Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Ken Burns
birth name	Kenneth Lauren Burns
birth date	July 29, 1953
birth place	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
spouse	Julie Deborah Brown (2003-present)Amy Stechler Burns (1982-1993)
years active	1981 – present
website	}}

Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary films known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. Among his most notable productions are ''The Civil War'' (1990), ''Baseball'' (1994), ''Jazz'' (2001), ''The War'' (2007), and ''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' (2009).

Burns' documentaries have been nominated for two Academy Awards (''Brooklyn Bridge'' in 1982 and ''The Statue of Liberty'' in 1986) and have won seven Emmy Awards.

Personal life

Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Lylia (née Tupper), a homemaker, and Robert Kyle Burns, an anthropology professor. His brother Ric Burns also has become a noted documentary filmmaker.

Burns graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1975, and went on to be one of the co-founders of Florentine Films. The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees, Burns is a sought-after public speaker, appearing at colleges, civic organizations and business groups throughout the country. He resides in Walpole, New Hampshire with his wife Julie.

Career

As chief cinematographer on many of his documentaries, he has shaped the overall looks of the works. A key visual trait is the filming of live-action material (such as old houses, or battlefield locations) during the low sunlight of dawn or dusk. As a result, much of the original filmed material in a typical Ken Burns documentary contains a distinctive golden cast of low light.

Burns frequently incorporates simple musical leitmotifs or melodies. For example, his acclaimed ''The Civil War'' features a distinctive violin melody throughout, "Ashokan Farewell", which was performed for the film by the musician Jay Ungar. In a review of Burns' work, the online journal Salon.com noted, "One of the most memorable things about ''The Civil War'' was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."

Burns often gives "life" to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to rest on the player who is the subject of the narrator.

This technique, possible in many professional and home software applications, was affectionately named "The Ken Burns Effect" in Apple Inc.'s iPhoto and iMovie software applications. It also figures in the sixth-generation iPod interface in the cover art of the main menu.

Of Burns' many film series, ''The Civil War'' is generally considered to be his masterpiece. He was director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the series. It has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, a D.W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others. The nine episodes explore the Civil War through personal stories and photos. During the creation of the movie, Burns filmed thousands of archived photographs. ''The Civil War'' has been seen by more than 40 million people.

''The War'', 15 hours in length and seven years in the making, tells the story of the Second World War from the personal perspective of the men and women from four geographically distributed American towns: Waterbury, CT; Mobile, AL; Sacramento, CA; and Luverne, MN. Airing in the fall of 2007, it was the most watched series in the last ten years on PBS. 117 PBS stations across the nation participated in some form of community outreach (local documentaries, screenings, workshops, etc.) and nearly 30,000 educator guides went to every high school in the country.

''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' was a 2009 documentary broadcast on PBS that explored the history of America's national parks, along with interviews with the people who helped create and influence the parks and park policies. Like his previous most prominent films, ''The National Parks'' was very well received. In a review, ''New York Times'' critic Mike Hale stated that the first episodes and John Muir's writings read aloud were Burns' best effort in the series, however, the following episodes lost focus. Hale stated that the "folksy music" in Burns' national park series was a distraction rather than adding anything valuable to historical context.

Politics

Burns is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, with almost $40,000 in political donations. In 2008, the Democratic National Committee chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Edward Kennedy's August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention, a video described by ''Politico'' as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port." In endorsing Barack Obama for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln. He plans to be a regular contributor to Keith Olbermann's ''Countdown'' show on Current TV.

