Keith Olbermann Suspended Indefinitely By MSNBC For Campaign Contributions

Countdown host Keith Olbermann has been suspended without pay indefinitely by MSNBC for giving campaign contributions to three Democrats running for federal office, including one that appeared on his show the same day the donation was made. The misconduct was first alleged by Politico this morning, was later confirmed by MSNBC and resulted in Olbermann’s suspension by the afternoon. Quite a whirlwind for the host who just two days ago was anchoring MSNBC’s election returns.

Since news of his suspension was made public, Olbermann has confirmed he made the donations, saying these contributions were the first he’s ever made and that at no point did he either “privately or publically encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns.” NBC has a long standing policy of barring its news employees from donating to federal campaigns.

No word yet on what MSNBC might do with Olbermann’s time slot or whether this breach in etiquette will sever the company’s relationship with arguably its most famous anchor. Stay tuned for more developments and a longer analysis to run later tonight.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.