Keith Olbermann Under Fire for ‘Burn in Hell’ Remark About Sinclair, Charlie Kirk
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Keith Olbermann is facing backlash on social media after attacking conservative activist Charlie Kirk just days after his death.
Olbermann, a former MSNBC host, took to X to blast Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns hundreds of stations across the country, over their reaction to late-night host Jimmy Kimmel being indefinitely suspended.
Kimmel’s show was pulled following comments about Kirk’s suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson.
“Burn in hell, Sinclair,” Olbermann wrote. “Alongside Charlie Kirk.”
The message was in response to Sinclair calling for ABC to air a Charlie Kirk remembrance special in Kimmel’s time slot.
The group also called for an apology from Kimmel to Kirk’s family. The company said they refuse to air Kimmel’s show until they are confident “appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”
Olbermann’s take on the situation sparked a pile-on from critics, some of whom joked they were going to try and get Olbermann fired, but then remembered he has no gig to blow up. Olbermann currently hosts a podcast through iHeartMedia.
On Kimmel’s show, the comedian accused “MAGA” of hitting a “new low” by working to prove Robinson was “anything other than one of them.” According to Utah officials and Robinson’s own family, the suspected shooter was indoctrinated in far-left ideologies in the years leading up to the murder.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
ABC indefinitely suspended the show after Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC affiliate stations across the country, said they would preempt the show for the foreseeable future.
In another post to social media that’s earned pushback, Olbermann denied the reported politics of Robinson and said the motivation was personal, referencing that Robinson was in a relationship with a trans partner. Olbermann blamed everything on President Donald Trump and the “violent madness” of modern-day politics.
“If Tyler Robinson indeed shot Charlie Kirk, he shot him for personal reasons because he saw Kirk as a direct threat to somebody he loved,” Olbermann claimed, going on to call the president the “leading threat” to the country.
