ESPN has suspended talk-show personality Keith Olbermann for his unwarranted Twitter rant against a charity run by Penn State students.
On Monday, @lisaadeleon tweeted a link to an article describing the 2015 Penn State Panhellenic Dance Marathon — a yearly tradition dating back to the 1970’s — and the $13 million it raised for pediatric cancer research to Olbermann, and his response caught many twitter users off-guard.
@lisaadeleon …Pitiful
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 23, 2015
If you thought Olbermann might have been calling something else “pitiful,” he spent the remainder of the day blasting any PSU students who dared to question his middle school-esque rebuttal.
I'd like to thank the students and alums of Penn State for proving my point about the mediocrity of their education and ethics.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 24, 2015
.@dave_seidel Again – get your $ back – you didn't learn how to read. PSU students are pitiful because they're PSU students – period.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 23, 2015
On Tuesday, ESPN announced Keith would be suspended for the next week:
We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the views of ESPN. We have discussed it with Keith, who recognizes he was wrong. ESPN and Keith have agreed that he will not host his show for the remainder of this week and will return on Monday. The annual tradition of THON and the efforts of the students of Penn State to fight pediatric cancer should be applauded.
Olbermann has since tweeted an apology, but I doubt this will assuage the anti-Keith movement that’s currently growing in Happy Valley and across the nation.
I apologize for the PSU tweets. I was stupid and childish and way less mature than the students there who did such a great fundraising job.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 24, 2015
[h/t Deadspin]