Keith Goes Kamikaze Right When We Need Him Most

So it seems that my TV news idol Keith Olbermann -- the MSNBC host whom I just raved about in a previous item today -- has been having a few sanity/stability/anger management issues of late. New York Daily News columnist Lloyd Grove has been all over the story of how Olbermann has been busted for a poison-tipped e-mail assault. It came to light this week that Olbermann shared with a fan his view that fellow MSNBC host Rita Cosby is "nice" but "dumber than a suitcase of rocks," to which Cosby purportedly retorted, "Keith got it wrong. I'm not that nice."

Grove -- who had first reported this all on Wednesday -- followed up with more in his column today, writing that Olbermann had been forced to apologize in an e-mail to "anyone who might take offense" at his own e-mails, which he said were sent in response to "abusive and hateful" missives directed at him from viewers. Adding to the mess is the fact it's gotten picked up by The Drudge Report.

The examples listed by Grove today are still more damning of Olbermann and his unfortunate fire-with-both-barrels brand of hip-shooting. He's a tremendously bright and clever newsman who unfortunately allows his emotions and loose cannon penchant to get the best of him sometimes. Some of the other e-mails depict him as being far more rude, crude and hostile than necessary, which is especially disturbing since he's so much smarter and classier than this. But as we've seen repeatedly in the past (such as regarding his ongoing war with Bill O'Reilly), Keith isn't one to shrink from a fight -- often to his great detriment.

Word is that MSNBC and NBC execs are pretty upset about the offensive e-mails and what they say about one of the network's brightest stars. The timing unfortunately couldn't be worse with MSNBC President Rick Kaplan having stepped down only last week and replaced by young Dan Abrams, whom until now hosted the MSNBC legal hour "The Abrams Report." The fact Abrams is so youthful and inexperienced doesn't bode well for a guy like Olbermann's longterm prospects given his penchant for contemptuousness in the face of authority.

Olbermann failed to respond to an e-mail request for an interview. I pray that as practically a lone voice of reason and against-the-grain courage in the world of network TV news -- a journalistic universe populated primarily by spineless "yes" men/women and administration apologists -- Olbermann manages to weather the e-mail meltdown and to stop being goaded into this kind of garbage by losers who don't deserve to commandeer his civility.