Recent comments from MSNBC President Rashida Jones have caught the ire of former network host Keith Olbermann.
During a segment of his Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcast Tuesday, the former cable news host took credit for keeping MSNBC on the air on two different occasions in the 2000s, after arguing that having an expressed point of view has always been beneficial for cable news networks.
“From its second year on the air, MSNBC has always had a point of view,” Olbermann said. “Now, it has never been the same point of view for very long. First, it was anti-Bill Clinton. Then I sort of forced it to become ‘To hell with all the politicians’. Then it was the 2002 attempt to go further to the right than Fox was.
“And then just before they were literally going to turn the network into all prison documentaries starting at nine o’clock every night, I started pointing out the hypocrisy of Bush and the Iraq War. And, suddenly, MSNBC had purpose and profit. That is why MSNBC did not go out of business in 2005. We’re off the air anyway. And why did not go off the air in 2009.”
The 64-year-old Olbermann had two separate stints at MSNBC during his career. He worked there from 1997 to 1998, before returning in 2003 and staying until 2011.
