In an interview with AlterNet's Don Hazen on Tuesday, MSNBC host Cenk Uygur slammed Fox News and bragged how he would take them on in the ratings: "For so long, they have controlled the national conversation....I want to drain them of that power. I want to put them back in the cave they came from....I also plan to beat them in the ratings and make them fear me."
Uygur, who also hosts the left-wing webcast The Young Yurks, has been filling in as anchor for the 6PM ET hour on MSNBC following the departure of Countdown host Keith Olbermann and the reshuffling of the cable news channel's prime time lineup. He is currently in negotiations with MSNBC for a permanent show. Despite Uygur's boasting, as of February 7, FNC's Special Report with Bret Baier was bringing in over 2.1 million viewers, MSNBC Live at 6PM ET had an audience just under 600,000.
Countdown
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday gave some advice to Fox News about how to treat Keith Olbermann now that he's partnered with Al Gore's struggling cable network.
"Do not ever talk about what goes on over there and nobody will ever hear about it" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
The rumors about Keith Olbermann joining Al Gore's struggling television network came true Tuesday morning with the announcement that the former "Countdown" host was indeed moving to Current TV.
The press release contained comments from those involved that were nothing less than hysterical:
Jon Stewart on Thursday marvelously lampooned Keith Olbermann and all his former colleagues that can't fill the "Olbermann-shaped hole" his departure has left at MSNBC.
The "Daily Show" host began the segment (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):
Since the moment he announced he was doing his last "Countdown" on MSNBC, people have wondered where the controversial Keith Olbermann will land.
On Wednesday, News Corp's Rupert Murdoch told Neal Cavuto it won't be on Fox News (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Keith Olbermann must be starving for attention since his surprise exit from MSNBC.
On Sunday, he actually bashed a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe written about him by a Vietnam vet:
For the second day in a row, MSNBC's Chris Matthews mercilessly attacked Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) while repeatedly referring to her as a "balloon head."
Knowing what he was going to be up against, Texas Tea Party leader Phillip Dennis came prepared for the "Hardball" host's hostility, and at the end of a lengthy segment, marvelously summed up exactly why Matthews and others in the media attack this movement and all of its members saying, "You fear the Tea Party" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
The folks at MSNBC - and new owners Comcast for that matter - must have been jumping for joy when they saw the Neilsen ratings for their first official night without Keith Olbermann.
As the New York Times reported Tuesday, "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" premiere in "Countdown's" regular 8PM time slot attracted almost 50 percent more viewers than Olbermann has averaged recently:
It was to be expected that MSNBC commentators would publicly wish Keith Olbermann well after his surprise exit last Friday.
But the nonsense that spewed out of Lawrence O'Donnell's mouth Monday evening - "He invented op-ed TV...For eight years...No one in television history has ever done anything like it" - was so sycophantic and factually bereft it was almost sick-making (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MSNBC abruptly ended the run of Keith Olbermann on Friday, bringing to a close an era in which the left-wing host compared conservatives to Nazis, accused them of "murderous deceit," of "urinating on the Constitution" and told President George W. Bush to "shut the Hell up!"
Olbermann certainly became more vitriolic as the years went by, but back in 1998, he frothed about special prosecutor Ken Starr: "Facially, it finally dawned on me that the person Ken Starr has reminded me of facially all this time was Heinrich Himmler, including the glasses."
Olbermann's 15 worst, most outrageous quotes can be found below.
[Video and MP3 audio below.]
Just how far to the left is Time's Joe Klein?
He actually thinks "Keith [Olbermann] is a brilliant writer, and presenter; I always enjoy watching him, even when he's occasionally wrong":
Editor's Note: The following is a brief statement released by NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) president Brent Bozell earlier today regarding MSNBC firing Keith Olbermann.
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Olbermann was a failure because he was vicious, insulting and off-the-charts liberal. And they replaced him with Lawrence O'Donnell, who is Olbermann but without talent. It is absolutely guaranteed that MSNBC will sink even lower. This network is clueless.
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