The Washington Post: Keith Olbermann was willing to quit for his right to blast Bill O'Reilly

This according to Keith Olbermann's Ego's Ego and the Washington Post and Howard Kurtz.

The peace talks with Fox sparked a fierce battle within MSNBC, where a faction led by Olbermann argued that the network's journalistic integrity was at stake -- and that any leak of a nonaggression pact with Fox could damage NBC's reputation for independence.

See? The Ego was leading the forefront, battling for journalistic independence and integrity. What? No, I don't know why the Ego forgot to mention this until now. Huh? Of course this latest version of events has everything nothing whatsoever to do with the many attacks on Keith Olbermann's Ego this week in internet land.

The day after Olbermann's comments about the Tiller slaying, executives convened a large meeting and talked about Fox and the importance of striking the right on-air tone. Olbermann later expressed a willingness to make minor adjustments in his style, but he and his allies, concerned about setting a precedent, dug in for a fight. Olbermann left Zucker and executives with the impression that he might quit if the dispute wasn't resolved to his satisfaction.

Several liberal bloggers have chastised their ally Olbermann. The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins wrote that Olbermann is lying, charging that he stopped talking about O'Reilly after June 1 because he had been silenced by the GE brass. But Olbermann told another critic, Salon's Glenn Greenwald, that "there's no 'deal.' I would never consent, and, fortunately, MSNBC and NBC News would never ask me to."

And this my friends is how the game is played. The Ego got a lot of bad press from this Liberal allies" (allies my ass) and decided to one up them. So what did Keith Olbermann's Ego do? Why pick up the phone and spin a new version of events. And what do you know, this article appears at the Washington Post (the great rival to the NY Times) and this my friends is how once again Keith Olbermann's Ego's has managed to turn shit into sugar ad emerge smelling like a rose. Now everyone is free to heap praise on the Ego once again as he is once again a brave fighter for truth, integrity, and most importantly, for Keith Olbermann's Career the American Way.

Uh oh. Someone doesn't get it.

Namely this guy.

On his show last night, Keith Olbermann essentially issued a non-denial denial about the GE-MSNBC-Fox story, saying that he himself was "party to no deal" -- exactly what he said in the original New York Times article......in Olbermann's non-denial denial last night, he didn't refute the quotes from General Electric management, he didn't refute that MSNBC execs told its producers that they "wanted the channel's other programs [to] restrain from criticizing Fox directly," and he didn't refute this report from TV Newser saying that the parent companies for Fox and MSNBC have been in negotiations for months.

Okay Ego fans, you know what to do: that's right, get busy in the comments section and rip this guy a new one.

And there's obviously something in the water over there at Huffington Post (that's right, they too are no longer a reliable judge of Keith Olbermann's work).

KO and BO are two similar cats in many respects. These monumentally insecure men detest each other to the extent that they care not that it affects the quality of their shows or contributes to the uneasiness of their audience. These are two guys from not-so-serious pasts who now want very much to be respected and considered as media vanguards, two societal forces that can control destiny and history with their words alone.....Olbermann, the snarky Eddie Haskell who thinks he's smarter and pithier than everybody and anybody in the room, especially his Fox counterpart, the oafish Ted Baxter. Both of these guys have Goliath complexes: large men who are braggadocius and to be respected. KO trying to rid himself of the image of an erstwhile sports guy and BO, the journalist manqué, trying to rid himself of KO. .....BO versus KO will forever be remembered as one of televisions greatest hate affairs.

Again, all lies. Except the part where this guy slams Bill O'Reilly. That part is all true.

And please ignore New York magazine as well.

(Olbermann's comments are)...based on the presumption that even though the half of Brian Stelter's story about him was false, the half about Fox News was true, which is awfully convenient for Olbermann.

See? They don't get the greatness that is Keith Olbermann's Ego. If I say what they say about The Ego is a lie, it's a lie. And if The Ego says it's all true about O'Reilly it's all true about O'Reilly, and no questions or snarking allowed otherwise. (What? So they wrote a semi-decent article kinda praising The Ego once. They've turned on The Ego now. They must be immediately blacklisted).

And media critics and journalism professors? What do they know?

(Olbermann's commentary).... is intellectually dishonest, as it implies that Stelter deliberately did not use Olbermann's quote because it didn't fit with what he wanted to write. In fact, Stelter did use it, and he placed it in context. It's very clear from Stelter's story that the deal had been cut by higher-ups, and that Olbermann might or might not go along. Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch came in at number one for trying to muzzle O'Reilly. Hmmm ... doesn't that confirm that Stelter got it right? Glenn Greenwald, who's been blogging away at Salon ever since the Stelter story came out, criticized his ideological soulmate Olbermann last night, writing on Twitter, "Really surprised by the Olbermann denial - there's lots and lots of evidence that the NYT's description about what GE did is 100% accurate." All in all, not a good moment for Olbermann. He may have reclaimed his independence. But he did so at the expense of sliming a journalist who'd broken an important, unflattering story about collusion by media moguls. At the very least, Olbermann ought to award himself the bronze.

The Ego is the best person in the world. How dare this man suggest otherwise?

And speaking of Glenn Greenwald and Salon? Again, ignore them too. He appears to be writing some hard-to-follow gibberish here about how GE is the root of all evil or something.

