A bit abrupt. And after announcing this was Countdown with Keith Olbermann’s final broadcast, the usually vocal and outspoken Olbermann seemed uncharacteristically willing to just silently walk into the good night.

Keith Olbermann's final Countdown broadcast

My guess why Keith Olbermann didn’t have his contact renewed was the approval of the Comcast/NBC Universal merger. A merger, though approved just a few days ago, has the new owners ready and waiting to pull the trigger on some changes as soon as they got the green light. Just a couple of days ago some of the weaker performing programing executives were let go at the broadcast network NBC. And likely, as part of the effort to start building the new company in Comcast’s new desired image, troubled MSNBC was in its cross hairs. And Olbermann who had become the face of the cable network and the flag carrier of the MSNBC brand and direction, good and bad, over the last eight years, was a good way to send a message things were changing. And they have.