While a lot of his news cohorts are beginning to overshare a bit on Twitter, Keith Olbermann is backing away from the popular text service. “Enough of my life has been consumed by electronics that have been invented during my life that I may have actually reached my absolute far end of my ability to handle new electronics, new ways of communication,” he told us at the Empire State Pride Agenda’s “Defying Inequality” event at the Gershwin last night. “I may have hit a wall with an iPhone.” The Countdown host said he looked into it, but wasn’t sure he wanted everyone to follow his life so closely. “I have a good, healthy broadcaster sense of paranoia as it is without it being literally true that the thing buzzing in my pocket is a bunch of people knowing I’m at 51st Street or wherever,” he explained. “And a lot of the stuff, frankly, was not very interesting. I mean, it’s ‘Ni-ho! David Gregory’s in there having a Bran muffin!’”
Olbermann also offered this insight: Turns out Bill O’Reilly himself, Olbermann’s sworn enemy, is perhaps the biggest cause of his success on MSNBC: “Rather than ignore me, which is what publicity — laws of publicity say somebody with a very small audience who criticizes you should be ignored, [and] he didn’t know to do that, so every time he would respond, he would publicize me,” Olbermann said. “And now it’s to the point where, if there’s an article written about him that does not mention me, it’s a very rare thing. So he’s partially responsible for the success of the show that’s constantly criticizing him.”
