Update: Keith Olbermann will join Current TV, a network co-founded by Al Gore, with a new show also named "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." It will premier June 20. Current TV airs in 75 million homes around the globe. Contributors to the television show will include filmmakers Michael Moore and Ken Burns, comedian Richard Lewis, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, and National Association of Free Clinics exec director Nicole D. Lamoureux.
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I have no doubt that "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" was taken off the air at MSNBC because Comcast had just got a majority stake in NBC Universal. Comcast is controlled by the Roberts family. CEO Brian L. Roberts, whose father co-founded Comcast in 1963, owns all 9.44 million shares of Comcast's class B common stock. That stock has 109 times the voting power of the class A shares held by the public. The Roberts family are neo-conservatives who contribute heavily to Republicans. Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the 2000 Republican Convention.

Steve Burke, who was Comcast's chief operating officer and just replaced Jeff Zucker as CEO of NBC Universal (NBCU), has donated heavily to the Republican Party over the years. He raised at least $200,000 for George W Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. In addition, Ed Snider, Comcast-Spectacor LP Chairman and Managing Partner, is an investor in RightNetwork, a media company that is launching a conservative TV, Web and mobile network.

I became a daily viewer of MSNBC, with few days missed, after the 2004 Presidential election. Olbermann was the only broadcaster detailing voting irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere. I even built a massive Website around his segments. While TV, radio, and newspaper media outlets swept the issue under the rug, Olbermann provided a massive amount of information about e-voting machine breakdowns, counting errors, the Republican connections with machine manufacturers, the wide discrepancy between exit polls and official tallies, and numerous acts of voter suppression such as reducing voting machines in heavily Democratic precincts and purging Democrats from voter rolls. Keith Olbermann quickly became my hero.

While I enjoy Rachel Maddow in particular, along with Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz, I am boycotting MSNBC altogether. Anyway, I doubt Rachel Maddow will last the year at MSNBC. They'll show her the door next. Lawrence O'Donnell will be taking Olbermann's time slot. While I like O'Donnell, he is no Keith Olbermann.

Please join me in boycotting MSNBC and for that matter NBC News. If you can't break from MSNBC permanently, boycott them for one month, long enough for the next reporting of network ratings. A substantial drop in viewers would send Comcast a loud message to not suppress the voice of progressives further.

I've now boycotted MSNBC for two days which I think is a record since November 2004. In addition, I've started the search to replace my Comcast cable Internet, television, and telephone service. I've had the Internet and television services since the @home and AT&T eras. I'm finding some excellent deals for satellite TV and DSL Internet. You will too!

Comcast now controls NBC television shows too. Would they go so far as creating a series similar to The West Wing starring Sarah Palin as the U.S. President to boost her presidential chances?

I'll be leaving Comcast because I refuse to help fatten the wallets of political conservatives who will suppress fair and balanced news and left-leaning political commentary so they can spread their right-wing ideology. NBC Universal is a small portion of Roberts family investments so I believe they're willing to see some financial downturn for political gain. NBC and MSNBC could conceivably become an attack machine against President Obama and Democrats in the 2012 election and beyond. Comcast and the Roberts would lose some money short term with a ratings decline but make much more money later if their Republican allies control everything.