OLBERMANN AND PHILBIN

When Ego Overtakes Good Sense

Right after the world was bombarded with a torrent of stories about the fact that Keith Olbermann had been removed from his pot-stirring program on MSNBC I immediately wrote a rather vitriolic commentary. Fortunately that item was not posted to my blog, because my reaction was long on personal emotional opinion and thin on facts.

It now appears that Olbermann had been meeting with MSNBC executives looking for an increase in his already excessive compensation, he was met with resistance, and ultimately Olbermann was told he was finished on the cable network. While Comcast, the new owners of NBC Universal, insist they had no “prior control,” I'm sure they were very happy to see Olbermann exit before they took over the company the following week.

In your Commander’s personal opinion Olbermann got just what he deserved…enough said on that matter.

Now there is a lot of press relative to the sudden announcement that Regis Philbin is departing “Live with Regis and Kelly” sometime this year following his record setting television appearance run. One of the entertainment industry gossip rags reported the other day that Philbin was approached by ABC Television executives suggesting that his salary be reduced in view of his program’s recent rating deficiencies and the fact that he takes a lot of time off. Philbin rejected that effort, fired his agent, and is pulling up stakes much to the surprise of his co-host, producers, and staff.

Philbin has had a long and successful run, and I think ABC was correct in pursuing lower salary negotiations. After all, the program is not called “Live with Regis (sometimes) and Kelly and Other Male Co-Hosts.” Philbin, like many other entertainers, over-estimated his importance and over-stayed his welcome. He will turn 80 this summer. It is time for him to depart into a secure and well financed retirement. However, I don’t think his attention seeking ego will permit that.

Just compare these two situations to that of the millions of hard working citizens who have been cast out of their life’s work with little or no financial security. Thus, I have no great concern about these two over-paid, egotistical individuals who thought they were “too big to fail.”

Who said life is fair? Some of us are just damn lucky, and some of us are extremely unfortunate, and then there are those who have absolutely nothing to complain about as they slide into obscurity with their bruised egos and fat bank accounts…if we viewers are lucky.

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