Filmography

''Brooklyn Bridge'' (1981)

''The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God'' (1984)

''The Statue of Liberty'' (1985)

''Huey Long'' (1985)

''The Congress'' (1988)

''Thomas Hart Benton'' (1988)

''The Civil War'' (1990)

''Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio'' (1991)

''Baseball'' (1994), updated with the ''10th Inning'' (2010)

''Thomas Jefferson'' (1997)

''Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery'' (1997)

''Frank Lloyd Wright'' (1998)

''Not For Ourselves Alone: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony'' (1999)

''Jazz'' (2001)

''Mark Twain'' (2001)

''Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip'' (2003)

''Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson'' (2005)

''The War'' (2007)

''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' (2009)

''Prohibition'' (2011) ''The Dust Bowl'' (scheduled for 2012)

''The Central Park Five'' (2013)

''The Roosevelts'' (2013)

''The Vietnam War'' (2016)

;Under Burns's name only

''The West'' (1996) (Executive Producer, Directed by Stephen Ives)

;Short films

''William Segal (Biography)'' (1992)

''Vezelay'' (1996)

''In the Marketplace'' (2000)

;Film roles

''Gettysburg'' (1993) - Hancock's staff officer

References

External links

Ken Burns interviewed on ''Conversations from Penn State''

Blue Ridge Country - Ken Burns: The Interview with Blue Ridge County Magazine

Florentine Films - Ken Burns's production company

''Write TV'' Public Television Interview with Ken Burns

Ken Burns at MyNorthwest.com

Ken Burns on PBS

Downloadable 15-minute interview with Ken Burns from Wisconsin Public Television Ken Burns talks about his passion for filmmaking, his upcoming project "The War," and the controversies surrounding it.

Ken Burns bibliography

Ken Burns Archive of American Television Interview

Speaking Profile Ken Burns's profile and lecture topics on the Random House Speakers Bureau

Category:1953 births Category:American documentary filmmakers Category:Documentary film directors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hampshire College alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from New Castle County, Delaware Category:Winners of the Lincoln Prize Category:People from Cheshire County, New Hampshire Category:National Humanities Medal recipients

de:Ken Burns es:Ken Burns eo:Ken Burns fr:Ken Burns he:קן ברנס no:Ken Burns nn:Ken Burns fi:Ken Burns sv:Ken Burns

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Name	Keith Olbermann
Birthname	Keith Theodore Olbermann
Birth date	January 27, 1959
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	B.S., Cornell University
Occupation	Political commentator
Years active	1980s–present
Credits	''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' (2003–2011)''SportsCenter'' (1992–1997)''Football Night in America'' (2007–2010)
Agent	}}

Keith Theodore Olbermann (; born January 27, 1959) is an American political commentator and writer. He is the host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Current TV, an approximately hour-long nightly commentary program, and the Chief News Officer of the Current TV network. A former sportscaster and news anchor, Olbermann hosted Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC for almost eight years before moving the show to Current TV. The new show began airing June 20, 2011.

Olbermann spent the first twenty years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and radio stations in the 1980s, winning the ''Best Sportscaster'' award from the California Associated Press three times. He later co-hosted ESPN's ''SportsCenter'' from 1992 to 1997. After leaving ESPN amid controversy, Olbermann became a sports anchor and producer for Fox Sports Net from 1998 to 2001, during which time he hosted Fox's studio coverage of baseball.

After leaving Fox, Olbermann re-joined MSNBC after a hiatus, hosting ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' from 2003 until 2011. Olbermann established a niche in cable news commentary, gaining note for his pointed criticism of major politicians and public figures, directed particularly at the political right. He feuded with rival Fox News Channel commentator Bill O'Reilly and strongly criticized the George W. Bush administration and John McCain's unsuccessful 2008 Presidential candidacy. Although he has said on at least one occasion "I'm not a liberal; I'm an American", many describe Olbermann as a liberal.

Early life

Olbermann was born January 27, 1959, in New York City to Marie Katherine (née Charbonier), a preschool teacher, and Theodore Olbermann, a commercial architect, and is of German descent. He has one younger sister, Jenna, who was born in 1968. Olbermann grew up in a Unitarian household in the town of Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County, and attended Hackley School in nearby Tarrytown.

Olbermann became a devoted fan of baseball at a young age, a love he inherited from his mother who was a lifelong New York Yankees fan. As a teenager, he often wrote about baseball card-collecting and appeared in many sports card-collecting periodicals of the mid-1970s. He is also referenced in ''Sports Collectors Bible'', a 1979 book by Bert Sugar, which is considered one of the important early books for trading card collectors.

