On CNN ’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday, The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik pulled no punches in his critique of liberal commentator Keith Olbermann’s highly publicized departure from former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV network.
According to Zurawik, Olbermann brought much of the recent criticism on himself and never lived up to expectations.
“Olbermann is really a nasty kind of arrested adolescent and as soon — look, when he left, when he came over there, I said his audience of a million viewers is not going to go with him, and it’s not Current’s fault,” Zurawik said.
“It’s his fault. He never had that kind of loyalty. He only brought an audience of about 177,000 with him. And that is when he started going psycho, when he realized that he was going to be embarrassed by this.”
Zurawik compared Olbermann to Mike Wallace, the legendary CBS reporter who passed away on Sunday. While Wallace was able to use his mercurial temperament to do something great, he explained, Olbermann’s temperament resulted in a “self-absorbed craziness.”
“You know, now we have the Mike Wallace death,” Zurawik continued. “Let me say two things. Mike Wallace was a mercurial guy as well. You see a career where that was channeled into doing great journalism.”
“But this [Olbermann’s] is a career where he does nothing but self-absorbed craziness that’s all about him.”
He also said getting rid of Keith Olbermann would ultimately be a good move for Current TV.
“This is a child, and look — the faster they get rid of him, the better off they are,” Zurawik added.
