Entertainment

Even for Olbermann, this is pathetic

To apply politics-based sorrow or glee to Keith Olbermann’s latest expulsion from his latest network — and he’d been hired to be the star of Current TV — is a waste of sentiment.

Olbermann would be a first-class pain in the butt regardless of what flavor, shade or pattern he came in. Whether he leaned left, right, backward or forward, it was always just a matter of time before he wore people down then himself out. Had he been an inflexible conservative, as opposed to the ultimate contradiction — an inflexible, self-important, me-first liberal — his colleagues would still roll their eyes as he entered and left the room.

As the sports anchor at KCBS in Los Angeles, he was a load to endure. Same at ESPN, same at Fox Sports, same at NBC Sports, same at MSNBC, same at Current TV.

He became that Jackie Mason old kvetch bit: “The soup’s too hot; the soup’s too cold. The bed’s too hard; the bed’s too soft.” It always became “good riddance.”

As someone who carries the sword and shield of an open-minded humanitarian, Olbermann has a terrible time getting along with others. And his most active activism has always been on behalf of himself. He has spent so much company time writing long, self-extolling missives to critics that his laptop once reported him to Human Resources.

And it’s never his fault; it’s always the other guys’ fault. Yet, if we study Olbermann’s employment chart we see how the same TV people who were so eager to get him on their team soon became the same people who were out to get him.

Olbermann has been accused of being the ultimate bridge-burner. Not this time. He was fired by Current TV a year into a five-year deal. This time Olbermann didn’t make it to the bridge; this time he burned the welcome mat — on the way in. Next!

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Now you see it, now you don’t! The great disappearing nightly newscast! It vanished, overnight!

For 27 years, Long Island-based WLNY Ch. 10/55 — formerly known as WLIG and mostly seen on tri-state cable and satellite systems on Ch. 10 or 55 — produced and presented a weeknight newscast.

Mostly focusing on LI, WLNY’s newscasts also tapped into national news feeds to present a friendly, useful, no-frills news product, complete with weather and sports.

Loaded with infomercials and “Matlock” re-runs, WLNY offered a rare local newscast in that it wasn’t compromised by network promos poorly disguised as “news.”

On Thursday, March 29, after 27 years, that newscast disappeared, no word of farewell, not a word of explanation to unsuspecting viewers. It was replaced, the next night, by “Entertainment Tonight.”

There was only one significant clue provided that this last newscast might be curtains:

At the newscast’s close, roughly a dozen off-camera personnel — techs, camera and tape operators, stage managers — walked on to the set to shake hands with veteran anchor Rich Rose, co-anchor Audrey Hampton, weatherman David Weiss and sports anchor Kurt Semder. Very odd. . .

Unless one knew that WLNY had been sold to CBS and that the newscast would disappear until further notice (and a major overhaul), and that over 50 employees were about to be laid off. Then it made sense.

It didn’t make for good faith treatment of 10/55’s audience. It didn’t make sense in view of 27 years of service to that audience. But it made sense as sense relates to bad faith corporate operations of news media.

WLNY’s final newscast as an independent newscast showed it, likely on orders, to be shackled, designed to keep viewers in the dark. Pity.

Here’s a prediction for the Ch. 10/55 newscasts of the future: They’re going to include a lot of “news” about CBS primetime shows.