On Tuesday night’s Countdown, fiery host Keith Olbermann delivered one of his trademark Special Comment™ segments on the roiling controversy surrounding the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity’s decision to de-fund, then maybe re-fund, Planned Parenthood‘s screening services. He compared the incident to McCarthy-era “witch hunts,” and said that Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker had “dishonored both her sister’s memory, and this essential cause.”

After a week off due to a bout with bronchitis, Countdown host Keith Olbermann returned to the air Monday night, to the center of the Current TV universe, and to the black backdrop that seems a fitting stand-in for the star’s reportedly tumultuous relationship with his employer. According to a new report by Newsweek, that relationship may be hanging by a thread, and with it, the future of Current’s plan to become the left’s answer to Fox News.

This week, viewers of Current TV’s Countdown have been treated to syndicated liberal radio powerhouse Bill Press filling the anchor chair for bronchitis-stricken Keith Olbermann. Contrary to this item at Huffington Post, Press will also host Countdown‘s Florida primary coverage Tuesday night, along with guest analyst Eliot Spitzer (Spitzer will then fill in as Countdown host Wednesday night). Olbermann’s absence may be providing viewers with a glimpse of Current’s future.

As it becomes ever more clear that Mitt Romney will likely be the Republican presidential nominee, the former Massachusetts Governor’s opponents will continue to mine the interweb for rich deposits of oppo ore. On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann reintroduced America to Clayton Holton, an 80-lb medical marijuana patient who had an encounter with Romney in 2007 that would make a tauntaun reach for a sweater (translation for non-dorks: it was mighty chilly).

CNN contributor and Editor-in-Chief of Big Journalism Dana Loesch took a lot of flak over the weekend for her declaration of solidarity with the four Marines who videotaped themselves urinating on the corpses of alleged Taliban fighters, in which she said “I’d drop trou and do it too.”

Countdown host Keith Olbermann and liberal watchdog Media Matters, among others, have called for CNN to fire Loesch over the remark, and according to Big Journalism, even Politico is in on the act.

After several reports on the relationship between the network and anchor Keith Olbermann, Current TV head Al Gore made several statements today confirming that Olbermann is “fine” at the network and attacking MSNBC for being “all over the lot” politically, while Current was “consistent” in its progressivism.

On the bright side, Keith Olbermann is probably getting more headlines in the past week than in his entire time at Current TV (and possibly some of his MSNBC time as well). On the downside, most of them haven’t been great headlines. Following The New York Times‘ reports that there were tensions between the anchor and his new home, Gawker has posted a blistering slam from someone purporting to be a former employee. Olbermann immediately accused Gawker of being “pwned by a fake source.”

The enigmatic feud between Countdown host Keith Olbermann and his network, Current TV, has ended, not with a bang, but with a Sunday announcement that the fiery liberal provocateur has agreed to anchor the network’s election coverage following Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary, which isn’t quite the network’s preferred outcome, but close enough. Still unresolved is the reason for this dust-up, which Olbermann has implied had at least something to do with technical difficulties on his news hour.

The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter has been at the tip of the spear in covering the mysterious rift between Countdown host Keith Olbermann and Current TV. Yesterday, the website WhatsTrending.com reported “Keith Olbermann And Brian Stelter Duke It Out On Twitter,” but what really happened was Olbermann pushed back at Stelter’s latest reporting, and Stelter ignored him. Among the charges leveled by Olbermann is that Stelter “threatened” him.

The plot of the bewildering, apparently one-sided dispute between Countdown host Keith Olbermann and Current TV is thinning as it thickens. A source at the network tells Mediaite that, despite the ominous Hollywood Reporter story that “lawyers” are discussing the dustup over Current’s Iowa Caucus coverage, Olbermann’s attorneys have not been in touch with the network on that matter. The source also says that the network has invited Olbermann to anchor Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary coverage, but has not gotten a response.

The ascendance of former Sen. Rick Santorum to a near-victory in the Iowa caucuses has Santorum on everyone’s lips, wondering how long the candidate can be a factor in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. On Wednesday night’s Countdown, activist and columnist Dan Savage reminded Keith Olbermann that Santorum doesn’t just have an anti-gay agenda, “he has an anti-straight agenda, too.”

It appears that the situation between Keith Olbermann and Current TV that led to the “Chief News Officer” there being excluded from primetime Iowa caucus coverage has taken a turn for the worse. Olbermann’s lead attorney spoke to The Hollywood Reporter today confirming that lawyers are discussing the matter, while the host himself tells THR: “I was not given a legitimate opportunity to host under acceptable conditions.”

