Two POV’s On The Kaplan/Olbermann Spat

Two anonymous tipsters inside MSNBC have two very different perspectives on the Rick Kaplan/Keith Olbermann conflict:

> “Kaplan has always been a loose cannon, willing to lose it for minor reasons and for no good reason. I’ve seen him humiliate entry-level employees to tears over really inconsequential things. Memo to Rick: blowing your stack doesn’t make you look like a can-do, take-charge kind of executive. It makes you look like a prick.”

> “Olbermann’s intentions MAY have been good..but here’s what he did: He compares a benign tumor in his mouth to Rick’s good friend’s death by lung cancer, making the story about Keith — then graphically and disgustingly discusses spewing blood for two minutes prior to the debut of a show thats exremely important to this network. It was extraordinarily inappropriate. More people are pissed here at Olbermann, not Kaplan.”

> Update: 4:27pm: “Does Rick Kaplan always write about himself in the third person?,” an e-mailer wonders, suggesting that Kaplan sent the tip above. “There isn’t a soul here at MS who’s pissed at anybody but him over this spectacle.”

Meanwhile, the argument continues on Romenesko’s letters page…