The Cable Gamer doesn't doubt for a second that Phil Griffin won't grovel as needed--that's what Griffin does for a living--but that might not be good enough for Olby. Nor good enough for Comcast.
As Shuter puts it:
"Keith is furious about the way this has all been handled and insisted that MSNBC bosses apologize to him before he would agree to return," a network insider tells me. "Keith sees himself as the star of MSNBC, the person who put them on the map and discovered fellow network anchors Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. To be treated like this by the network he helped shape, he considers disgusting."
Until today MSNBC employees had to follow ethics guidelines clearly barring them from making political contributions. After Olbermann's "indefinite suspension without pay," it appears those rules may see some revision.
"In addition to an apology, Keith is demanding that the rules be changed," an executive tells me. "Keith thinks it's unfair that FOX News anchors can make contributions and support candidates and he can't. It's his money that he has earned, he should be allowed to do whatever he wants with it. What sort of country do we live in where an actor can trash a hotel room with an escort and drugs and Keith can't donate money to people running for office he believes in? It makes no sense. If they think they can slap Keith's wrist and have him to return a few days later like nothing happened they are wrong. They picked the wrong guy."
That's a long list of Olby-demands. As noted, Griffin & the empty suits at MSNBC/NBC will most likely back down. But there are suits--the Comcast suits--behind them.
