As Keith Olbermann settles into his new role at ESPN, he gives an introspective interview to GQ. Olbermann — who says he would like to change his reputation for contentious exits — gets a shot in at one of his former employers while considering his identity:
I don’t think there are huge divergences between my personality and what they see on TV. And I think that’s why I have been gainfully employed doing this. I’ll always deliver what an employer wants. At some point they decide the result is more trouble than they want, or they convince themselves that they have created all this success that I created for them. As in my last prominent employer at NBC, which they’re learning that perhaps they were wrong about that. In my pre-introspective life, the idea that I had that script in front of me meant a profound difference. It allowed me to say what I wanted to say and be who I wanted to be.