The far-left bloggers at Daily Kos were distraught at the abrupt departure of Keith Olbermann. Dagnome quickly dragged in the Citizens United case from the Supreme Court to indicate that corporate power had once again crushed freedom of speech:
...[M]y guess is that this development is one of...MANY that will now take place since the merger of NBC and Comcast has bee[n] all but approved.
Forgive my editorializing, but in its own way, this follows on the heels [of] Citizens UNited as one of the worst developments of the last 12 months - NOW we have a truly conservative corporation controlling muzzling the voices on what used to be free speech in the USA...
Badabing sees war, and wants to "go to the mattresses" to preserve democracy:
I'm sick to death over this, and it is yet another piece of the puzzle of the Shock Doctrine in full view of our eyes. It is disgusting, and we must have a complete plan of action to raise our voices, and I don't just mean, complaining or canceling Comcast.
I'm talking real action here. I welcome your ideas. What can we do as a community to stop this vicious and final take over of what little is left for the progressive open free market for real news on our airwaves?
Time to go to the f---ing 'mattresses,' for Keith, because next with this new Comcast/NBC merger, Rachel Maddow will be next, and so will Ed Schulz and Darrell Ratigan. [sic]
DARRELL Ratigan? Do these Kosmonauts even watch these shows? That would be Dylan Ratigan. Then came this:
So let's make a real action plan here people. Let's stop this cold in its tracks and make certain, the Oligarchy, Plutocrats, Corporate takeover of our final notion of what is left of free speech and progressive ideals will not be taken laying down like helpless citizens.
Regardless of when this merger happened (today or whenever) we have watched systematically as the Fairness Doctrine has been destroyed, and will keep being destroyed, and this is absolutely no different in my book, that how the Right Wing Supreme Court, took away President Al Gore's election (unconstitutionally) to hand it over to George Bush, or how the Citizen's United decision, (making Corporations people who can now, secretly steal elections). This is all one in the same.
Ipsos claimed he was hearing that Olbermann would rejoin his old ESPN co-anchor Dan Patrick and do sports again: "It will happen (so I'm told) on the channel now known as Versus. It's a sports channel owned by Comcast, and the story I'm hearing is that it will be rebranded as NBC Sportschannel once the takeover is complete, with Keith as its star personality." Then this amazing analysis, that Keith never meant to be over the top:
I don't think Keith ever intended to become what he became. Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly (or, for that matter, Cenk Uygur or Ed Schultz) seem to understand very clearly that they're paid to deliver the loudest opinions possible at all times, and damn the consequences.
We Keith watchers know that he spends a lot of time thinking about the consequences. Look at the way "Worst Persons" has come and gone and come again and gone again, and that's tame as can be compared with the rancor that takes place on Fox.
When one door closes, another opens. The thought that came to my mind was, this man is being freed up for something else. And then I thought, Joe Lieberman's seat is going to open up...
Keith Olbermann has:
* A first class intellect * Killer debating skills * Experience before cameras and microphones
...but most of all...
* A deep, heartfelt concern for the wellbeing of the American people.
It's a thought -- m]aybe Sen. Franken and Mr. Olbermann should have coffee and talk about the experience of running for the Senate and what it is like to serve there.
A girl can dream, can't she? I could not envision a finer public servant than a Senator Olbermann.