Keith Olbermann Under Fire for Alleged Profanity Laced E-Mails

It's been a tough week for low-rated cable news talk show host Keith Olbermann.  The former ESPN talking head has reportedly been on vacation, but during that time he has watched as it was reported that Karl Rove would not be indicted and had some alleged e-mails broadcast to the world via Lloyd Grove of the NY Daily News.

Tough Week for Olbermann (Image Credit: NBC)

First Grove exposed his bias against fellow MSNBC host Rita Cosby.

"Rita's nice," Olbermann wrote to a fan from his MSNBC E-mail account, "but dumber than a suitcase of rocks."  Rita's response shows she at least has more wit than Olbermann.  "Keith got it wrong. I'm not that nice."

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With that ball rolling some eager readers wrote in to share their Olbermann e-mail responses to Grove.

Olbermann's antagonists, who asked not to be named, repeatedly claimed in their June 8 E-mails that dead Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was Olbermann's "hero," prompting the television star to advise: "Hey, save the oxygen for somebody whose brain can use it. Kill yourself," Grove reports.

Here are some examples from the Daily Dish of Olbermann "confronting hate":

 "Given how far you are from knowing your a- from your elbow about my industry, you couldn't be stupider, wronger, or dumber ..."

 "Go (blank) your mother."

 "You 'Americans' still watching that evil f- O'Reilly?"

Grove piles on writing, "Apparently, they are. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly draws six times the viewership of his 8 p.m. weekday rival."

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Grove has owned the story and the best guess is Olbermann will carry the same opinion of him now as he does Cosby.

The New York gossip blog Jossip caught up with Olbermann at a book party for fellow liberal Al Gore at the American Museum of Natural History and asked if he would be kissing Dan Abrams butt now that he is running the network?

"I don't answer to anybody," Olbermann told Jossip.

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But he did apologize - sort of.

After Grove forwarded that and other E-mails to an MSNBC exec, Olbermann wrote:

"I apologize to anyone who might take offense at my part of this correspondence. It goes without saying that I should not have replied to these abusive and hateful E-mails, but I wonder how many of us could receive literally hundreds of them questioning our patriotism, religion and ethnic origin, without succumbing to the natural wish to confront such hate?"

That pretty much goes with the territory. 

Opinionated columnists and pundits get everything from death threats to accusations such as Olbermann experienced.  He should take heart - one can only imagine the notes he would receive if people actually tuned in and watched his show.

Jossip story is here

--CK Rairden