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Keith Olbermann Clashes With Current TV

January 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

At his new home, Al Gore’s Current TV, he has done it in record time.

Mr. Olbermann, who was hired last year to be the top star of the upstart liberal news source, had been on the job scarcely three months when trouble started. He declined Current’s requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that have plagued his 8 p.m. program, “Countdown.”

The channel decided to produce election shows without him. Mr. Olbermann, however, said he did not know that, and on Tuesday, the day of the Iowa caucus, the cold war of sorts reached a flash point. He held a staff meeting even though “Countdown” had been pre-empted.

Perceiving it to be an act of defiance, David Bohrman, Current’s president, wrote a memo to Mr. Olbermann’s staff telling them that the anchor had long ago given up the opportunity to anchor on election nights. “We assumed,” he wrote, that “Keith had communicated to you.”

“Countdown” was back on the schedule on Wednesday, and Current declined to comment about Mr. Olbermann’s status at the channel. But the struggle for control — which Mr. Olbermann talked about on Twitter — hints at turmoil behind the scenes at Current and highlights how hard it can be to build big media brands around unpredictable personalities.

For both parties, millions of dollars are at stake. Current, which has occupied a lonely position on the cable dial for years, is investing in programming to become a liberal alternative to MSNBC and other cable news channels.

The channel, which is privately held by Mr. Gore and others, is estimated to have made about $115 million in revenue in 2011, according to the research firm SNL Kagan, with a cash flow margin of 22.7 percent. The much bigger MSNBC, a unit of NBCUniversal, is estimated to have made $409 million in revenue with a cash flow margin of 45 percent.

Current is a start-up of sorts, lacking the backing of a deep-pocketed parent company — something Mr. Olbermann hasn’t contended with in years. When the channel put on Iowa caucus coverage without Mr. Olbermann on Tuesday, it was derided by online commenters as cheaply produced; “the production values were only slightly better than local public access,” wrote Jonah Goldberg of the conservative National Review, calling it “hilarious.”

Mr. Olbermann did not directly cite production values as a reason for his absence, but he said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “I was not given a legitimate opportunity to host under acceptable conditions.”

He deferred an interview request to his manager, Michael Price, who said he expected that Mr. Olbermann would stay at Current. Mr. Price said he was unable to answer other questions because of confidentiality clauses in the anchorman’s contract, which is believed to last five years and be worth $50 million total.

A television heavyweight, Mr. Olbermann joined ESPN 20 years ago — Wednesday happened to be the anniversary of his first day on the job there — and anchored “SportsCenter” for years despite feuds with ESPN executives.

At MSNBC, too, where he spoke out forcefully against the Iraq war, helping to give the channel the liberal identity it now has, he refused to speak to his bosses for long stretches. But he stayed for eight years before departing there with only a moment’s notice last January.

When he was hired by Current shortly thereafter, he was given an equity stake in the company and given the title chief news officer, so he is both a boss and a person who is notoriously resistant to the notion of having a boss. Current seemed aware of the risk; even as the election coverage disagreement became public last week, an executive said, “This is Keith being Keith.”

Other staffers said that Mr. Olbermann, whose “Countdown” started on Current in June, was initially supportive of the channel, but changed his tone toward the end of the year, possibly because of management changes and the technical problems.

On several occasions, satellite feeds have stopped, lights have burned out and graphics packages have failed, embarrassing Mr. Olbermann.

“Countdown” on Current draws a fraction of the one million viewers that Mr. Olbermann attracted on MSNBC. In the fall, to complement the 8 p.m. “Countdown,” Current lined up Cenk Uygur, a former MSNBC anchor, and Jennifer M. Granholm, a former Michigan governor, to anchor shows before and after it. When Mr. Olbermann declined, according to Mr. Bohrman’s memo on Tuesday, to be “the sole anchor and executive producer of our primary and caucus coverage,” they were booked in his place, beginning in December for two post-Republican debate programs. The programs drew minuscule ratings.

When asked if Mr. Olbermann would be on Current next Tuesday, the night of the New Hampshire primary, the channel’s spokeswoman — who has been on the job for just two days — said a special report was scheduled, and added, “We hope that Keith will play a lead role in that coverage.”

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Media Decoder: Maddow Agrees to a New Contract With MSNBC

August 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Rachel Maddow in 2008.Rob Bennett for The New York Times
 Rachel Maddow, seen here in 2008, the 9 p.m. host on MSNBC.

4:57 p.m. | Updated |
LOS ANGELES– MSNBC said Tuesday that it had signed its top star, Rachel Maddow, to a new multi-year contract, cementing her position at the cable news channel for several years.

The new contract comes a little more than six months after Keith Olbermann hastily departed MSNBC, shaking up the channel’s prime time lineup. Mr. Olbermann, the 8 p.m. host, had been the top draw for viewers; now the top draw is Ms. Maddow, the 9 p.m. host, a protege of Mr. Olbermann who started hosting her show two months before the presidential election in 2008.

