• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 6, 2012

I can understand some of what Keith Olbermann has been going through at Current TV.

For example, I watched a repeat of Current TV's Iowa caucus coverage the day after the event. I don't think CNN, Fox Newsor MSNBC offered reruns of its live coverage the next day.

You want to play with the big boys? Play big -- or at least look the part.

Still, what can we say, retrospectively, about Olbermann and Current TV's clash: “”You should have seen this coming" or "This will last a little bit longer than a Kardashian wedding"?

Then again, who knew a TV production could be pulled down by "spotty car service"? Producers of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" have complained that the spotty on-time record of the car service which brings guests to the show.

Olbermann likes to control things. That is why he has the title of chief news officer. This makes us scratch our head over why Olbermann was asked to join the Iowa caucus coverage in the first place? Shouldn't he have been the one making the decision about who would be anchoring the network's coverage? 

If nothing else, we know that Olbermann can be real sensitive to change. Thus it meant real trouble when there was a major shift soon after Olbermann started -- with Current TV CEO Mark Rosenthal moving out and Current Media co-founder and chief executive Joel Hyatt returning to take more active role at the network, as well as dealing with incoming Current TV President David Bohrman.

Okay, Olbermann can be blamed as well. Right or wrong, his show -- which pulled in up to a million viewers on MSNBC -- is only getting, at best, around 350,000 viewers on Current TV.

For its part, Current TV, as an independent network, doesn't have the marketing and programming heft of the likes of CNN, Fox News or MSNBC -- nor the production values, according to critics. Then again, the Olbermann-Current partnership has only been going a year.

If you are an advertiser on Current TV, what can you make of this? Essentially, if you are a new marketer on the network looking to glom on to all things Olbermann, you may be seeing your media investment take a hit.

But you know your current TV history. Stuff comes and goes -- sometimes very quickly.