While at Hackley, Olbermann began his broadcasting career as a play-by-play announcer for WHTR. After graduating from Hackley in 1975, Olbermann enrolled at Cornell University at the age of 16. At college, Olbermann served as sports director for WVBR, a student-run commercial radio station in Ithaca. Olbermann graduated from Cornell in 1979 with a B.S. in communications arts.

Sports broadcasting

Olbermann began his professional career at UPI and the RKO Radio Network before joining then nascent CNN in 1981. Among the early stories he covered was the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid including the "Miracle on Ice." In the early-to-mid '80s he was a sportscaster on the old WNEW 1130-AM radio station in New York City. Also in the mid-1980s, he did the voice-over on the USA Cable Network's "Cartoon Express", with cheering kids heard in the background. In 1984, he briefly worked as a sports anchor at WCVB-TV in Boston, before heading to Los Angeles to work at KTLA and KCBS. His work there earned him 11 Golden Mike Awards, and he was named best sportscaster by the California Associated Press three times.

ESPN

In 1992, Olbermann joined ESPN's ''SportsCenter'', a position he held until 1997 with the exception of a period from 1993–1994 when he was at ESPN2 on ''SportsNight''. He joined ESPN2 as their "marquee" personality to help launch the network. He often co-hosted ''SportsCenter'' 11 PM show with Dan Patrick, the two becoming a popular anchor team. In 1995, Olbermann won a Cable ACE award for Best Sportscaster. Olbermann later co-authored a book with Patrick called ''The Big Show'' about their experiences working at ''SportsCenter''; he also said that the short-lived ABC dramedy ''Sports Night'' was based on his time on ''SportsCenter'' with Patrick. He made $350,000 at the end of his tenure at ESPN.

Early in 1997, Olbermann was suspended for two weeks after he made an unauthorized appearance on ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central with then-host and former ESPN colleague Craig Kilborn. At one point in the show, he referred to Bristol, Connecticut (ESPN's headquarters), as a "'Godforsaken place." Later that year, Olbermann abruptly left ESPN under a cloud of controversy, apparently burning his bridges with the network's management; this began a long and drawn-out feud between Olbermann and ESPN. Between 1997 and 2007, incidents between the two sides included Olbermann's publishing an essay on Salon.com in November 2002, titled "Mea Culpa", in which he stated: "I couldn't handle the pressure of working in daily long-form television, and what was worse, I didn't know I couldn't handle it." The essay told of an instance when his former bosses remarked he had "too much backbone," a claim that is literally true, as Olbermann has six lumbar vertebrae instead of the normal five.

In 2004, Olbermann was not included in ESPN's guest lineup for its 25th anniversary ''SportsCenter'' "Reunion Week," which saw Craig Kilborn and Charley Steiner return to the ''SportsCenter'' set. In 2007, ten years after Olbermann's departure, in an appearance on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', he said: "If you burn a bridge, you can possibly build a new bridge, but if there's no river any more, that's a lot of trouble." During the same interview, Olbermann stated that he had recently learned that as a result of ESPN's agreeing to let him return to the airwaves, he was banned from ESPN's main (Bristol, Connecticut) campus.

Post-''SportsCenter''

In 1998, Olbermann joined Fox Sports Net as anchor and executive producer for ''The Keith Olbermann Evening News'', a sportscast similar to ''SportsCenter'', airing weekly on Sunday evenings. While at Fox, he again hosted the 2000 World Series as well as Fox Broadcasting's baseball ''Game of the Week''. In May and July 1999, Olbermann also guest starred ten times on the ''Hollywood Squares''.

According to Olbermann, he was fired from Fox in 2001 after reporting on rumors that Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns Fox, was planning on selling the Los Angeles Dodgers. When asked about Olbermann, Murdoch said: "I fired him...He's crazy." News Corp. went on to sell the Dodgers to Frank McCourt in 2004. That year, Olbermann remarked, "Fox Sports was an infant trying to stand [in comparison to ESPN], but on the broadcast side there was no comparison—ESPN was the bush leagues."

