Politics

Parting words for Keith Olbermann from Andrew Breitbart, Dr. Laura, Erick Erickson and more

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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With Keith Olbermann’s abrupt announcement last Friday that he would be leaving MSNBC effective immediately, The Daily Caller decided to go out and get reaction from conservative media personalities. Below are their responses:

“I’m disappointed that Keith Olbermann has gone, as I’d hoped to eventually be named worst person in the universe, which I assume he’d eventually get to. On the other hand, if they’d just run his show at night now with his empty chair, MSNBC would finally have a non-white face hosting a show. They’d still not be as diverse as the tea party, but it’d be a step in the right direction.”

— Erick Erickson, Editor-in-Chief of RedState.com

“Now that ‘Smug’ of MSNBC’s Olbermann and Maddow ‘Smug & Smugger’ team is out, ‘Dissent is Patriotic’ (unless, of course, it’s conservative dissent) ‘progressive’ Americans will have to get their daily dose of nationally televised rage, elitism, hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance, one-sided ‘debate’ and lack of accountability elsewhere. It is a tragedy that the leader of the ‘Stop the Heated Political Rhetoric’ team will not have the opportunity to fulfill the group’s sacred mission. In all seriousness, I blame Mr. Olbermann and his obscene political language for all future acts of violence in America and around the world.”

— Andrew Breitbart, publisher of Big Journalism, Big Government and Big Hollywood

“I am so sad that Keith Olbermann got fired. I am worried that we won’t know who is the most horrible person in the world without his direction.  Oh, wait, there’s the ‘Ridiculist’ from Anderson Cooper, Whoopie Goldberg and Joy Behar on The View will walk out on a guest if they don’t approve of their opinion, whoever Howard Stern is being vicious about is another pointer, Chris Matthews lets you know who’s horrible when they don’t make his thigh quiver………yeah, now that I think about it….we don’t have to miss Olbermann at all.  What a relief.”

— Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talk radio host

“If one chooses to believe anonymously-sourced reports in the New York Times (always risky), Olbermann negotiated a parting of ways with NBCU like that of Conan O’Brien, who, it should be noted, walked away (exactly one year ago) with tens of millions of dollars in return for a vow of silence and an agreed-upon interval before returning to television. Purportedly, Olbermann’s agreement leaves him free to go on radio or the internet (perhaps starting a site to rival HuffPo, financed with his newfound millions). In other words, it looks as though Keith has sold out his viewers in the name of greed, and may be hoping for the ‘obscene profits’ so frequently denounced on his former MSNBC show.”

— Thomas Lifson, Editor, American Thinker

“Meltdown with Keith Olbermann

“I was scooped! Moments before I could hit ‘publish’ on my expose on Keith Olbermann, he announced his departure (I suspect he knew I was closing in on him). What follows is the never-before-published story I spent the better part of my youth working on — only to see it ripped away from me:

“Keith Theodore Olbermann was not really a snarky blowhard; He just played one on TV.  It’s been said that if Olbermann didn’t exist, we would have invented him.  Actually, that’s exactly what happened. For almost eight years, Olbermann fooled Americans into believing he was a popular sportscaster turned progressive TV commentator. In reality, the charismatic but troubled man was an out-of-work former youth pastor named Theodore Hurtzcrafter.

“In the early 1990s, Hurtzcrafter had an epiphany. Realizing progressives hungered for what he called ‘a liberal Rush Limbaugh,’ the ‘Olbermann’ character was invented over a pitcher of beer at the Ruby Tuesday’s in Frederick, MD. At first, even Hurtzcrafter questioned whether the over-the-top ‘Olbermann’ character would be believable, but to his surprise, some people actually took him seriously.

“An avid pro-wrestling fan, Hurtzcrafter (a life-long conservative Republican who volunteered for Ronald Reagan and briefly worked for Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University) tapped into pro-wrestling ethos, attempting to gain attention by picking fights with better-known broadcasters.

“Olbermann was finally relieved of his duties when a two-year NBC investigation, led by former FBI profiler Clint Van Zant, revealed the ruse.”

— Matt Lewis, Conservative writer and commentator