Well, Olbermann may have stumbled over some problems, but MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, another liberal, is coming up pretty nicely with her new, own show.
On Tuesday night, for the first time,
her show outrated Olbermann's, drawing 1.8 million viewers to his 1.6 million. It also outrated Larry King, which was broadcast at the same time on CNN, and got 1.7 million viewers.
I think this is good news, because:
a) it suggests that if there's problems with Olbermann, it might be because of, well, Olbermann, rather than his political leanings, and
b) it was mentioned (or linked in) earlier here just how much MSNBC is tied up with Olbermann as its lone ratings star; Maddow's success might untie the fortunes of the station, as well as of the project to base its reporting on a somewhat partisan stand as kind of counterweight to Fox, from Olbermann's personality. Which might make the attempt more robust and less dependent on the strengths and flaws of one particular person.