If you thought the battle between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney* for top spot in Iowa was the roughest exchange of the night, you should probably start following some cable news personalities on Twitter. This time, it was Piers Morgan and Keith Olbermann who found themselves locking antlers via social media because of tonight’s Iowa caucus

Is history repeating itself? Mere days after reports surfaced of a rift between Countdown host Keith Olbermann and Current TV, the host unexpectedly tweeted ominous news on Tuesday: “So as not to mislead: I am informed Countdown will not be on tonight. I must defer on all questions to @JoelHyatt @AlGore and@Current.”

Keith Olbermann has been manning the fort over at Current TV as its chief news officer since his departure from MSNBC last year, and yet at least one New York Times reporter noticed that, for his prominent position, he appears noticeably absent during the network’s campaign coverage. Brian Stelter went on a quest to find Olbermann outside of his time slot and found little answers, other than off-the-record tensions between Olbermann and the network’s administration.

On Monday night’s broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann matched the show’s edgy new look with some choice language for Motor City Madman Ted Nugent. Flouting the obviously more=relaxed standard of his new home at Current TV, Olbermann gifted the Nuge with the coveted “Worst Person in the World” prize for calling Occupy protesters “dirty, stinky hippies,” and stuck a big profane bow on it, calling Nugent “Asshole!” as he finished the segment.

On last night’s edition of A News Tribute To Sinead O’Connor Videos, also known as Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann interviewed Branden Lane, the Wisconsin “Occupy” activist who ambushed Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly on his way to the White House, and got a face-full of O’Reilly umbrella for his trouble. Lane described his altercation with O’Reilly, while Olbermann pointed out the differences between O’Reilly’s account of the incident and the videotaped evidence.

Regular viewers of Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann may have noticed that the progressive newshour has gone dark this week. Early on in Monday’s show, technical problems beset the program, and since then, Olbermann has been hosting his show from what appears to be an endless black void. Mediaite has confirmed that Olbermann has not been confined to an interdimensional limbo, nor is he broadcasting from inside Rush Limbaugh‘s head.

A few weeks ago, I reported that Michael Moore had gone completely off the deep end in his escalating campaign of anti-Obama wingnuttery, making the fact-free claim that President Obama (whom he endearingly calls “O”) had “greenlit” a nationwide crackdown on Occupy Wall Street encampments. Despite widespread ridicule of this delusion, Moore renewed the accusation early this morning, this time in response to evictions at the Philadelphia and Los Angeles camps.

Comedian Richard Lewis appeared on Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann Monday evening and said scandal-laden Republican candidate Herman Cain would be lucky to be a doorman.

On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann gave Rep. Allen West (R-FL) top honors in his “Worst Persons” segment, ostensibly for “admitting” (and even “bragging”) that he was a member of a white supremacist motorcycle gang, after denying any connection to such a gang for the past year or so.

While West’s courtship of motorcycle clubs like The Outlaws is still worthy of scrutiny, the fact is that he made no such admission.

Chris Matthews‘ son, actor Thomas Matthews, will play a producer in Aaron Sorkin‘s new series about a cable TV news show.

Last Friday, I made my way down to Zuccotti Park to meet up with Current TV’s latest host, Cenk Uygur (who was taping a week’s worth of shows there), for a quick discussion about a variety of topics: the Occupy Wall Street movement, the role of corporate media in its coverage of the protest, and when and what we can expect to see his new Young Turks show on Current. A series of unfortunate events conspired to delay the interview, which lessened the total time to just a few minutes. However, Uygur packed a lot of observations about the OWS protests, the Tea Party, and the media into our short visit.

On the heels of its signing of The Young Turks‘ Cenk Uygur, Current TV has announced that former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will star in a new show, called The War Room, that will follow ratings anchor Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 9pm. Former Vice President Al Gore, Chairman and co-founder of Current, is very high on Granholm, telling reporters this afternoon that, had it not been for her Canadian birth, she might have become the first female President of the United States.

MSNBC’s third quarter ratings put the network just a smidgen ahead of CNN, which has filed competitive prime-time viewership numbers for the first time in years. MSNBC’s ratings have fallen where CNN has gained, most starkly so in Keith Olbermann‘s old 8pm hour. Could Olbermann’s exit be to blame for MSNBC’s fall in rank?