And finally, add The Nation into the list of people who cannot be trusted when it comes to reporting or commenting on anything Keith Olbermann related. (Yeah, The Ego knows he's been a cover boy for them but now they have betrayed The Ego.)

Since most of these people have "comments" on their page I expect every good Keith Olbermann fan to immediately run to these pages and post diatribes denouncing them as liars immediately. I don't care if you have jobs. What's more important? Your measly, unimportant little job or Keith Olbermann's Ego? That's right people: it's all about me.

**On Edit****
When The Ego said "finally" he meant "Finally" dammit. Sigh. Okay, add Cityfile to the Enemies List (see sidebar for the complete list--for now). Okay so Cityfile has a history of not liking The Ego so naturally you should also disredit everything they ever snark about The Ego okay? Cityfile.

Keith Olbermann took Times reporter Brian Stelter to task last night for reporting that News Corp. and GE had worked out a deal to tone down the rhetoric between MSNBC and Fox News. But he didn't disagree with everything Stelter reported. Conveniently, only the bad stuff about him was wrong.

But of course. See, Cityfile is just stupid.

More bad news for Olbermann: MSNBC now admits it made a mistake by not disclosing that Countdown fixture Richard Wolffe is a paid lobbyist. Naturally, Olbermann had absolutely no idea about any of this.

Look don't they realize that The Ego is a very busy man? Who has time for stupid things like vetting hosts?

Citizen Journalists? Not on my watch.

So Page Six is at it again. Those guys hate me. The feeling is mutual. But at least they recognize that I'm a big, big, big star and worthy of being written about. And because I'm a big, big, big star they hate me and print lies about me (except when it's true which I'll never admit).

Let me break down today's little item for you.

KEITH Olbermann is again being an embarrassment to MSNBC.

Embarrassment? I'm their star. It's my network. They wouldn't be a network without me. I'm the only reason that so-called perpetually third-place network gets any attention at all. The Post is just jealous of me.

The cable channel and MySpace have teamed up to choose two "citizen journalist" correspondents to cover the upcoming national political conventions. The "journalists" will be featured both on MySpace and MSNBC's campaign coverage. A spy said, "Every anchor is onboard and willing to play along, except Keith. He refuses to participate because MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp." - which also owns Fox News and The Post.

Don't they understand that the Post and Rupert and Fox News are my mortal enemies? Okay so my feuding with them has become a central part of every night's broadcast but it's important people. It's far more important than any news item I could possibly ever substitute in its place because America cares about me and they want to know who my enemies are, and what matters to me, Keith Olbermann. It's important because it does matter to me, Keith Olbermann. So why on earth did the suits at NBC Universal think I'd play along with anything concerning Rupert Murdoch? America just doesn't understand what I have to go through when dealing with the suits. I'm smarter than they are: I'm smarter than everyone and everybody. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb idea! But I showed 'em. Read on.

A rep for Olbermann said, "There are no plans for the contest winners to be on any programs other than 'Morning Joe.'

That's the official story. Let me tell you the real story. So the suits had this really stupid idea. What made them think I'd publicize anything to do with Rupert Murdoch? See what I mean? They're stupid! But not me. I'm brilliant. But you already knew that right? I know you do because I like to point it out every single chance I get. I'm smart, you're not, and that's just the way it is. Love me, envy me, recognize, that's all I'm asking here people. Work with me on this, there is no truth but the one I tell got it?

Anyway, so let me translate and tell you what the publicist wasn't saying. Yeah, sure, there were plans originally for these citizen freaks to be on every single MSNBC program but since I refused to play with anything remotely having to do with Rupert Murdoch I forced the network to significantly scale back their plans so now these citizen whatevers will only be on Morning Joe and no one watches that train wreck anyway. That way I get my revenge on Murdoch, I make the suits at 30 Rock recognize yet again that it's all about me and what I want and if I don't want citizen journalists then they'll be exiled to Siberia (that's what we call MJ here at MSNBC). I'm happy and now they're not so someone went whining to the Post but who cares? It's about me and what I want. My name gets printed in Page Six yet again and as long as people are writing about me, I'm very happy. So what if it's not flattering? Big f'ing deal. Page Six recognizes me. I'm on their pages along with billionaires, movie stars, Madonna, and A-Rod (he's my buddy btw).

See what kind of idiots I'm forced to work with? I am the network. I am MSNBC. I'm the only damn journalist this two-bit network has got and that's why I run the network. It's my network, not theirs and they were stupid enough to try and make a decision without considering my wants and needs. Will they ever learn? Sure they will but as you can see, I have to remind them of that on a near daily basis. Idiots.

Anyway, so there you have it. The real story. Yeah sure Page Six was factually correct but factually correct doesn't matter in my world and my world is the only world that there is. Screw Murdoch, the Post, Page Six, MySpace, Citizen Journalists, and whatever else stupid idea that the promo department comes up with. If I don't want to play then the game is over. This kind of thing is fun for me, I get more publicity, I had the satisfaction of forcing the suits to fold and the publicists at MSNBC scramble yet again to cover for my how shall we say, intransigence? It doesn't get any better for me that that. I get to show them yet again who really runs that network. And we all know it's my network right? I'm the only anchor MSNBC needs and will ever need. Me. Me. Me. Me. And that's the way it should be because in the end, all that matters is me and what I want. Nothing else. Just me me me me. And never forget, it's all about me.