Her contract was expected to expire next year; now it will remain in effect well past that point, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the contract extension. Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, confirmed the contract extension at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles.

In an interview here, Ms. Maddow described the new deal as more or less a simple extension of her existing one.

“I’m really, really happy in this job and to have the chance to extend it for a few more years, especially with the year we’re about to have, is a real blessing,” she said. She declined to specify the length of the contract, but said, “This deal was about wanting more years doing what I’ve been doing.”

MSNBC signed a number of prominent contributors to new contracts earlier this year, in part to stave off attempts by Mr. Olbermann to poach them. When Mr. Olbermann brought his MSNBC program, “Countdown,” to Current TV in June, he talked openly about wanting Ms. Maddow to join him there in the future, but her contract extension effectively rules that out.

MSNBC is still sorting out its schedule in the wake of Mr. Olbermann’s exit; at the press tour on Tuesday, Mr. Griffin praised Al Sharpton, who has been hosting the 6 p.m. time slot for a month, but said he had not yet signed up Mr. Sharpton for a permanent position.

The prior 6 p.m. host this year was Cenk Uygur, who was moved out of the time slot and who rejected MSNBC’s offer of a weekend show last month. “I wanted Cenk to stay,” Mr. Griffin said, adding, “I hope one day he comes back. He was terrific. I have nothing bad to say about him.”

The channel is developing other potential progressive-leaning hosts the same way that it developed Ms. Maddow, by having frequent guests fill in as hosts for days or weeks at a time. On Monday, MSNBC said that one of Ms. Maddow’s most frequent substitutes, Christopher Hayes, would start hosting a weekend show in mid-September.

This week MSNBC executives expressed unreserved enthusiasm about another substitute for Ms. Maddow, Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor of political science at Tulane University, who filled in for the first time last week. In an interview Mr. Griffin cited her strong ratings and asked, “How could you not be over the moon about her?”

“She even handled breaking news last week, with the debt-ceiling votes happening,” he said. “She was off prompter, off script, she had people talking in her ear, and she handled it all.”

That kind of reaction is not unlike how MSNBC executives spoke about Ms. Maddow before she was eventually hired as a regular host. Mr. Griffin said, “This reminds me of how it went with Rachel.” But he indicated that he is not ready to sign Ms. Harris-Perry as a full-time host yet.

“Our whole thing is about creating a stable,” he said, adding that the strategy for Ms. Harris-Perry is “to continue to develop her, find places where she can fill in more. Things happen. Who knows?”

If anything, Ms. Maddow was even more impressed by her replacement. “She was awesome,” Ms. Maddow said. “She has been a phenomenal guest and bringing her in as a contributor was exactly the right thing to do. To see her up here and clicking with the teleprompter after like the first date, and to see the audience reaction both anecdotally and quantitatively, I just couldn’t be happier.”

Separately, Mr. Griffin also addressed persistent rumors that CBS could be pursuing MSNBC’s morning team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski. He said CBS “is going to have to be awfully patient,” because MSNBC has the “Morning Joe” team under contract “for a while.” He would not specify exactly how long that is, but he made it clear it is a matter of years, not months. Nor is MSNBC interested in allowing the team out of that contract, he said, citing the show’s improving ratings.

“I know they’re happy where they are,” Mr. Griffin said.

Also on Tuesday, an MSNBC spokesman confirmed that the channel had reinstated Mark Halperin, a political analyst who was suspended at the end of June for using a derogatory remark to disparage President Obama’s performance at a news conference. He is expected to appear on “Morning Joe” Wednesday.

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Sharpton’s Push for Comcast Raises Issues About Possible MSNBC Job

July 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The possible transition for Mr. Sharpton — from political influencer to television talent — highlights the complex relationships that can arise when cable news channels employ activists who take sides instead of journalists who don’t.

Mr. Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization, was one of the many activists and boldface names who agreed to support Comcast as it sought government approval for its takeover of NBCUniversal.

The Comcast chief executive, Brian L. Roberts, and the head of the company’s lobbying effort, David L. Cohen, met with Mr. Sharpton and other representatives of minority groups to talk about their bid early last year. That meeting, Mr. Sharpton said later, was the most important factor in his decision to support Comcast and urge the Federal Communications Commission to approve the NBC deal. Comcast then used the support of Mr. Sharpton and other civil rights activists to promote the proposed merger to government officials.

Rarely, if ever, has a cable news channel employed a host who has previously campaigned for the business goals of the channel’s parent company. But as channels like MSNBC have moved to more opinionated formats, they have exposed themselves to potential conflicts. (The hosts Keith Olbermann, before he left MSNBC, and Joe Scarborough were briefly suspended in 2010 when it was reported that they had made political donations.)

MSNBC said in a statement this week, “There is no agreement with Mr. Sharpton to host a program; however, it is important to note that Comcast plays no role in either the independent editorial decision-making of MSNBC or the selection of its hosts.”

