In an apparent attempt to make his show less angry, Keith Olbermann "unilaterally" and indefinitely suspended his "Worst Person in the World" segment last night "with an eye towards discontinuing it."
Olbermann referenced the weekend's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," held by comedians Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, and claimed that "the tone needs to change." Olbermann had been critical of Stewart and Colbert for drawing what he of course claims is a "false equivalency" between the Fox News Channel and MSNBC.
So apparently Olbermann decided to dramatically overhaul and revamp "Countdown" by…removing the enemies list - which according to an MRC study singled out one liberal for every eight conservatives - from his hour-long nightly tirades against the right.
As InsideCableNews put it:
Sacrificing the WPiTW segment is probably the the least effective way to respond to Stewart, particularly when you consider that WPiTW is not always political (mostly, but not always). If you buy Stewart’s argument that Countdown and shows like it are part of the problem with our society, our nation, and our politics, retiring WPiTW as an answer would be akin to trimming your nose hair when what you really need is a facelift.
Shortly after trimming his nose hair, Olbermann went on to falsely accuse Fox News's Brian Kilmeade of calling all Muslims terrorists. Sanity restored!
And of course Olbermann's decision comes mere days after he launched into a 20-minute extra-special Special Comment on the Tea Party. He often reaches near-hysterics, but that comment was beyond the pale even for him.
But now he wants to play nice, and is doing so by scrapping a single, brief segment at the end of his program?
Olbermann seems to have been so perturbed by folks comparing Fox to MSNBC that he has done away with the most entertaining part of his show. Well, if he wanted to set himself apart from Bill O'Reilly, his 8 pm competition, he may get his wish: don't be surprised to see the ratings gap grow.
As for Olbermann's newfound fondness for civility, methinks it shall be short-lived once the exit polls start rolling in.
