http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
My thoughts, had he not returned, were, “Just imagine what a Keith Olbermann, CEO of The Keith Olbermann Foundation could accomplish…”
(Read: “Olbermann Suspension Over, Returns This Week.”)
Here’s the text, unedited, via MSNBC:
>>> discussing something that i’m sure has happened to you dozens of times in your life. you know, when there is a petition federal courting you and you get 22,000 tweets in 72 hours and you are invited to be on television because you aren’t on television because they want you on “good morning, america” and ” larry king” and “letterman” and you break records on the huffing ton post and you’re on the front page of the new york times without being dead or in jail or charlie sheen or something. for me it was a surprise. all i can say is i’m stunned and grateful and it still feels like a universal hug. i owe you three apologies. foremost for having subjected to to this drama. the white house is on the phone for you. seriously? another by having not known by observation since it is not in the contract for not making political donations although any rule like that probably isn’t legal. the third rule doubles as a correction. it is accurate that i contributed to the campaigns of conway, giffords and gribalba, but the reporting assumed that i donated then interviewed and should have disclosed it when i interviewed. the sequence was the reverse. i didn’t think about contributing until hours after the interview. if i had come on the air and said, hey, i contributed to gribalba and giffords and conway knowing the way you responded to stories like the free health care family and the chronic family in tennessee there would have been a lot of donations to them and suddenly then i’m fund-raising for them and we’re accidentally fox. however, the day after the donations i included the opponent in the race against congresswoman giffords in the old worst persons segment. i never made the connection that he, jesse kelly, was running against her. and i should have made it clear that i had contributed to her or just dropped him from the segment. i apologize to you and mr. kelly. after i play the late night comedians jokes about me which i will do after a few personal thanks. i would like to name all 300,000 signatories to the petition but i can’t. anyway, 99% of them were my relatives. i would like to thank the commentaries, reporters and columnists who gave their support or a fair hearing and those with whom my politics don’t overlap. william crystal and dana lash probably treated me better than i would have treated them. rick sanchez clearly did that. they get my thanks and respect although they probably wish they didn’t. three more. let me thank thomas roberts for filling in and chris hayes for not. and thanks to dear rachel when saying so much when saying anything would have been enough. now let the party begin.
>> here’s a story you may have heard about. msnbc’s keith olbermann will be back to work on wednesday after being suspended without pay for giving campaign contributions to democratic candidates which is against the rules at msnbc. see, if only he’d done like spitzer and given his money to hookers. he would have gotten his own prime time show on cnn. see? [ applause ]
>> see, john cline? i told you that’s how we should have done it. okay. so that was jay. then there was jon stewart. we criticized each other a week back. i have to say i took the spirit of his larger meaning in worst persons and he took mine and described parts of the rally as inartful. back to the subject of me, on that topic jon hit a series of homeruns.
>> that’s the great thing about america. we all have the freedom to have opinions and say and do what we wish.
>> msnbc suspended keith olbermann for making political donations.
>> almost everybody has that right. it seems friday keith broke a rule by making campaign donations without first obtaining permission from the network because msnbc has a hard and fast rule that political donations represent bias in journalism unless you ask first.
>> i read somebody’s 10,000 word essay on the ethics of donations and jon boiled it down to 17 with a p.s. of 21 words.
>> you learn you manners, boy, i will knock you down to host of headliners & lemgds so fast your head will spin. anyway, olbermann was suspended indefinitely. i mean it’s bad enough they suspended his mustache. boom! boom! oh, that was gratuitous.
>> no, it wasn’t. it was a bad mustache. i looked like i was dressed up as ming the merciless from flash gordon.
>> there is no telling how long it will be before we see keith olbermann again.
>> msnbc says keith will be back on air tomorrow night. [ laughter ]
>> lesson learned. yes, msnbc, it’s a stupid rule, but at least it was enforced poorly.
>> it’s not a stupid rule. it just needs debate about it. needs to be adapted to 21st century journalism. to wrap up i think we saw where the system is working for transparency in democracy and where it is failing. i made legal political contributions as a u.s. citizen near midnight eastern. by 10:00 p.m. eastern on thursday november 4 the contributions were public knowledge. that’s the point. i gave and you found out and you judged me for good or ill as you felt appropriate. if i had given the money through the u.s. chamber of commerce you would have never, ever known. that’s november 9, seven days since the republicans took control of the house. mr. bane, where are the jobs? i’m keith olbermann. good night and good
The New Civil Rights Movement
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