Celebrity Scandal!
Keith Olbermann no longer suspended without pay from MSNBC for being a Democrat —
[Nov. 8, 2010]
Considering the backlash of criticism it has faced in the last several days, MSNBC president Phil Griffin announced that celebrity anchor Keith Olbermann, who was suspended last week for failing to notify his bosses of campaign contributions Olbermann made to three Democratic candidates, will no longer be suspended as of Tuesday night, and Countdown With Keith Olbermann will be back on the air as scheduled.
The former ESPN sports anchor never intended to make himself into a green celebrity when he quietly donated money to the Democratic party, but he became one when he was suspended without pay for exercising his right to vote any way he pleased politically and got his job back thanks to grass roots marketing of independents and those who felt the news organization was out of line in suspending the celebrity.
Griffin had suspended celebrity anchor Keith Olbermann not because he made the donations, but because he didn’t get approval from his bosses beforehand.
Over the weekend, Twitter users had launched a campaign, demanding that MSNBC overturn the suspension of celebrity anchor Olbermann, who anchors the show with the highest ratings on MSNBC.
As of yesterday, over 250,000 Twitter users had signed on to the campaign.
As mentioned in a story here on Green Celebrity over the weekend, celebrity anchor Olbermann has never been one to shy away from controversy. He was suspended from his celebrity anchor post at ESPN in 1997 when he appeared on Comedy Central to promote a book he wrote along with co-anchor and celebrity Dan Patrick.
However, when news hit the wires about celebrity anchor Olbermann’s suspension last week, many experts and critics quickly decried the actions of MSNBC, and some went so far as to wonder whether or not the action was politically motivated.
Celebrity anchor Olbermann had been quiet about the entire incident since Friday, but Sunday afternoon he broke his Twitter silence with these words: “Greetings From Exile! A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug.”
Celebrity anchor Bill O’Reilly, who hosts The O’Reilly Factor on the competing FOX network, and has been involved in some very nasty public feuds with celebrity anchor and rival Keith Olbermann through the years, has also been strangely quiet since the suspension was announced on Friday.
Many have suggested that O’Reilly remained mum on the subject because he and his colleagues at FOX have been guilty of doing the same thing that got Olbermann suspended for years.
Whatever the case may be, O’Reilly will no doubt once again be feuding with his rival Olbermann once again after Tuesday night.