Media People

Yesterday, Keith Olbermann went to the New York Mets season opening game, filed a lawsuit against Current TV, and then made an appearance at the Paley Center in New York.

Olbermann was there alongside Dan Patrick, his former co-host of ESPN’s SportsCenter, to mark the twentieth anniversary of “The Big Show,” as it was often called. They were joined by moderator James Miller, co-author of Those Guys have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN. The far-ranging discussion covered their time from ESPN to the present, including vintage video clips and highlights from the broadcast.

In his introduction, Miller joked, “The timing for tonight’s event couldn’t be better since Keith has been out of the news for such a long time. Dan and I are hoping to put his name back in the papers.” Still, given all the recent media attention, Olbermann didn’t upstage Patrick. In fact, in response to an audience question regarding whether he arrived at the event using a car service (a reference to one of his issues with Current TV), he replied, “So as not to overwhelm this event I’ll only take one question regarding Current TV. I took the subway here and later I’ll walk home, muttering at myself.”

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Keith Olbermann has made good on his promise to sue Current TV, TMZ is reporting. The site says Olbermann filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles just this afternoon, “suing for breach of contract, sabotage and disparagement.”

Current’s founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt released a joint statement on Friday announcing Olbermann’s dismissal, with Olbermann retaliating on Twitter and in his own statement. For his part, Olbermann said he would show “in the legal actions” that claims made by the Current execs are untrue. Since then, Olbermann has appeared on Letterman and talked about the situation.

His lawyer is Patricia Glaser, who represented Conan O’Brien after he was fired by NBC. O’Brien got a $45 million settlement for he and his staff.

*Update: TMZ has posted a copy of the lawsuit, in which Olbermann says Current owes him as much as $70 million.

Oprah Winfrey has inked a deal with Comcast that will bring her struggling OWN channel to millions of additional homes. The deal will tack on three million-plus Comcast subscribers to the pool of potential viewers and put a little cash in the network’s coffers. Comcast had been carrying the channel without paying a subscriber fee. That will change at the beginning of 2013.

The news comes on the heels of statements from Oprah addressing the problems the network has had since it launched. She spoke with Access Hollywood about some of the things she had to learn about running a network, like if you want people to watch, you have make it easy for them to find. (Good advice for PRs doing events.) She also sets the record straight about her relationship with Rosie O’Donnell, saying the two handled the cancellation of Rosie’s show like adults without any of the reported bickering.

And on CBS This Morning, she made the quote of the day, saying she “might have done something else” had she known how difficult launching a network would be. She also made a few points that we think would be food for thought for anyone launching campaign.

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The trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO series Newsroom has been released and it’s got it all — an irate newsman, viral video, F-bombs, and McCoy from Law & Order. The show debuts June 24.

Katie Couric is the week-long guest host of Good Morning America. She got started this morning.

After building suspense over the “legend” that would be making an appearance today, Meredith Vieira made a special appearance on the TODAY show to announce that she’ll be joining the crew to broadcast from the London Olympics.

And more TODAY show surprises this morning when Matt Lauer made a call to Sarah Palin, who will be hosting the show tomorrow. Matt asked if she’s reading newspapers in preparation. Zing!

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With Keith Olbermann promising a lawsuit following his dismissal from Current TV, the network has hired crisis PR experts Fabiani & Lehane.

The two PR pros, dubbed the “Masters of Disaster,” are known for their high-profile work. They helped Lance Armstrong throughout the doping scandal and worked with the Clintons during their various issues with Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky. Chris Lehane has a previous relationship with Current co-founder Al Gore.

In his statements released Friday, both on Twitter and on Politico, Olbermann says that the “claims” made against him by Current and its founders (Gore and Joel Hyatt) will be shown to be untrue “in the legal actions” he plans to file.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

Late Friday afternoon news just broke that Keith Olbermann got fired again, this time from Current TV. Olbermann will be replaced by Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York and CNN host. However, Eliot Spitzer is probably not the person tweeting from the @ESpitzer handle referenced in Current’s press release announcement about this switch. There have been no new tweets on that account since 2010 and it includes posts such as, “Just kidding. Please help me gain followers.”

Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer will debut tonight at 8p.m. ET. And Keith Olbermann is firing back with this statement (also available in parts on Twitter) promising legal action. Stay tuned to TVNewser for updates on this story.

Update: TVNewser’s Alex Weprin has confirmation on the mix up.

In our final installment of the Women Leaders series, we profile Beth Jacobson, senior director of PR at Entertainment Weekly. Jacobson started with a love of music and turned that into a PR career steeped in entertainment. But it wasn’t a straight line from college to career. Rather, Jacobson went with the thing she loved and ended up with a career she has always enjoyed.

We’d like to take a moment here to thank all of the women who participated in this series. PRNewser is always looking for good ideas so if you have any thoughts on what we should be doing, the comments section is open, you can contact us via Twitter, or email us at PRNewser@Mediabistro.com. We’re already cooking up a couple of thoughts for our next editorial series, so stay tuned.

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Mustachioed jerk Geraldo Rivera issued a non-apology today for his comments about the Trayvon Martin tragedy, made last week on Fox & Friends. At the time, Rivera said that the hoodie the unarmed teen was wearing was just as responsible for his death as George Zimmerman, the man who shot him.

In a letter to Politico, Rivera wrote, “by putting responsibility on what kids wear instead of how people react to them I have obscured the main point that someone shot and killed an unarmed teenager.”

But he also said, “I apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my ‘very practical and potentially life-saving campaign urging black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies,’” quoting a story from the National Review.

According to Politico, Rivera has been “buried”  under backlash since the appearance. Criticism even came from his son.
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A survey of 350 financial journalists found that The Wall Street Journal was considered most influential for financial news. Bloomberg News, The New York Times, Reuters, and Financial Times round out the top five.

The study was conducted by Gorkana, a global service provider for PR pros and journalists, in partnership with two DePaul University College of Comms professors: Dr. Matt Ragas and Dr. Hai Tran. This is the first study ever done by Gorkana.

The study also found that of the top 10 most influential financial journalists, five come from the NYT: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Gretchen Morgenson, Paul Krugman, and Joe Nocera.

Finally, when asked about their outlook on the economy, nearly half (46 percent) were neutral about it. Only 18 percent were positive.

The study was conducted between December 1 and December 30, 2011 via a self-administered online survey. For more information about the study, click here.

Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN has announced a number of big changes. First we had news that The Rosie Show, the talk show hosted by Rosie O’Donnell that was introduced with great fanfare back in October, has been cancelled. (Rumor has it the two aren’t speaking.) Among the problems with the show cited by The Daily Beast is its location; Rosie moved to Chicago to film in Oprah’s old studio. “‘People don’t go to Chicago on media tours anymore,’ says one publicist who turned down his clients from appearing on the show.” Yikes.

And now news today that OWN has laid off 20 percent of its staff, 30 people. Their duties will be assumed by remaining staffers and Discovery Communications employees. Deadline Hollywood has the whole run down.

HGTV Magazine is launching with a June/July issue, and three more for 2012. The rate base will be 450,000 readers.

The New York Times has lowered the number of free articles that non-paying readers will have access to, from 20 to 10. The new rule goes into effect in April.

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