Update: Keith Olbermann scrapped his planned "WTF!?!" segment Thursday night on Roberta McCain and instead devoted the segment to addressing this rumor and lashing out against the outlet and author who published it.
For over seven minutes, Olbermann explained in detail his version of why he took three unplanned days off in April — that he was mourning his mother's death — and even felt forced to defend the way he grieved (by attending baseball games).
Olbermann had strong words for Cityfile's Remy Stern — calling him a "gossip idiot" — and for Wonkette, which Olbermann called a "lousy website" after it wrote a follow-up post mocking him.
Olbermann ended the segment with a sarcastic joke about his absence on May 4:
Finally, and just for the record, I also mysteriously took off Monday, May 4th, and was seen at the Yankees game that night with my friends Jason Bateman and David Cross. Stay tuned to Cityfile or Wonkette or Gawker or a Boston Globe blog, because maybe, maybe, I really had a fist fight with Brian Williams in the NBC commissary earlier in the day. Or maybe I had one to Westchester that afternoon to place the urn containing my mother's ashes in her final resting place. You know what they say. We report, you decide.
Watch:
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Earlier: Keith Olbermann has denied Cityfile's report that he had a meltdown and took three days off in April after a fight with Rachel Maddow over Ben Affleck.
Cityfile reported, based on an anonymous MSNBC source, that Olbermann took three days off following Affleck's appearance on Maddow's show. Olbermann, the rumor goes, attempted to get MSNBC executives to force Maddow and her producers into letting Affleck appear on "Countdown" instead, but was rebuffed.
Olbermann issued the following statement about his days off in April, citing his mother's death and not Affleck's appearance on Maddow's show:
That was my first opportunity to take even a long weekend to mourn my mother's death and deal with the many sad logistics subsequent to her sudden passing. The source of this story is a liar and those who spread it without seeking confirmation or refutation are beneath contempt.
MSNBC rep Alana Russo adds, "The Cityfile people, charmingly, posted the story today 4 minutes after they left me a message asking for comment."
Watch Affleck's April 16 appearance on "The Rachel Maddow Show" below:
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