Regarding Keith Olbermann's departure from MSNBC?

Keith will land on his feet. Whether on agrees with his views or not, he has talent, and someone will snatch him up.

Olbermann was a bit overly passionate at times, but his focus was never based on fear rhetoric or spreading lies. I work at MSNBC (though not in the broadcast news division), and the general feeling is that Keith followed the general format of clarifying the lies spread by other news networks (FOX obviously), and added his own emotional appeals to his words at times. Sure, his criticism was one-sided, but the man also showed why he disagreed with the opinions of the conservatives.

Olbermann, and Maddow to some extent, does a fairly good job at providing topics to think about. The least liked person here is Ed Schultz. He uses his program to bully his opinion rather than provided thought provoking material. In all, I'm sad to see Keith go. I never met him but I did enjoy his program. He's the guy responsible for getting MSNBC to the #2 spot for a reason- he filled the absent voice of the left.

Occasionally, when what he said was not so ludicrous or hate filled that I became disgusted and switched channels, he was capable of rather provocative statements. Unfortunately for him and his continuously poor ratings (and viewers for that matter), He was so left of mainstream and so beholden to lib rhetoric that he completely abandoned the traditional integrity and objectivity of journalism.

I do not wish ill on anybody (but Loughner) and I assume Keith has squirreled away a nice "rainy day" fund to keep his head above water. However, if he is so blatantly incapable of civility or agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable, then I would rather not see or hear him on air ever again! For the same reason I stopped listening to Limbaugh. I do not think cons should counter the lib hate rhetoric with more of the same! It became an exercise of listening to him tear down, insult, berate, and irritate libs into arguments and he enjoyed the banter more than trying to deliver "news" or anything more than opinion (although in principle, I agree with most of the conservative values that he does).

I think the disturbing part about Keith Olbermann's departure is how corporate heads will ultimately decide the information we receive. Is it freedom of the press if the people at the top have the ability to control the information we receive?

Jon J makes an interesting point when he calls O'Donnell boring. Most people watch these people to be entertained, not for info. Hence Limbaugh and Olberman inflame issues and create animosity; and we like it????? The is a sad testimony of America and Americans. We (viewers) enable the haters and are saddened when one leaves the airwaves, even though he has helped to create such an atmosphere of hatred. I blame the Limbaughs and Olbermans for the violent hatred that seems to be rising in this country.

I don't mind that much. With Keith Olbermann leaving and Ed Schultz is taking his place and Cenk Uygur is taking Ed Schultz's place. I think both of them are smarter and more entertaining than Keigh Olbermann and glad that they will now be getting more screen time.

A lot of times I felt like he was trying too hard to channel Edward R. Murrow, but other than that what he said usually made me think.

I usually prefer people that stick to straight journalism and not punditry though.

I agree; he was a strong counterpoint to Conservative pundits, although I did think he went overboard sometimes.

Still, I wish liberals had more strong and entertaining voices like him, that lawrence O'donnell is boring as all hell.

That is why Cons have better ratings, they're just more entertaining.

In my experience, cable news pundits only compel people to think about irrelevant nonsense, and how nonsensical and irrelevant it is to actual political issues.

His raw intelligence and communication skills frighten some people of all stripes.