Yesterday we showed you video of Erich "Mancow" Muller, a Chicago-based right-wing shockjock, appearing as a guest on Keith Olbermann's show to discuss his being waterboarded. He claimed it led to an ideological conversion! But now a tipster has provided information that suggests the whole thing may be a hoax.
Erich Muller, a rightwing Chicago shockjock known as "Mancow," recently agreed to be waterboarded to prove to all the big liberals that it's totally harmless and lasted all of six seconds. He appeared on Keith Olbermann's show to discuss how horribly misguided his views on waterboarding were previously.
Oh man, Keith Olbermann took to his nightly airwaves to try and shame CityFile, Wonkette and us for raising questions about his unexplained vacation last April. We're not sorry.
What were the "many sad logistics" that Keith Olbermann had to attend to when he took three days off work last month? That remains unclear, although he did have time to head over to Citi Field and take in a ballgame with his girlfriend and Jason Bateman. We all cope in different ways, clearly. [MLBlogs] [Update: Gawker has spoken with a source of its own at MSNBC and is now backing our account. See here.]
If you regularly tune in to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, you may remember that Olbermann was mysteriously absent from the show for three days at the end of April. But Olbermann didn't just "have the night off," as David Shuster, his fill-in, said on the air three evenings in a row. According to a source inside MSNBC, it was a bizarre temper tantrum on Olbermann's part that led him to storm off the set in protest. Even stranger: The drama was all Ben Affleck's fault.
More Carrie Prejean topless photos have emerged, real topless photos, Bob Barker and Betty White are about to kill each other over an elephant, and Nick Cannon is sick of Eminem talking about Mariah.
Katy Tur, the 25-year-old girlfriend of Keith Olbermann, has a new job! She's now "chasing tornadoes as part of The Weather Channel's Vortex2 team." (You can see a clip of her doing just that here.) When Tur landed her last TV reporting gig in 2008—her first in the industry despite precious little experience—it was rumored that the MSNBC host had helped her land the job.
• Boston Globe staffers are still reacting to the news that the New York Times Co. may shutter the paper in 30 days if certain pay concessions aren't met. The paper announced it plans to raise newsstand prices, and a small group of staffers staged a rally last night in support of the paper. [E&P, WCVB]
• Peter Bart is denying claims he was ousted as Variety's editor. [NYT]
• The AP says that sites that use the company's content will have to obtain permission and share revenue with them, or they'll face "legal action." [NYT]
• Keith Olbermann aired a eulogy for his mom on last night's show. [HP]
• For his part, O'Reilly wasn't too cool with pics of two men kissing. [Gawker]
• Thomson Reuters chief Tom Glocer riffs on the future of the Times. [NYO]
• You can now watch NBC while sitting on PATH trains. Thrilling! [MW]
• Even more thrilling: Playboy has launched its redesigned website. [BR, Folio]
It looks like you won't be seeing any less of Keith Olbermann on MSNBC anytime soon. Back in January, Phil Griffin, the network's president, told the Times that finding a new show to replace the rerun of Olbermann's Countdown at 10pm was a "top priority." But MSNBC's plans have changed, it seems. Griffin now says he's putting an "indefinite hold" on the search for someone new, which may have something to do with the fact a canned Olbermann still usually beats out CNN's Anderson Cooper:
How do you know all those tweet-happy celebrities are the real deal? 50 Cent, Keith Olbermann, Christopher Walken, and Britney Spears are just a few of those with questionable Twitter identities.
Being repeatedly exposed as factually incorrect or as a hypocrite doesn't seem to have hurt Bill O'Reilly's ratings. But a few more descriptions of him as a creepy stalker might do the trick.
