DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Name: Al Gore
Age: 64
Occupation: ex-Vice President of the United States
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: biting the hand that fed him
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Yes, I can give the Bee-otch of the Day honor to Democrats, too.
Last week, the world of broadcast journalism was stunned when it was announced that Current TV had fired its biggest star, Keith Olbermann, the host of its nightly Countdown show. The left-leaning news channel's owners, former vice president Al Gore and attorney Joel Hyatt announced on the channel's website that Olbermann no longer reflected the views of the how the channel operated, or how he agreed with the channel's viewers.
Olbermann responded by stating that he's sorry for the failure of the fledgling cable network and that he's promising to sue Gore and Hyatt for breach of contract. Reportedly, Olbermann was getting paid $10 million per year for five years. His last show aired last Thursday and was fired Friday afternoon. It has been replaced with Viewpoint With Eliot Spitzer which is hosted by the troubled former New York governor. Olbermann once humiliated Spitzer on his Current TV show over the fact that his show had better ratings than his now-canceled show on CNN.
Olbermann was only with Current since June of last year. Previously, he hosted Countdown on MSNBC until he abruptly quit that channel due to the fact that he was suspended without pay for quietly supporting the campaigns of several Democrats such as Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Current TV, on the other hand was founded in 2005 as a do-it-yourself network where viewers submitted their own news stories to the channel by shooting and editing their own videos. However, when Olbermann quit MSNBC, Gore jumped at the chance to get the feisty ex-ESPN host to bring some ratings and a slight format change to the long-struggling network that saw itself on high-end digital packages on many cable systems.
Of course, the plan worked. Countdown brought in many new viewers and even beat out CNN in many key demos. But, clashes between Olbermann and management caused his dismissal, especially when he refused to host extended election coverage for the network.
In recent months, Current has extended their talk-based programming by adding new shows from former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm and a televised version of The Young Turks. Plus, the channel recently added simulcasts of two popular liberal talk show hosts: Bill Press and Stephanie Miller.
True, it's great that Gore is maintaining the liberal edge Current has always had, but bear in mind that this is not the first time he's made a humongous mistake. Remember the 2000 elections? He got a Republican in Democrat's clothing, Joe Lieberman to run as his vice president. He was hoping to get some conservatives and moderates to vote for him, but it backfired. Many liberals didn't vote or voted independent due to Gore's association with Lieberman and it created more fodder for George W. Bush to win the 2000 elections. Gore did win the popular vote, but thanks to the electoral college and the bloodbath of chads in Florida, we ended up with Bush and his BS.
Even though I love Gore's views on the environment, I hate the fact that he's allowed the Republicans to win. In the world of broadcasting, you NEVER bite the hand that feeds you, period. Most radio stations that got rid of Howard Stern when he was on terrestrial radio never recovered in the ratings. Heck, look at WKLQ here in Grand Rapids. They demoted Stern to 1340 years ago for no good reason and they were making bad decisions over the direction of the station. End of story: WGRD started kicking their ass.
I expect Keith to get back on his feet again. Who knows where he'll land? Heck, I think he should move to radio and maybe go head to head with Rush Limbaugh (and to an extent, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz). However, he will be on Letterman Tuesday night to explain his side to the story.
Keith Olbermann will prove to he world that he's no ManBearPig.
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