Nothing like a bit of interesting news to bring a burned-out blogger out of his funk.

Keith Olbermann and Current TV have parted ways.

NYT’s Media Decoder has the story:

For nearly a year now, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have been building their liberal cable news channel, Current TV, with the mercurial television anchorman Keith Olbermann at its center.

This week, the center collapsed.

Current said on Friday afternoon that it had fired Mr. Olbermann — one of the nation’s most prominent progressive speakers — just a year into his five-year, $50 million contract. It was the culmination of months of murky disputes between Mr. Olbermann and the channel that he was supposed to save from the throes of ratings oblivion.

Yet as inevitable as it might have seemed to some in the television business who know the long history of antipathy between Mr. Olbermann and his employers, it was nonetheless shocking to his fans, to his detractors and to staff members at Current when the announcement was made.

Current TV’s Statement:

To the Viewers of Current:

We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet.  We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.

Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.  

We are moving ahead by honoring Current’s values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily — especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation.

Keith Olbermann’s Statement:

My full statement:

I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

I have a personal opinion as to why things did not work out. This is not snark, humor or whatnot; it is truly my feelings. I believe that Keith just was not happy with this setup. I believe that Keith was not a good a “Democrat” enough for these people. Keith always said on his show, that he did not vote. I believe he is a political liberal. But I do not believe him an establishment figure. This was proven during Keith’s time at MSNBC, when he would criticize Obama.

I was doing some reading on some of the progressive sites out there; and I do notice that not everyone is sad to see him go. This is because Keith went into the tank for Obama, and went after Hillary, this did not sit well with some of the liberal left. To think, the thanks he got for all of his bombast and over the top verbalization, for all that tank diving he did for Obama — was a suck job at a third-rate network. Obama must be proud. The loudest voice of criticism on the left of Obama is now silent.

I will give some unsolicited advice to Al Gore and his partner at Current TV; give Keith the money for his contract, settle the as quickly as you possibly can. Because if you two do not think that Keith will not dish on what he knows about what happened in 2008 and with the inner workings of the liberal media — you are crazy.  Furthermore, let me just say it; when it comes to lawsuits, discovery is a bitch. I would get this out of the headlines as quickly as I could. Because if Keith starts dishing, you think the left is in disarray now? You wait till that starts happening.

Either way, it would be a blog traffic goldmine.

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Mediagazer has more here  and  here,  Here