ESPN Suspends Olbermann After Twitter Rants
Keith Olbermann responded with a one-word Tweet, “pitiful”, after Penn State announced raising more than $13 million for pediatric cancer research.
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Many took Olbermann’s tweet to mean that he thought the fundraiser itself was pitiful. Olbermann clarified that he thinks Penn State students are pitiful.
ESPN released this statement:
“We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the views of ESPN. We have discussed it with Keith, who recognizes he was wrong. ESPN and Keith have agreed that he will not host his show for the remainder of this week and will return on Monday.”
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D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
arc99 February 24th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
I loved his now defunct Countdown show on MSNBC. In my opinion, it was the best hour of progressive commentary on television, with Maddow a close second.
But politics aside, the votes are in. Olbermann is a major d*ck.
craig7120 February 24th, 2015 at 4:17 pm
Agreed
John Henry February 24th, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Yep!!!
ShelleysLeg February 24th, 2015 at 5:29 pm
They’re still punishing him for DARING to have his first amendment rights? Excuse me, but Penn State is full of it.
clemsonfight February 24th, 2015 at 8:25 pm
The first ammendment says the GOVERNMENT cannot limit your right to free speech. It doesn’t mean that you can say whatever crap you want and have no consequences whatsoever. ESPN is his employer. If they wish to suspend him, that’s not a violation of that first ammendment in the slightest. People need to learn more about the constitution…
ShelleysLeg February 25th, 2015 at 9:00 am
People need to learn how to spell troll. Amendment. And the way I understand the First AMENDMENT is that the government cannot PUNISH you for your exercise of that right.
clemsonfight February 24th, 2015 at 8:25 pm
The first ammendment says the GOVERNMENT cannot limit your right to free speech. It doesn’t mean that you can say whatever crap you want and have no consequences whatsoever. ESPN is his employer. If they wish to suspend him, that’s not a violation of that first ammendment in the slightest. People need to learn more about the constitution…
Josh Schwartz February 24th, 2015 at 10:24 pm
No, YOU’RE full of it. Enough with this damn ‘first amendment’ rights. Seriously, you can’t just say whatever you want and expect to get away with it. How about if I tell you to go kill yourself, or a few other horrible things? Hey, I can do whatever I want, right? Let’s just turn the world into an even worse place than it already is!
ShelleysLeg February 25th, 2015 at 8:59 am
Confusing the word ‘pitiful’ with more dire acts such as your red faced anger suggests says you need to understand the nuances of the English language.
Pitiful is hardly a threat, just his personal observation.
tiredoftea February 24th, 2015 at 6:58 pm
It was only a matter of time before his head exploded, again.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 7:31 pm
Free speech is legal…just not tolerated by social media mobs.
Pitiful!
Michael J Mistek February 24th, 2015 at 8:08 pm
just remember he was part of that liberal media that bashed anything the republicans said.
arc99 February 24th, 2015 at 8:28 pm
no different than the right wing media personified by FOX which bashes anything Democrats say. At least Olbermann did not make up BS out of thin air. Agree or disagree with his opinions, he was always scrupulous with the facts. FOX, not so much.
kakihara1 February 24th, 2015 at 11:42 pm
Keep telling yourself that, arc99. It doesn’t take a lot of work to search the web for half-truths and lies your liberal media has been guilty of. Yes, that even includes your best buddy, Keith Olbermann. Of course you on the left are of the belief that if a person is a liberal they would NEVER lie. Admit it or else move on acknowledging that you can’t truly trust anyone in the media.
clemsonfight February 24th, 2015 at 8:24 pm
This has NOTHING to do with free speech… The right to free speech simply means that the government cannot limit your speech… it does NOT mean that you can say anything you want and have no consequences whatsoever. ESPN is his employer and its well within their rights to suspend him if that’s what they feel is neccesary.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Typical SJW justification for suppression of speech you don’t like. You’re advocating economic and social retribution when someone makes the slightest misstep in how they craft a tweet.
Pitiful!
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Typical SJW justification for suppression of speech you don’t like. You’re advocating economic and social retribution when someone makes the slightest misstep in how they craft a tweet.
Pitiful!
Taj Hammer February 24th, 2015 at 9:03 pm
He never even implied that he disagreed with what Olbermann said, you assumed it. Doesn’t matter one way or another, if an employee says something that could tarnish the reputation of their company then they should expect suspension at the least.
Taj Hammer February 24th, 2015 at 9:03 pm
He never even implied that he disagreed with what Olbermann said, you assumed it. Doesn’t matter one way or another, if an employee says something that could tarnish the reputation of their company then they should expect suspension at the least.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Your another advocate of speech suppression.
Pitiful!
tracey marie February 24th, 2015 at 9:36 pm
ignore it, it first came here as a teabagg troll and now has flipped into whatever this is
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 9:38 pm
Liberals used to be for freedom of expression, what happened to you?