Separately, Comcast said in a statement, “Comcast pledged from the day we announced the transaction that we would not interfere with NBCUniversal’s news operations, including at MSNBC. We have not and we will not.”

Mr. Sharpton has been a guest host for the 6 p.m. hour on MSNBC for most of the last month, effectively replacing Cenk Uygur, who confirmed last week that the channel had decided not to give him the time slot permanently.

Executives at MSNBC say they believe that Mr. Sharpton, a regular guest on the channel for years, may shore up the ratings at 6 p.m., a crucial hour that helps to set up the channel’s prime-time programming. But they emphasized that no decision had been made on hiring Mr. Sharpton. He said he had not been paid for his role as a guest host.

Mr. Sharpton threw his organizational weight behind the Comcast bid for NBC twice, first in his letter to the F.C.C. in May 2010, which said that his group had “for several years” had a “productive, honest and open dialogue at the highest levels of the company,” referring to Comcast, “and we are confident that this positive relationship will continue to prosper after the joint venture is approved.”

In December 2010, in the final stretch of the merger review, Mr. Sharpton reaffirmed his support when the National Action Network and other African-American leadership groups signed on to a diversity action plan with Comcast. The plan included a commitment by Comcast to seek “the expanded participation of minorities on its news and public affairs programming.”

To that end, Comcast said it would consider suggestions from its newly established diversity councils, including the National African American Diversity Council. That council includes Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, the chairman of the National Action Network, but not Mr. Sharpton.

In a telephone interview this week, Mr. Sharpton said there was no connection between his past support for Comcast and his current role as a host for MSNBC. “How could there be a connection?” he asked, noting that at the time of the merger review, there were no open time slots on the channel.

In April, Mr. Sharpton presented a National Action Network award to Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. Mr. Sharpton dismissed any connection there, too: “The year before, we honored Jeff Zucker,” he said, referring to the former chief executive of NBCUniversal. “Did Zucker give me ‘S.N.L.’?”

Mr. Sharpton said that if he were to join MSNBC, he would not leave the National Action Network, but would abstain from decisions that conflicted with his position in television.

Reports last week about Mr. Sharpton’s impending hiring created a stir among some black journalists who say that cable news channels had shortchanged minorities for many years.

On its Web site last week, the National Association of Black Journalists wrote that while Mr. Sharpton was about to advance to a permanent position, “there are no black journalists who can tout a similar promotion.”

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Sharpton Appears to Win Anchor Spot on MSNBC

July 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Mr. Sharpton’s imminent hiring, which was acknowledged by three people at the channel on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been signed, is significant in part because MSNBC and other news channels have been criticized for a paucity of minority hosts in prominent time slots. Mr. Sharpton, who is black and is a well-known civil rights activist and radio host, has been guest hosting in the 6 p.m. time slot for the last three weeks. 

There had been uncertainty about the 6 p.m. slot ever since the channel’s marquee anchor, Keith Olbermann, departed in January, prompting Ed Schultz to be moved to 10 p.m. from 6. Suddenly Mr. Uygur, who had been made a paid contributor to MSNBC months earlier, was handed 6 p.m., a big coup given that he had earlier campaigned to have his progressive Web show “The Young Turks” picked up by MSNBC. 

He earned solid but not stand-out ratings; in late June the channel’s president, Phil Griffin, decided to try out Mr. Sharpton, and offered Mr. Uygur a new contract that included a weekend show, but not a higher-profile weekday show. 

Mr. Uygur, who by most accounts was well liked within MSNBC, said in an interview that he turned down the new contract because he felt Mr. Griffin had been the recipient of political pressure. In April, he said, Mr. Griffin “called me into his office and said that he’d been talking to people in Washington, and that they did not like my tone.” He said he guessed Mr. Griffin was referring to White House officials, though he had no evidence for the assertion. He also said that Mr. Griffin said the channel was part of the “establishment,” and “that you need to act like it.” 

MSNBC is home to many hosts who criticize President Obama and other Democrats from a progressive point of view, but at times Mr. Uygur could be especially harsh.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Griffin denied Mr. Uygur’s accusations and sounded disappointed that he had decided not to accept the weekend position. “We never told Cenk what to say or what not to say,” Mr. Griffin said. 

The “people in Washington,” he said, were MSNBC producers who were responsible for booking guests for the 6 p.m. hour, and some of them had said that Mr. Uygur’s aggressive body language and overall demeanor were making it harder to book guests. “The conversation was, ‘Hey, look, here’s how we can make it better’ — about physical things on the show,” Mr. Griffin said.

Mr. Uygur’s audience on “The Young Turks” Webcast, which is separate from MSNBC, is younger than the audience on cable television, Mr. Griffin added, suggesting that the two demographics require different manners of speaking. Mr. Uygur stood by his account, saying in an e-mail, “That conversation on that day was not about body language.”

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said in an e-mail Wednesday that his staff did not raise any concerns about the show “with Phil Griffin or anyone else.”

“I didn’t agree with everything said on the show, but certainly didn’t have any problem with it,” Mr. Pfeiffer added.

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