Naughty to Nice, This Anchor Weighs In

Keith Olbermann is thrilled to be coming back to Los Angeles. He even loves our beaches.

He also says he is excited about working again as an anchor on a nightly sports show.

He’s glad to be putting the Monica Lewinsky scandal behind him and acknowledges leaving sports to do general news for MSNBC was a mistake.

He’s repentant about his nasty split with ESPN a little over a year ago.

Oh, he’s also in therapy.

New and improved, contrite and content, more mature--that was the Keith Olbermann who was introduced Tuesday as one of two new anchors for Fox Sports Net’s “Fox Sports News” and spent more than an hour entertaining reporters on a conference call.

The other new anchor, ESPN’s Chris Myers, will be introduced Thursday.

As for Olbermann, cynics will say it all sounds good, but we’ve heard this before. Check back in six months. He’ll be his old miserable self by then.

“I can see how someone could come to that conclusion,” he said. “But no one can see under my skin. No one really knows what is going on in my mind.”

But does Olbermann himself know? He says that’s why he went into therapy in January, to find out why he is so miserable. He said it wasn’t any one thing that sent him to a therapist, just a co-worker recommending someone. He thought he’d give therapy a try and thinks it is doing some good.

“I can see the headlines across America: Therapy Saves Olbermann’s Career,” he said. “Give me a gun and let me shoot myself.”

A year ago, after Olbermann’s bitter split with ESPN, there were rumors of his going to Fox Sports Net but he told TV Guide, “The epitome of ‘been there, done that’ would be returning to Los Angeles to do a nightly sports highlights show,” which is exactly what he will be doing.

He compared that quote to George Bush calling Ronald Regan’s economic polices “voodoo economics” and then becoming his running mate.

“First of all, you hope nobody remembers the quote,” he said. “But I was sincere about it when I said it.”

Examining Olbermann’s psyche is something the media does because it is so interesting.

“There is no unexposed dark side with me,” Olbermann said. “Everything has been written about.”

Olbermann has long been an enigma. When he worked at Channel 5 in the mid-1980s, we remember Steve Roah, one of Olbermann’s co-workers, saying, “Keith is a paradox. He is so flippant on the air but off the air he takes everything so seriously, including himself.”

Roah said Olbermann routinely batted out nasty memos to co-workers. We got a few nasty memos too. He wasn’t too fond of writers who didn’t think everything he did was wonderful.

Olbermann wasn’t happy in Los Angeles. He doesn’t drive because of an old eye injury, and L.A. isn’t good for a nondriver. He says it will be different this time.

“I was still a New Yorker back then,” he said. “I never appreciated L.A., never went to the beach. But when I came out there to do a Boston Markets commercial, they put me up in a Santa Monica hotel, I went to the beach and now I love the beach.”

Of not driving, he says, “Cab service in L.A. is better than in New York. When you order a cab, they’re thrilled to have the business. And I think they’re paying me enough so that I can afford to hire a driver.”

It’s been reported that Olbermann, making less than $700,000 at MSNBC, will make $800,000-900,000 at Fox Sports Net. But a source said that figure is high. Myers will make around $500,000.

Olbermann’s last day at MSNBC will be Dec. 4. His first “Fox Sports News” show will be Dec. 14 or 15.

Will other anchors be let go to make room for Olbermann and Myers? “I don’t think so,” said Arthur Smith, Fox Sports Net’s executive vice president of production. “Some responsibilities will change but we like our group.”