Either Relevant or True » Long Live the King!

The King of Cable News, that is:

Keith Olbermann, the anchor of “Countdown,” will remain at MSNBC through the next presidential election season, the cable news channel announced Monday afternoon.

The announcement came less than two years into Mr. Olbermann’s current four-year deal. MSNBC essentially tore up his Feb. 2007 contract (reportedly worth up to $4 million a year) and wrote a new one, according to two employees with knowledge of the agreement. The new contract is valued at about $7.5 million a year, one of the people said.

Via NYT

NBCU press release:

“I’m delighted that we can continue to lock Countdown into the nation’s political dialogue through at least the next election,” said Olbermann. “Personally, I noticed that as of about six weeks ago, I’d been doing this show longer than I did SportsCenter, so it’s delightful to have a true home.”

Um, didn’t NBC just announce LAST WEEK that it was going to have to start buying employees out? And yet somehow they have an extra $3.5 million a year to throw at Keith? I mean, hey, I like the guy, but really?!

I concur with Angelina’s statement. Also:

[I’d been doing this show longer than I did SportsCenter, so it’s delightful to have a true home.]

KEITH, STOP FUCKING JINXING THINGS.

Not only were cutbacks announced just last week, but when he signed the 2007 contract NBC had just announced a downsizing initiative.

Poor timing all the way around.

I was looking for the diplomatic way to say that.

It would be different if his contract was up and they said, “Well, we can’t very well expect you to get by on 4M/year, can we?”

They’d still have to follow it up with “By the way, you’ll be editing, producing, booking, and doing ad work for the show, now, too, because we had to let everyone else go.” In that case, however, such a paycheck would totally be warranted.

And If NBC Universal didn’t have KO to build ratings for MSNBC, how many more people would have to be let go — or the cable arm sold?

I have no problem with Keith getting a gigantic salary.

Don’t we all remember his semi joking with Jonathan Turley the day before the midterm elections in 2006, the “See you in Gitmo” comments?

In my estimation the effort and personal risk he took to speak out over and over again and to resurrect HOPE for at least me, has made him priceless. He is a Hero of the Republic and a National Treasure.

Man, that’s serious baseball player money. I kinda agree with most here concerning layoffs (I will be part of that group starting in Dec.)–but I think Keith had to play a little hardball, with the recent big contracts for Rush, Hannity, Beck & O’Reilly, it makes sense he would want to re-negotiate his contract with big $$$ upgrade. Let’s face it, if NBC balked, CNN would scoop him up in a minute.

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