NBC suspends Keith Olbermann without pay after he admits donating thousands to the Democrats
MSNBC has suspended prime-time host Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for contributing to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates this election season.
Olbermann admitted to NBC that he donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.
He makes no pretense of being impartial but apparently was subject to ethics standards that apply to NBC News joualists.
NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president - effectively a ban.
Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations.
'I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night,' Phil Griffin, MSNBC's chief executive, said Friday.
'Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.'
Olbermann was not immediately available for comment.
In his statement to Politico, he said: 'I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level.'
He is clearly a liberal partisan on his show Countdown With Keith Olbermann.
On the show he often rebuts comments made by conservative media figures such as radio host Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News - often by attempting to imitate their voices while reading back their own words.
'Countdown' show is MSNBC's most popular program. Olbermann has helped make MSNBC something of a liberal alteative to Fox News, which is decidedly conservative.
His on-the-air transformation from the host of a straight news program to a liberal commentator led the network itself to go in the same direction, filling its prime-time lineup with left-leaning hosts and doing better in the ratings than at any time since its 1996 launch.
MSNBC has featured Olbermann in ads promoting the cable network.
Olbermann had criticized Fox News' parent company, News Corp, for donating $1 million to the Republican Goveors Association.
He was a co-anchor of MSNBC's election coverage this week. The network's performance drew some criticism, particularly with Chris Matthews' contentious interviews with Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackbu.
Chris Hayes will fill in for Olbermann on Friday's program, the network said.
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