After Olbermann left Fox Sports in 2001, he provided twice-daily sports commentary on the ABC Radio Network, reviving the "Speaking of Sports" and "Speaking of Everything" segments begun by Howard Cosell.

In 2005, Olbermann made a return to ESPN on the radio when he began co-hosting an hour of the syndicated ''Dan Patrick Show'' on ESPN radio, a tenure that lasted until Patrick left ESPN on August 17, 2007. Olbermann and Patrick referred to this segment as "The Big Show," just as their book was known. Patrick often introduced Olbermann with the tagline "saving the democracy," a nod to his work on ''Countdown''.

On April 16, 2007, Olbermann was named co-host of ''Football Night in America'', NBC's NFL pre-game show that precedes their Sunday Night NFL game, a position which reunited him in 2008 with his former ''SportsCenter'' co-anchor Dan Patrick. Olbermann left the show prior to the start of the 2010 season.

News journalism

In 1997, Olbermann left ESPN to host a primetime show on MSNBC, ''The Big Show with Keith Olbermann'' (ESPN objected to the use of the title). The news-driven program, with substantial discussion, relied on Olbermann to carry the 8 to 9 PM hour. The show typically covered three or four topics in a one-hour broadcast. Olbermann also hosted two Sunday editions of ''NBC Nightly News'' and once co-anchored a Saturday edition of the ''Today'' show. During that period, Olbermann along with Hannah Storm, also co-hosted NBC Sports' pre-game coverage of the MLB 1997 World Series.

When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in 1998, ''The Big Show with Keith Olbermann'' morphed into ''White House in Crisis''. Olbermann became frustrated as his show was consumed by the Lewinsky story. In 1998, he stated that his work at MSNBC would "make me ashamed, make me depressed, make me cry." Olbermann left MSNBC for Fox Sports Net shortly thereafter.

After leaving Fox Sports in 2001, Olbermann returned once more to news journalism. In 2003, his network won an Edward R. Murrow Award for writing on the "Keith Olbermann Speaking of Everything" show. In addition, Olbermann wrote a weekly column for Salon.com from July 2002 until early 2003., worked for CNN as a freelance reporter, and was a fill-in for newscaster Paul Harvey.

Olbermann revived his association with MSNBC in 2003 briefly as a substitute host on ''Nachman'' and as an anchor for the network's coverage of the war in Iraq.

''Countdown with Keith Olbermann''

Olbermann's own show, ''Countdown'', debuted on March 31, 2003, in the 8 p.m. ET time slot previously held by programs hosted by Phil Donahue and, briefly, Lester Holt. On October 13, 2004, Olbermann launched ''Bloggermann'', his ''Countdown'' blog, hosted on MSNBC.com. Olbermann used the open format of the blog to expand on facts or ideas alluded to in the broadcast, to offer personal musings and reactions. However, in February 2007, Olbermann launched a new blog, ''The News Hole''.

''Countdown'''s format, per its name, involves Olbermann ranking the five biggest news stories of the day or sometimes "stories my producers force me to cover," as Olbermann puts it. This is done in numerically reverse order, counting down with the first story shown being ranked fifth but apparently the most important. The segments ranked numbers two and one typically are of a lighter fare than segments ranked five through three. The first few stories shown are typically oriented toward government, politics, and world events. His stories usually involve celebrities, sports, and, regularly and somewhere in the middle, the bizarre, in a segment he calls "Oddball." Opinions on each are offered by Olbermann and interviewed guests. Olbermann has been criticized for only having guests that agree with his perspective. Former ''Los Angeles Times'' television critic Howard Rosenberg stated that "Countdown is more or less an echo chamber in which Olbermann and like-minded bobbleheads nod at each other."

