Keith Olbermann will be absent from his nightly “Countdown” on Monday night, and the rest of this week, too.
But it’s not because of a new spat with his employer, Current TV — it’s a vacation that was scheduled well ahead of time. David Shuster is filling in for him through Friday.
As the media columnist David Carr wrote in Monday’s New York Times, Mr. Olbermann appears to have patched things up with Current, the fledgling cable channel that promotes him as its biggest star. He did not participate in the channel’s coverage of two Republican presidential primary debates last month and the Iowa caucus this month, but says he will lead its election coverage in the future.
On Twitter on Sunday night, he wrote, “I’m pleased to tell you that I’ll be running the election coverage on Current, after New Hampshire. Not sure GOP will share my satisfaction.”
His Twitter message suggests that Mr. Olbermann will both anchor and produce the election coverage, just as he controls “Countdown,” his 8 p.m. hour on the channel. But the details are murky.
The next primary after New Hampshire is in South Carolina on Jan. 21. It is on a Saturday, so will Mr. Olbermann anchor? Will he include Current’s other political anchors in his coverage? Will he also oversee special reports after future debates?
Current declined to comment on Monday, apparently because the answers were not known.
In a statement, the channel said: “Keith has agreed to host future special election coverage on Current. We hope that this will start after New Hampshire. We’re looking forward to insightful and impactful 2012 election analysis.”
Meanwhile, with Mr. Olbermann on vacation, the channel will do for New Hampshire this week what it did for Iowa last week — bring on the anchors Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm and the channel’s co-founder, Al Gore, for four hours of political analysis.
From there, it’s in Mr. Olbermann’s hands. “FYI,” he wrote on Twitter Monday, “taking preplanned vacation this week; now w/ matter resolved I’ll be working during it planning the rest of my Current campaign coverage.”
One thing is for sure: It would seem almost as strange for Mr. Uygur, Current’s 7 p.m. anchor, and Ms. Granholm, the soon-to-be 9 p.m. anchor, to be sidelined completely from future election coverage as it was for Mr. Olbermann to be absent last week.
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