Keith Olberman Hits Back in Rolling Stone Interview
If you haven’t already, check out our candid and wide-ranging interview with Keith Olbermann. After a rough six months or so, the Countdown host returns to cable on June 20 with a new show – conveniently titled Countdown with Keith Olbermann – on Al Gore’s Current TV. In a candid and wide-ranging sit-down with Mark Binelli, he talks about why he left MSNBC, and what he’s shooting for with the new gig. Here, a snippet:
When did things start to change for you at MSNBC?
It was three years ago, when Tim Russert died. One of the reasons I got as far as I got was that Tim was there to run interference for me. He never made a big deal out of the fact that he probably was my biggest supporter within the network. He used to go to them and say, “Leave him alone, we can handle the blowback, I’ll take care of it.” After he died, Maureen, his wife, told me that she used to have to wrest the channel-changer away from him every night, because he loved to watch the show. She said, “You deal with this all day and you have to watch it again?” He said, “I have to see what he’s saying about it, it’s the best.” I teared up and said, “I didn’t know that.” She said, “He thought you already had a big enough head.”
Read the full interview here.
Plus, check out our Top Ten Olberman ‘Special Comments‘ to see the man in full flight.