Keith Olbermann suspended by ESPN over Penn State tweets

Since his return to ESPN in 2013, Keith Olbermann has been a good soldier for the Worldwide Leader and has stayed out of trouble. He’s engaged in various Twitter battles, but they did not escalate to the point where management had to get involved. That was until this week.

Olbermann has been suspended from his show for the rest of the week by ESPN over tweets he made regarding Penn State University. ESPN has issued a statement in regards to the suspension.

We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the views of ESPN. We have discussed it with Keith, who recognizes he was wrong. ESPN and Keith have agreed that he will not host his show for the remainder of this week and will return on Monday. The annual tradition of THON and the efforts of the students of Penn State to fight pediatric cancer should be applauded.

It began rather innocently when a PSU student sent him a link about THON, an annual fundraising event for pediatric cancer and led to Olbermann going nuclear on several students. The tweets were captured by Onward State.
Olbermann decided to take more shot before ending.

The director of student television at Penn State, Steve Kracik fired off an angry tweet in defense of the school.

Confused as to how and why @espn brass allows @KeithOlbermann to engage in a Twitter war, cursing and acting like an angry teenager. #PSU

— Steve Kraycik (@TV_Agent_Steve) February 24, 2015

For his part, Olbermann has apologized.

I apologize for the PSU tweets. I was stupid and childish and way less mature than the students there who did such a great fundraising job.

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 24, 2015

Olbermann’s last ESPN suspension was in 1997 after making an unauthorized appearance on The Daily Show With Craig Kilborn. As mentioned in the ESPN statement, Olbermann will return on Monday.