Things Get Progressively Worse For Keith Olbermann as He's Abruptly Dismissed From Al Gore's Current TV

I don't mean to keep on picking on journeyman liberal pundit Keith Olbermann, but he seems to be setting himself up for further abuse more than usual lately.

On Friday afternoon, the network that aired Olbermann's Countdown show abruptly announced that he had been fired his show had cancelled. Current TV announced that they would be replacing Countdown with a new show called Viewpoint hosted by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

The left-leaning cable network announced just hours before airtime on Friday that Olbermann's show "Countdown" would be replaced with a new program called "Viewpoint" hosted by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, beginning that night.

Shortly after, Current announced his hiring — reportedly with a five-year, $50-million contract — as the start of an effort to transform the network's prime-time slate into progressive talk. His official title was chief news officer, charged with providing editorial guidance for all of the network's political news, commentary and current events programming.

In a statement, Current TV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt said the network was "founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it."

After being fired from MSNBC in January 2011, Olbermann arrived at Al Gore's Current TV in June 2011. Olbermann's firing from MSNBC occurred shortly after General Electric sold off its majority share of NBC Networks to Comcast Networks.

Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that Olbermann's MSNBC show was singled out for praise from members of Al Qaeda according to documents seized by US Navy SEALS during a raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan