Meltdown at MessNBC

Olbermann, Matthews relieved as co-anchor chairs during any more political coverage on MSNBC, the leftist network rated lowest during convention coverage.

From AP:

MSNBC said Sunday it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators.

The change reflects tensions between the freewheeling, opinionated MSNBC and the impartial newsgatherers at NBC News. Throughout the primaries and summer, MSNBC argued that Olbermann and Matthews could serve as dispassionate anchors on political news nights and that viewers would accept them in that role, but things fell apart during the conventions.

Gregory, the veteran Washington hand, will anchor MSNBC’s coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates and election night, said Jeremy Gaines, network spokesman. The change was first reported by The New York Times.

The tipping point appears to have come during the Republican convention when Olbermann, after the network aired a Sept. 11-themed video prepared by the Republicans, said that MSNBC should not have shown it.

MSNBC executives, who had publicly defended their anchors’ roles while privately monitoring it throughout the political season, made the change over the weekend after discussions with Olbermann. Despite the controversy around him, Olbermann has been a hero with left-leaning viewers and keyed MSNBC’s growth among coveted young viewers.

Next assignment for these two nitwits: clean up for Ashleigh Bancroft on Court TV or whatever it is called now.

During her acceptance speech last week, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talked about the “Washington elite” not accepting her qualifications for the job. Some delegates on the convention floor began chanting, “N-B-C, N-B-C.”

Olbermann began to have difficulty keeping his opinions in check, or simply stopped trying.

He sarcastically dismissed GOP pundit Pat Buchanan on the air after Buchanan said the GOP had been enlivened by the entrance of a conservative Republican.

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

The Styrofoam Savior is beginning to lose ground to McCain-Palin anyway.

Next assignment for these two nitwits: clean up aafter Ashleigh Bancroft on Court TV or whatever it is called now.

t/b:  Hot Air,     Michelle Malkin

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Keith Olbermann had a temper tantrum at a memorial reception for the late Tim Russert.

According to Page Six Olbermann was peeved last week when he didn’t get a first-class ticket to Washington, DC, for a private service for Tim Russert.

Apparently Olbermann didn’t get the tickets he demanded and was not at the service.

Olbermann was sighted having a Ketchup tantrum later.

The Page Six article goes on to describe the Olbermann tantrums:

Olbermann was screaming into the phone on Tuesday because there were no first-class train tickets available for that day, and he wanted to make sure he would ride first-class on Wednesday. According to the source, Olbermann berated a staffer who was coordinating Wednesday’s Kennedy Center memorial by yelling, “You better hope to God there is a first-class train ticket tomorrow.”

Our insider elaborated, “MSNBC was dealing with who could come to the private ceremony Tuesday and who couldn’t, among the hundreds of people who worked with or for Russert – and Keith was ranting about not getting a first-class ticket.”

We’re told Olbermann didn’t get to Tuesday’s ceremony, and went to Washington by car to broadcast from outside the Kennedy Center the next day. An aghast witness there said, “As guests were making their way into the memorial, Keith went apoplectic because there were no ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center.”

Olbermann was heard saying outside the service, “this place is going to hell,” because his Washington staff couldn’t find ketchup packets for lunch at the Center. An NBC insider claimed, however, “Keith did not have lunch at the Kennedy Center and was not eating on the set because he was anchoring a broadcast.”

A rep for Olbermann snapped: “Since whatever you’re going to print is an outright lie, you can go ahead and write whatever you want. That’s on the record and applies to all future items you might make up.”

Krazy Keith… nuff said.

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Rumor has it that Keith Olbermann might be in meltdown mode over at MSNBC. His strange behavior is accelerating at the Peacock Network.

The Monday NY Post reports:

Is Keith Olbermann, MSNBC’s top-rated anchor, on the verge of yet another professional meltdown? His feuding with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews is nothing new. But now we’re told notoriously odd Olbermann is lashing out at the rest of his network’s talking heads. During West Virginia primary coverage the other night, Olbermann began pounding the table when lead White House reporter David Gregory didn’t wrap his segment quickly enough to satisfy him. Olbermann recently encouraged management to oust the cable channel’s lone conservative, Tucker Carlson, and it’s also no secret among producers that Olbermann refuses to introduce Dan Abrams’ show, which follows his own. Olbermann walked out of MSNBC years ago in a huff after also blowing up at ESPN, so TV insiders are curious if this recent behavior is a sign that history will repeat itself. MSNBC did not respond to our calls and e-mails seeking comment.

The Libs’ mental deficiencies eventually surface.

t/b: Hot Air

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