Keith Olbermann is the host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on the MSNBC cable TV network.
After graduating from college in 1979 he worked for UPI and RKO Radio. In 1981 Olbermann joined CNN and worked as a sports anchor for a Boston TV station. He eventually moved to Los Angeles to work at KTLA and KCBS TV. He gained a positive reputation as a sportscaster, earning several awards including being named Best Sportscaster by the California Associated Press three times.
From 1992 to 1997 Olbermann and Dan Patrick co-hosted ESPN's SportsCenter. He was instrumental in launching ESPN Radio and ESPN2. He left ESPN in 1997 because he was unhappy in Bristol Connecticut. He began hosting "The Big Show," his own show on MSNBC, that same year and occasionally covered NBC Nightly News spots. He became the anchor for Fox's The Keith Olbermann Evening News in 1998. Olbermann left Fox in 2001 and became a regular on CNN and provided sports commentary for the ABC Radio Network.
MSNBC rehired Olbermann in 2003 as an anchor for the Iraq war coverage. Olbermann launched Bloggermann his Countdown web log on MSNBC.com in 2004. The blog has an open format and is used to discuss facts mentioned on the broadcast, to offer personal thoughts and reactions, and to highlight breaking news. Countdown has been the highest rated program on the cable news network.
Olbermann insists that he maintains a nonpartisan perspective. In June 2005, Olbermann returned to ESPN Radio every Friday; his co-host is former colleague Dan Patrick.
Keith Olbermann Poll Results
This poll ran from April 30 to May 6, 2007.
| Mondo Stars Poll Results
|
"Rush Limbaugh is a racist."
True
   1271/47%
False
1453/53%
|
| Votes: 2724 |
Keith Olbermann, who names the three "worst people in the world" each night on the MSNBC cable news program Countdown With Keith Olbermann.
Olbermann selected Rush Limbaugh on March 5, 2007, saying "comedian Rush Limbaugh, pointing out that since ancestors of Al Sharpton were slaves and ancestors of Senator Barack Obama were slaveowners, quoting (Limbaugh) again, 'could we not say that if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and then wins the presidency, he will own Al Sharpton?'"
Olbermann added: "No, actually, we couldn't say that. But we could say that any lingering doubt about this is at an end: Rush Limbaugh is a racist."
This poll ran from March 12 to 19, 2007.
| Mondo Stars Poll Results
|
"'The war on terror' is a meaningless phrase."
True
918/57%
False
683/43%
|
| Votes: 1601 |
Keith Olbermann, from a "special comment" on the MSNBC cable news program Countdown With Keith Olbermann on January 3, 2007.
Speaking of the Iraq war and addressing his comments to President George W. Bush, Olbermann said "It has succeeded, Mr. Bush, in enabling you to deaden the collective mind of this country to the pointlessness of endless war, against the wrong people, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
"It has gotten many of us used to the idea — the virtual 'white noise' — of conflict far away, of the deaths of young Americans, of vague 'sacrifice' for some fluid cause, too complicated to be interpreted except in terms of the very important-sounding but ultimately meaningless phrase 'the war on terror.'
"And the war's second accomplishment — your second accomplishment, sir — is to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to have given that money to the war profiteers." | 
