[Chongo]

....and his first named replacement as well. Was Keith suspended just because he donated money, or was it because he donated, and had them on his show? I think it was both.
Keith Olbermann, Worst Person in the World, suspended by msnbc | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

[subego]

I get the vibe that a higher-up wants to gank him, and this is being hammered into an excuse.

[turtle777]

Schadenfreude

-t

[OAW]

I don't know much about Mr. Olbermann. I've literally never seen his show since I stopped watching cable news years ago. My understanding is that he's like a liberal version of Sean Hannity for MSNBC. In any event, this appears to be the result of MSNBC being under the same management as NBC News. They have a strict policy of their employees not being able to donate to political campaigns without the express permission of management IN ADVANCE. He didn't do that and so now he's suspended. It's as simple as that.

Now where it gets interesting is when one considers the fact that this rule makes more sense for a traditional news outlet like NBC News. With MSNBC trying to be the liberal version of Fox News you basically have Mr. Olbermann being suspended for advocating liberal causes which is what he does every day on the air. Seems kind of silly since the competition has no such restriction. Its on air personalities like Hannity routinely donate to conservative candidates and they go so far as to endorse them on the air. Like seriously … who is MSNBC trying to kid with this? Either embrace POV journalism like Fox News has or don't. Why have one foot in and one foot out? You can't have rules designed to maintain "objectivity" when it's brain dead obvious that you've embraced liberal POV journalism in order to compete.

OAW

[lpkmckenna]

This shouldn't be about "liberal journalism" vs "conservative journalism." Olbermann isn't a journalist, he's a commentator. I can understand why a news agency may wish to preserve objectivity for journalists, but it's just stupid for commentators.

Olbermann broke the rules. Did he break the rules knowing he'd be caught, hoping to demonstrate the rule's stupidity? Because that's certainly the end result.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by subego 

I get the vibe that a higher-up wants to gank him, and this is being hammered into an excuse.

Wan Williams II?

[Snow-i]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Olbermann broke the rules. Did he break the rules knowing he'd be caught, hoping to demonstrate the rule's stupidity? Because that's certainly the end result.

No, i'm quite sure that wasn't his intention. But i agree with you on the commentators part.