Keith Olbermann broke three days of relative silence following his sudden exit from MSNBC by tweeting Monday night that "reports of the death of my career are greatly exaggerated."
"Citizens Of The Free World: Greetings!" he tweeted Monday at 8 p.m., as Lawrence O'Donnell assumed his old MSNBC time slot. He then added: "My humble thanks to all Friends of Keith for the many kind words. The reports of the death of my career are greatly exaggerated."
Also Read: O'Donnell Ushers in Post-Olbermann Era With Praise for Predecessor
Olbermann had forewarned the coming of the tweets with another tweet, six hours earlier.
The pronouncements perfectly displayed Olbermann's almost trademark erraticism. Were they laughably pretentious? (Olbermann promised before the first tweet that he would "issue" it at 8 p.m.) Mock-laughingly pretentious? Humble? Ironically humble? Was it Ron Burgundy-like for him to paraphrase Mark Twain's most overly paraphrased quote, after considering what to tweet for at least six hours? Or was he making fun of people who haughtily invoke literary masters?
And what to make of Olbermann's decision, when he became a trending topic within 45 minutes of his tweets, to reward his followers with a picture of himself (right) and — yes — one more tweet, apologizing for his winter weather gear in that picture?
As always, Friends of Keith and Despisers of Keith will disagree.
MSNBC Chief: With Olbermann Out, 'Nothing Changes'
Olbermann didn't say Monday whether he's planning more tweets — even ones that do nothing to explain why he left MSNBC.
But he is.