OMG! Get THIS to Keith: "You're fired"

Current TV -- a little-known network which mostly airs documentaries but which has been trying to get into the political teevee business -- has stormily fired Keith Olbermann, barely a year after Keith had a stormy exit from MSNBC. Obviously, Olbermann has...issues. Even his fans will have a hard time swallowing his continual contentions that someone else is at fault.

Olbermann alienated me pretty thoroughly in 2008, when he became part of the lie machine against Hillary Clinton. He and the Kossacks had a thing going on: The Kossacks would invent or circulate a smear-of-the-day ("Hillary once ate the heart of a baby -- a black baby!") and someone downthread would raise the oft-heard cry: "OMG! Get this to Keith!" And sure enough, Keith would bellow that very smear the next day. He and Moulitsas became symbiotic organisms, like a tapeworm in a jackal.

At least Olbermann finally apologized for the worst moment of his career, when he made a public call for Hillary's murder. I was grateful for that show of contrition, but at the same time we must recognize that some offenses need penance beyond "I'm sorry." His parting shot at Current is unprofessional and childish, while the owners of Current -- Al Gore and Joel Hyatt -- have made a far more polished statement. Olbrmann will have a difficult time convincing liberals that Al Gore is the bad guy.

I caught Olbermann's act a number of times on Current. Too often, there was no electricity, no juice. (Apparently, the lack of electricity was quite literal for a brief time.) And too often, he simply was not there. The man was being paid $10 million a year to put on a surprisingly dull show that fetched a viewership of 177,000 and falling.

On the other hand, it is indeed true that Olbermann gave coverage to the Occupy movement at a time when no-one else on TV was willing to acknowledge its existence. That fact alone carries much redemption.

I don't think that Olbermann is the worst person in the world, and he may one day prove that he still has something important to contribute. I would suggest that he work on a book -- a book offering fresh investigative journalism on an important topic, not a me-me-me book. Right now, though, his day seems done on television. Even the Kossacks can't work up much outrage to mark his departure from Current. Liberalism needs a new face.