Olbermann Offers Limited Coverage Of Republican Election Victory

It’s been less than two days since the first election under the Obama administration, and Countdown host Keith Olbermann has been curiously absent from the airwaves. Given that MSNBC touts itself as “the place for politics,” and that this is arguably the biggest political event of the year, it would seem to be a loss for MSNBC to lose its star anchor for the night of, and after, election results come in. In fact, Olbermann’s absence has given fuel to his critics on the right who have simply claimed that he didn’t like the results.

In baseball terms Olbermann is a franchise player — he’s often credited as the force behind MSNBC’s turn-around. So its no surprise that leading up to election day, MSNBC was promoting a “special live edition of Countdown” at 10:00 pm. But when the 10 o’clock hour game, the program began with Olbermann handing off the anchor chair to Lawrence O’Donnell, who seemed to be sharing anchor duties with Chris Matthews. After a commercial break around 10:15pmET, suddenly a repeat of the 8pmET Countdown began to air, then ran for the rest of the hour. Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer reported that he “heard that Olbermann was visiting his dad in the hospital, which accounted for his absence.” When asked for confirmation of this an MSNBC spokesperson provided no comment.

The following night also saw O’Donnell filling in for Olbermann, who was at the sixth and final game of the World Series (which the Yankees won.) Olbermann blogged about the game, and even posted a picture he apparently took of a smiling Fox News host Sean Hannity, whom Olbermann had named a “Worst Person” several times in the last year.

The first Tuesday that follows the first Monday in November every year is a day circled in the programming calendars of every cable news network. The stories that unfold on this day not only answer questions that have been hotly debated for the previous year, but also frame the discussion for the coming year. This year was no different and there were a number of interesting stories that came from this year’s election day. Whatever one thinks of the broader meaning and importance, there’s no question that the two biggest elections of the day were won by Republican candidates running for Governor in states that had gone for Obama just a year ago.

One can hardly fault Olbermann for looking after his ailing father, but should MSNBC have better considered the implications of Olbermann taking the next night off also? This has only served to fuel the critics who claim that Olbermann skipped work because he didn’t like the results of the election. Fair or not, its unnecessarily opened up questions that Olbermann and MSNBC would rather not address as they celebrate the fact that they overtook CNN in election night ratings.

An MSNBC spokesperson tells Mediaite that Keith Olbermann will be back on air, hosting Countdown, tonight.

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