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Keith Olbermann, the outspokenly progressive host of MSNBC’s “Countdown” and bête noire of right-wing talkers, abruptly stepped down from the cable news network Friday night — almost two years before his contract was set to expire.

While he gave no specific reasons, Olbermann told viewers in a farewell message that “there were many occasions, particularly in the last two and a half years, where all that surrounded the show — but never the show itself — was just too much for me.”

Olbermann had locked horns with NBC Universal management on various occasions, most recently last fall when he was briefly suspended for making contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates. He complained at the time that the network’s policy on the issue was inconsistent.

His departure, after eight years on the air, comes just days before cable giant Comcast Corp. takes over operational control of NBC Universal in the wake of the company’s purchase of a majority stake in it from General Electric Co. An MSNBC spokesman, cited on the network’s website, said the impending takeover had nothing to do with Olbermann’s departure while Comcast said in a written statement that it “pledged from the day the deal was announced that we would not interfere with NBC Universal’s news operations. We have not and we will not.”

Olbermann was MSNBC’s most popular figure and hosted the highest rated show of any cable news network outside of Fox, which dominates the top spots.

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I'm real broke up about this.  

Olberman is said to be very talented, but also extremely difficult to work with.  I suspect he's a jerk and the network had had enough.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
I'm real broke up about this.  

Olberman is said to be very talented, but also extremely difficult to work with.  I suspect he's a jerk and the network had had enough.

I have heard that too, but as an avid fan, I know that he has gone through a lot in his personal life in the last couple of years. Sometimes when politics & news get to be "too much" I have to walk away for awhile.  It really gets me down.  Just think if you did that for a living and couldn't walk away from it?  Keith Obermann really invested a lot of himself in helping people, the health care debate, etc.  I noticed when Gabby Giffords got shot, he seemed to take it really hard.  I think part of his reason for leaving may have just been "burn-out".

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Yeah...maybe he's in the wrong line of work.