Olbermann Quits Twitter Over Assange Flap

Keith Olbermann stormed off Twitter in a huff yesterday, after finding himself the recipient of a barrage of tweets condemning him and Michael Moore for defending Julian Assange. Olbermann had Moore on his show Tuesday to talk about the WikiLeaks founder, and nodded in sympathy as Moore declared the rape allegations against Assange “hooey.” That enraged readers at the blog Tiger Beatdown, who barraged the pair with tweets accusing them of being “rape apologists.”

Moore hasn’t responded, but Olbermann did—and it didn’t go well. The host bickered with seemingly every critic (see Salon for details), eventually issuing an if-I-offended-anyone apology. Then he began blocking offending tweeters, and finally, when he could stand it no more, he tweeted, “I'll thus unblock all blocks, wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll suspend this account until/if this frenzy is stopped.” Since then he’s posted one tweet—an innocuous congratulations to Larry King. (More Keith Olbermann stories.)