First, I have to put my cat to sleep, and now Keith Olbermann has been suspended by MSNBC for making campaign contributions:

Keith Olbermann, the pre-eminent liberal voice on American television, was suspended Friday after his employer, MSNBC, discovered that he made campaign contributions to three Democrats last month.

The indefinite suspension was a stark display of the clash between objective journalism and opinion journalism on television.

Many prominent liberals and conservatives immediately called on MSNBC to reinstate Mr. Olbermann, who is usually outspoken but who had no comment on his suspension Friday.

The contributions came to light in an article by Politico Friday morning. Mr. Olbermann acknowledged in a statement that last month he donated $2,400 to the campaigns of Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Attorney General Jack Conway of Kentucky, who lost his Senate race to Rand Paul.

I think that this is a stupid standard to hold straight journalists to, much less someone who is clearly an talking-head opinion type.

In the article, there is a suggestion that this is an attempt to make brand differentiation with Fox, where, for example, Hannity gave to Michelle “I used to be the nuttiest person in Congress, but the elections moved the bar” Bachmann, but I don’t live in media executives heads, nor would I ever want to.

It does appear that Keith will be back at some point in the not to distant future, though.

H/t DC at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.