Keith’s Traintrum
By LisaB on June 25, 2008 at 8:30 PM in Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Media
Today’s NYP had a Keith Olbermann item on its Page Six. If you don’t know, Page Six is the gossip page. And today Keith was the feature.
Network sources told Page Six Olbermann was furious last week when MSNBC didn’t get him a first-class ticket to Washington, DC, for a private service honoring the “Meet the Press” anchor’s passing.
The source said Olbermann was screaming into the phone on Tuesday because there were no first-class train tickets available for that day, and he wanted to make sure he would ride first-class on Wednesday. According to the source, Olbermann berated a staffer who was coordinating Wednesday’s Kennedy Center memorial by yelling, “You better hope to God there is a first-class train ticket tomorrow.”
That prompts us, once again, to write.
A Comment for Keith
Most people reserve a portion of civility for solemn events. You know, births, deaths. Usually people in polite society, or at least those pretending to polite society, find a way to take some time and recognize that sometimes it IS about someone else.
Unless you’re Keith Olbermann. Then it’s all about you. Always about you.
Keith, what made you think having a first class TRAIN ticket was your due for attending a colleague’s MEMORIAL? Most people would be reflecting on their friend and thinking of the family – and just happy to be alive to attend a memorial. Not screeching and threatening a staffer over a damn first-class train ticket.
That must be one dream train car. Maybe it has massage therapists inside or maybe lots of merlot and cute young chicks who don’t know the real you. Or maybe it’s just filled with mirrors so you can practice your remorseful face. That probably takes you a while. I can see where a pocket mirror wouldn’t cut it either. Other riders might see you holding a little mirror, trying to fit your whole mug into it, and think you were just another narcissist.
And that cannot be tolerated, sir. You are NOT just another narcissist. You are in a league of your own. And that means every trip must be first class, by god. Particularly if you are en route to a place where you might be expected to act like a human. We understand you need time and privacy to practice.
But I guess you just can’t pull off the “human thing” if you have to ride with other, more ordinary, humans. So, you didn’t show at the private ceremony. But don’t worry, I’m sure your absence was not a terrible loss. And it must have been a relief to you, Keith, not to have to muster up a facade of sorrow and empathy, because we’ve certainly never seen you show THOSE emotions. Or maybe, just maybe, you actually cared for your colleague, but you simply couldn’t stop your pathological narcissism, sense of entitlement and quite possibly a strong desire for ketchup.
EIther way, you Keith, are a total schmuck.
Although your handlers snap that these events never happened and that everything is a lie, there’s a lesson here for you regardless. When people are likely to believe stories like this about you, it says much more about you than about them. If your reputation as a journalist and human being was even a shade better, people would brush off these stories as totally out of character. Your problem is they are NOT out of character based on the face you’ve shown to the world in any variety of jobs, “special comments” and anecdotes about you personally.
You’ve brought this on yourself. Real or not, people think these stories could easily be true. And Keith, that’s a problem YOU made.
Now that we know Tom Brokaw will be taking over Meet the Press, it’s time for you to pack up. Time to move on. Time to resign, Keith. Go away. Jon Stewart is so much funnier than you anyway.
Man up, Keith. If you did this, you owe several people an abject apology. If this didn’t actually happen, change yourself so that people aren’t so willing to believe you’d scream at someone for not getting you a first class train ticket to a colleague’s private memorial service.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