In a technique similar to that of former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in connection to the Iran Hostage Crisis, Olbermann for many years closed the program by counting the days since May 1, 2003, the day that President George W. Bush declared the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq under a banner that read "Mission Accomplished", and then crumpling up his notes, throwing them at the camera and saying "Good night and good luck" in the mode of another former CBS newsman, Edward Murrow. Olbermann discounts this gesture to his hero as "presumptuous" and a "feeble tribute."

On February 16, 2007, MSNBC reported that Olbermann had signed a four-year extension on his contract with MSNBC for ''Countdown'' which also provided for his hosting of two ''Countdown'' specials a year to be aired on ''NBC'' as well as for his occasional contribution of essays on ''NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams''.

Olbermann co-anchored, with Chris Matthews, MSNBC's coverage of the death of fellow NBC News employee Tim Russert on June 13, 2008. He presented a tribute, along with several fellow journalists, in honor of Russert.

During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Olbermann co-anchored MSNBC's coverage with Chris Matthews until September 7, 2008, when they were replaced by David Gregory after complaints from both outside and inside of NBC that they were making partisan statements. This apparent conflict of interest had been an issue as early as May 2007, when Giuliani campaign officials complained about his serving in dual roles, as both a host and a commentator. Despite this, ''Countdown'' was broadcast both before and after each of the presidential and vice-presidential debates, and Olbermann and Matthews joined Gregory on MSNBC's Election Day coverage. Olbermann and Matthews also led MSNBC's coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

In November 2008, it was announced that Olbermann had signed a four-year contract extension worth an estimated $30 million.

Feud with Bill O'Reilly

Since beginning ''Countdown'''s "Worst Person in the World" segment in July 2005, Olbermann has repeatedly awarded Bill O'Reilly, host of ''The O'Reilly Factor'' on Fox News Channel, the dubious honor. The feud between the anchors originated with Olbermann's extensive coverage of a 2004 sexual harassment suit brought against O'Reilly by former Fox News Channel producer Andrea Mackris during which Olbermann asked ''Countdown'' viewers to fund the purchase of lurid audio tapes allegedly held by Mackris. In 2008 O'Reilly decided to avoid mentioning Olbermann's name on the air, and once cut off a caller who mentioned Olbermann. O'Reilly has also led campaigns against MSNBC's political coverage without ever specifically mentioning Olbermann. The rivalry continued when in 2006 at Television Critics' Association in California, Olbermann donned a mask of O'Reilly and made a Nazi salute, leading to a letter of protest from the Anti-Defamation League.

In an article on "perhaps the fiercest media feud of the decade", the ''New York Times's'' Brian Stelter noted that as of early June 2009 the "combat" between the two hosts seems to have abruptly ended due to instructions filtered down to Olbermann and O'Reilly from the chief executives of their respective networks. On the August 3, 2009 edition of ''Countdown'', Olbermann asserted that he had made statements to Stelter before the article was published denying that he was a party to such a deal, or that there was such a deal between NBC and Fox News, or that any NBC executive had asked him to change ''Countdown'''s content. Olbermann maintained that he had stopped joking about O'Reilly because of O'Reilly's attacks of George Tiller, and soon resumed his criticism of O'Reilly.

Suspension

On October 28, 2010, days before the 2010 U.S. elections, Olbermann donated $2,400 each to three Democratic candidates for Congress: Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, and Arizona Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. Grijalva had appeared on Olbermann's show immediately before Olbermann mailed the donations. In response, on November 5, MSNBC President Phil Griffin suspended him indefinitely without pay for violating a network policy which required employees to obtain approval from management before making political contributions. An online petition calling for his reinstatement received over 250,000 signatures; two days after the suspension began, Griffin announced that Olbermann would return to the air on November 9.

Departure

On January 21, 2011, Olbermann announced his departure from MSNBC and the episode would be the final episode of ''Countdown''. MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with Olbermann, with no further explanation. Additional reporting in the days immediately following suggested that the negotiations for the end of Olbermann's tenure at MSNBC had begun soon after the end of his suspension.