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 9:54 pm
So corporations should control over the speech of their employees.
arc99 February 24th, 2015 at 10:19 pm
When that employee is performing his duties as an employee, most certainly.
If at a corporate townhall held by my employer, if I stood up during the question and answer period asking why the CEO is such an arrogant jacka$$, rest assured I would be enjoying some free unpaid time at home either temporarily or permanently, which is as it should be.
Recognizing the obligations of an employee to follow the standards of their employer has nothing to do with free speech. I can’t sit in my office cubicle stark naked using a bullhorn demanding a raise, and that restriction in no way infringes on my first amendment rights.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 10:38 pm
So if your employer was a RWNJ he would be justified in firing you for expressing your liberal opinions online on your own time?
Cody Reed February 24th, 2015 at 11:28 pm
SJW…
I know I’m not a fan of those who truly *are* (at times), but when shitheels like this one upthread trot it out, you know you’ve got a low-info rube in your midst.
It’s amazing how few people understand that the Bill of Rights limits the GOVERNMENT, not private employers.
Cody Reed February 24th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
Fine then, dumbass.
Go on Facebook and call your employer a shithead. See if you still have a job the day after he finds out about it.
Try again.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 11:32 pm
Your conflating dumbo, he made tweet unrelated to his employer.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/24/keith_olbermann_suspension_the_espn_host_s_penn_state_twitter_feud_explained.html?wpsrc=fol_tw
Cody Reed February 24th, 2015 at 11:39 pm
He made a tweet that reflected badly on his company.
Fine, then. Change my point. Say I went and wrote a letter to the editor or posted racist/anti-Semitic/homophobic tweets. Not just hypotheticals and pseudo-intellectual crap. I’m talking flat-out stuff that wouldn’t get by the censors on this site (no matter how much I’d like them to). Words that used to get people run up for “obscenity” charges in the George Carlin days.
If an employer feels that the person is bringing disrepute to the company, they have every right to sanction ’em. Seems that your type/ideology also wants to give LGBT people the shaft as well, so I’ll bring that idea up. Would you be so in-my-corner if I was to be relieved of my position at a business if the owner found out I was gonna be marrying my boyfriend?
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 11:52 pm
Discrimination against LGBT is very wrong and should be illegal in *every* state.
But you seem to believe believe that free speech is reserved for only those you agree with. Gay rights have been promoted and won because of free speech.
Suppression of speech is antithetical to American values,,,regardless of how vile it is.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 11:55 pm
The Twitter beef between the 1982 Penn State graduate and Olbermann actually goes back to January, when Aiello Deleon sent him a link to a story that defended former Penn State coach Joe Paterno against charges that he covered up child abuse by defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
Apocalypse February 25th, 2015 at 1:08 am
Apparently you believe it’s all-right for an employer to fire someone for advocating gay rights if the employer is anti-gay. Since the Bill of Rights limits the GOVERNMENT, not private employers.
ShelleysLeg February 25th, 2015 at 8:55 am
Wow, so a one word tweet reflecting on an attempt to rehab an image is equal to calling YOUR employer a vulgar name?
I didn’t know Olberman worked for Penn State to take your ridiculous argument a step further.
clemsonfight February 24th, 2015 at 8:24 pm
This has NOTHING to do with free speech… The right to free speech simply means that the government cannot limit your speech… it does NOT mean that you can say anything you want and have no consequences whatsoever. ESPN is his employer and its well within their rights to suspend him if that’s what they feel is neccesary.
Dan Sherman February 24th, 2015 at 9:48 pm
This is what happens when a nation is more interested in “jumping on bandwagons,” instead of actually trying to get all the facts before forming an opinion on something. Technology has only made it worse. Both sides of the spectrum do their best to vilify those things they don’t like, and things like facebook make it easy to whip the groupthink into a frenzy.
Articles such as this one do not help the situation at all. I’m still trying to find out what he thought was “pitiful.” Instead of digging and trying to get that information to present in this article, all we get is a fluff piece that seems to be geared towards promoting groupthink by both political spectrums.
Apocalypse February 24th, 2015 at 11:23 pm
Here’s some info:
The Penn State alumna who sent the tweet that provoked the tirade that got Keith Olbermann suspended from ESPN for the rest of the week says she was hoping to get Olbermann to “lighten up” on the university when she sent him a link to a story about the school’s pediatric cancer research fundraiser.
“I certainly didn’t send my tweet to him in the hopes of getting him suspended,” Lisa Aiello Deleon told me over email. “I sent it to educate him in hopes he would recognize the good that Penn State does and has done, and in hope that he might lighten up on us a bit in the future.”
Aiello Deleon tweeted at the ESPN host the partial Penn State slogan “We are!” with a link to a story about the THON student body fundraiser, and Olbermann responded by “finish[ing] her sentence” and calling Penn State students “pitiful.” Olbermann apologized for the remark and ensuing back-and-forth on Tuesday.
