Rosie and MSNBC: So Much for That

When I heard last night that Rosie O'Donnell would not be joining MSNBC as a commentator with her own primetime show, my first thought was: Of course, the network suits came to their senses.

Or maybe not.

Just why the negotiations fell apart depends on whom you believe. The Los Angeles Times says it was a money thing: "O'Donnell apparently requested a salary more suitable for a broadcast network than a cable news operation."
The New York Times, meanwhile, says the issue in dispute was the length contract O'Donnell was willing to sign. She wanted to limit it to a year; they wanted her to commit to two.

And O'Donnell herself, writing in typical free-verse form on her blog, suggested that she may have jinxed it by going public with the negotiations before MSNBC was ready:

we were close to a deal almost done i let it slip in miami causing panic on the studio end

However it went down, I think MSNBC dodged a bullet on this one, for reasons I've already stated. Controversial is not always good, for reasons you'd think MSNBC would understand by now (cf. Michael Savage, Don Imus).