Current TV and FOKNewsChannel.com

On February 8, 2011, it was announced that Olbermann had taken the position of Chief News Officer for the Al Gore/Joel Hyatt public affairs channel Current TV. It was confirmed that he would begin hosting a one-hour prime time program on the network "sometime in the spring." The new show was scheduled to air at 8 PM Eastern — the same time slot that ''Countdown'' was in. On April 26, 2011 it was announced that Olbermann's new show would debut on June 20 and would be named "Countdown with Keith Olbermann". Olbermann will also be heavily involved in the development of the rest of the network's news programming. The deal includes an equity stake in Current TV.

During the interim between shows, Olbermann also launched an "official not-for-profit" blog called FOKNewsChannel.com, "FOK" being an abbreviation for "Friends Of Keith". The blog features political commentaries by Olbermann—including viral video versions of ''Countdown'''s "Special Comment" and "Worst Person" segments—as well as photographs of his outings at professional baseball games. On May 29, 2011, the FOKNewsChannel.com domain redirected to the Current website promoting the June 20 launch.

Political positions

Viewpoints

Although it began as a traditional newscast, ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' eventually adopted an opinion-oriented format. In a ''Countdown'' interview with Al Franken on October 25, 2005, Olbermann noted that in 2003, after having Janeane Garofalo and Franken on his show, a vice president of MSNBC had questioned him on inviting "liberals" on consecutive nights, contrasting that occurrence to the apparent ideological latitude he enjoyed at the time of the second Franken interview. In January 2007 ''The Washington Post'''s Howard Kurtz wrote that Olbermann was "position[ing] his program as an increasingly liberal alternative to ''The O'Reilly Factor''." Much of the program has featured harsh criticism of prominent Republicans and right-leaning figures, including those who worked for or supported the George W. Bush Administration, 2008 Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain and running mate Governor Sarah Palin, and rival news commentator Bill O'Reilly, whom Olbermann has routinely dubbed the "Worst Person In The World."

During the 2008 Democratic Party primaries Olbermann frequently chastised presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton for her campaign tactics against her principal opponent, Senator Barack Obama, and made her the subject of two of his "special comments". Olbermann has also posted on the liberal blog Daily Kos.

In November 2007, British newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' placed Olbermann at #67 on their Top 100 list of most influential US liberals. It said that he uses his MSNBC show to promote "an increasingly strident liberal agenda." It added that he would be "a force on the Left for some time to come." Avoiding ideological self-labeling, Olbermann once told the on-line magazine Salon.com, "I'm not a liberal, I'm an American."

Before the 2010 Massachusetts special election, Olbermann called Republican candidate Scott Brown "an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, Tea Bagging supporter of violence against women, and against politicians with whom he disagrees". This was criticized by his colleague Joe Scarborough, who called the comments "reckless" and "sad". Yael T. Abouhalkah of the ''Kansas City Star'' said that Olbermann "crossed the line in a major way with his comments". Jon Stewart criticized him about this attack in his show by noting that it was "the harshest description of anyone I've ever heard uttered on MSNBC", following which Olbermann apologized by noting, "I have been a little over the top lately. Point taken. Sorry."

He has accused the Tea Party movement of being racist due to what he views as a lack of racial diversity at the events, using photos that show overwhelmingly Caucasian crowds attending the rallies. In response, the Dallas Tea Party invited Olbermann to attend one of their events and also criticized his network for a lack of racial diversity, pointing out that an online banner of MSNBC personalities that appears on the website shows only white personalities. Olbermann declined the invitation, citing his father's prolonged ill health and hospitalization and noted that the network has minority anchors, contributors and guests.

Criticism of the Bush administration

In Olbermann's "Special Comment" segment on July 3, 2007, he called President George W. Bush's commutation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence the "last straw" and called for the resignation of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

On his February 14, 2008 "Special Comments" segment, Olbermann castigated Bush for threatening to veto an extension of the Protect America Act unless it provided full immunity from lawsuits to telecom companies. During the same commentary, Olbermann called Bush a fascist.

