MSNBC
said in a statement on Sunday that Olbermann had been punished enough off for
violating parent company NBC News' policy against making such donations without
prior approval. "After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have
determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night's program
is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward
to having him back on the air Tuesday night," MSNBC president Phil Griffin
said. The controversy arose when Olbermann revealed to the website Politico
that he had contributed $2,400 each to Jack Conway, the Democratic candidate
for US Senate in Kentucky, and to two members of the House of Representatives
from Arizona, Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. Olbermann is clearly a
liberal partisan on his show "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," in
which he often takes issue with comments made by conservative media figures
such as radio host Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News -
often by attempting to imitate their voices while reading back their own words.