I'm late on this story. I was reading a book last night and besides, nobody's paying me to do this.)
I am truly saddenned by this news, but not all that surprised. I think Keith was able to clearly see the writing on the wall with Comcast taking over and decided to go out on his own terms. We are losing the one man who had the courage to publicly call Bush a liar during the runnup to war in Irag, who pointed out the hypocracy of the chicken-hawk leaders who were so anxious start another war- These tough guys dodged their own war during Viet-Nam but had no reservations when it came to sending our children off to die all in the name of oil and Haliburton profits. Yes KO was over the top at times, but compared to the Blowhards at FOX and Rush, he was a liberal William F. Buckley. Hope to see him soon elsewhere, we as a country need his voice.
ReplyDeleteEd Snider is the company's chairman, and a founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. 2 + 2 = 4.
ReplyDeleteMy own guess is that MSNBC head Phil Griffin, who detests Olbermann, had wanted to fire Olbermann for some time but wasn't allowed to do so while merger talks were ongoing because Olbermann's ratings were a material asset in the negotiations. But now that the merger is a done deal... BAM! As for why now and not later, well, Griffin is likely to himself be on the streets shortly as Comcast brings in its own people to head up NBC, so... (shrug).
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Business Penguin
Tux in your scenario ComCast would have an incentive to bring him back after Phil gets canned. An instant million viewer show is hard to pass up.
ReplyDelete