“I hope that he reflects on the comments that he has made to and about the entire Penn State community,” Aiello Deleon said.
The Twitter beef between the 1982 Penn State graduate and Olbermann actually goes back to January, when Aiello Deleon sent him a link to a story that defended former Penn State coach Joe Paterno against charges that he covered up child abuse by defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/24/keith_olbermann_suspension_the_espn_host_s_penn_state_twitter_feud_explained.html?wpsrc=fol_tw
Mathew Hall February 25th, 2015 at 5:14 am
free speech is legal, unless you are a social media mob.
In your attack of others speech, You do realize your hypocrisy right?
Apocalypse February 25th, 2015 at 5:26 am
Twisted logic. One was speech…tweeting “pathetic”, the other was economic and social reprisal.
By your logic all speech could be suppressed in the name of free speech. Orwellian doublespeak.
Mathew Hall February 25th, 2015 at 6:33 am
both were speech, you are a hypocrite by defending the opinions of only those you agree with.
tracey marie February 24th, 2015 at 9:39 pm
speech has consequences, he needs to learn to control his temper
Josh Schwartz February 24th, 2015 at 10:21 pm
They
should just fire this jackass altogether. There is just no place for
people like him, or Jim Rome, or Colin Cowherd, or just awful pieces of
trash like that. You can give your opinion without coming across as a
horrible human being while doing so.
Cody Reed February 25th, 2015 at 7:07 am
Colin seems halfway thoughtful when I watch his show during the afternoon. Have I missed something with him?
Budda February 25th, 2015 at 7:53 am
To all the folks here who apparently disagree with Apocalpyse , if you all worked for me, would I have the right to suspend or fire you for your posts here?
I sense a lot of trolling here.
ShelleysLeg February 25th, 2015 at 9:01 am
There seem to be a lot of folks who still are upset about Paterno and Sandusky’s misdeeds more than anything substantive.
Apocalypse February 25th, 2015 at 10:51 am
Free speech is *spoken*, not firing people. Your free to disagree, but if you organize an SJW mob to destroy me…because you don’t like what I say…that’s suppression of speech by mob rule. I’m not being hypocritical by disagreeing with what happened, if I were advocating people to boycott ESPN that would be.
Mathew Hall February 26th, 2015 at 5:03 am
so books are not speech? you don’t understand what you are talking about, as apparent by your opinion that speech must be spoken. Your opinion reduces the current degree of liberty we experience as Americans.
You are welcome to disagree with ESPN’s actions, that in itself is not hypocritical, but to present free speech for the reason you disagree with ESPN’s action, is hypocritical, as you both attack and defend freely made speech in the same statements.
You are a hypocrite.
Apocalypse February 26th, 2015 at 10:51 am
So you believe in censorship by employers and mobs…and you think my opinion reduces peoples liberty. Hilarious.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 1:13 am
You do not understand what freedom of speech entails, as you have repeatedly proven. You have contradicted yourself. You are a hypocrite.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 1:52 am
You’re for corporate controlled speech.You believe in mob censorship. It’s that simple.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 1:56 am
I understand what freedom of speech entails, you don’t. It’s that simple.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 2:35 am
I was only drawn to the story because someone was being punished for a one word tweet.
I’m for free speech, which you lack the intellect to comprehend.
You’re for corporate controlled speech.You believe in mob censorship. It’s that simple.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:04 am
Free speech is the protection of speech from government interaction.
What ESPN and Mr. Olbermann did were both instances of free speech.
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:18 am
Punishing someone for something they said is not speech, it’s the suppression of speech.
You believe in employer control of speech.
Your against free expression.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:21 am
You have the freedom to get a new job with people who’s opinion agrees with yours.
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:23 am
Speech would have been ESPN saying they disagreed with Oberman and explaining why.
They did not really care, they were caving in to an online assault from the schools fan base.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:23 am
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:25 am
I never advocated government intervention, that’ a straw man. You are the idiot here.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:27 am
So you suggest the government ignore what you see as a constitutional violation of Olbermanns right to free speech?
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:32 am
Another straw man, i never said a constitutional violation…I said employer/corporate suppression of free expression.
Enjoy fighting for fascism.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:35 am
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:36 am
copy paste
Enjoy fighting for fascism.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:36 am
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.1
Apocalypse February 27th, 2015 at 3:40 am
I’ll have to ignore you now, since your just-copy pasting.
Mathew Hall February 27th, 2015 at 3:41 am
Had the government come along and punished ESPN for their actions, as you seem to suggest they should, ESPN’s freedom of speech would be violated.
You do not know what you are talking about, You contradict yourself, and your argument is hypocritical.
Its nice when your arguing with a troll, and they have already laid out their entire opinion, such that no matter what they say they are contradicting themselves and all you have to do is copy paste the same thing over and over again.
Warman1138 February 25th, 2015 at 9:59 pm
The students at Penn. State do not deserve to be referred to as ”pitiful” for the actions of Paterno and Sandusky.