In a special comment on May 14, 2008, Olbermann criticized Bush for announcing that he had stopped playing golf in honor of American soldiers who died in the Iraq war. He stated that Bush never should have started the war in the first place, and he accused Bush of dishonesty and war crimes.

Baseball fan

Olbermann is a dedicated baseball fan and historian of the sport, with membership in the Society for American Baseball Research. In 1973, when he was only 14 years old, Card Memorabilia Associates published his book ''The Major League Coaches: 1921–1973''. The September issue of Beckett Sports Collectibles Vintage included a T206 card that depicted Olbermann in a 1905-era New York Giants uniform. He argues that New York Giants baseball player Fred Merkle has been unduly criticized for his infamous baserunning mistake. He contributed the foreword to ''More Than Merkle'' (ISBN 0-8032-1056-6), a book requesting amnesty for "Merkle's Boner". Olbermann was also one of the founders of the first experts' fantasy baseball league, the ''USA Today Baseball Weekly'' League of Alternative Baseball Reality, and he gave the league its nickname "LABR". Olbermann wrote the foreword to the 2009 Baseball Prospectus Annual.

In March 2009, Olbermann began a baseball-related blog entitled Baseball Nerd. He has also written a series of articles on baseball cards for the ''Sports Collectors Digest''.

Personal life

In June 2006, Olbermann began dating Katy Tur, now a reporter with WNBC-TV. According to Mediaite, the couple broke up in 2009 after three years of cohabitation.

Olbermann suffers from a mild case of coeliac disease, as well as restless legs syndrome. In August 1980, he also suffered a head injury while "leaping" onto the NYC subway. This head injury permanently upset his equilibrium, resulting in his avoidance of driving. Along with Bob Costas, he supports the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation as an honorary board member.

During a period in the mid-1990s, Olbermann appeared in a series of Boston Market advertisements, in which he would instruct a group of underweight models to "Eat something!"

Olbermann's father, Theodore, died on March 13, 2010 of complications from colon surgery the previous September. His mother had died several months before. Olbermann had cited the need to spend time with his father for taking a leave of absence shortly before his father's death, occasionally recording segments to air at the beginning of the shows which Lawrence O'Donnell guest hosted in his absence, giving his views on the state of the American health care system and updating viewers on his father's condition.

Career timeline

''SportsCenter'', co-anchor (1992–1997) ''The Big Show'', anchor (1997–1998) ''White House in Crisis'', anchor (1997–1998) ''Major League Baseball on Fox'', studio host (1999–2000) ''The Keith Olbermann Evening News'', anchor (1998–2001)

''Football Night in America'', co-host (2007–2010)

''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'', anchor (MSNBC: 2003–2011; Current TV: 2011–present)

Bibliography

''The Major League Coaches: 1921–1973'' (Card Memorabilia Associates, 1973).

''The Big Show: Inside ESPN's Sportscenter'' (Atria, 1997) (coauthor: Dan Patrick). ISBN 0-671-00918-4.

''The Worst Person In the World and 202 Strong Contenders'' (Wiley, September 2006). ISBN 0-470-04495-0.

''Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values'' (Random House, December 2007). ISBN 978-1-4000-6676-6.

''Pitchforks and Torches: The Worst of the Worst, from Beck, Bill, and Bush to Palin and Other Posturing Republicans'' (Wiley, October 25, 2010). ISBN 0-470-61447-1.

References

External links

Fok News Channel

Keith Olbermann on Current TV

Keith Olbermann's blog on The Daily Kos

Baseball Nerd, Keith Olbermann's Major League Baseball blog

Keith Olbermann's biography at TV guide

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1959 births Category:American broadcast news analysts Category:American political pundits Category:American television news anchors Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Boston, Massachusetts television anchors Category:Cornell University alumni Category:American writers of German descent Category:Living people Category:Television news anchors in Los Angeles, California Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:MSNBC Category:NBC News Category:People from New York City Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:National Football League announcers

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