As Glenn Beck "transitions" from his conspiracy-minded Fox News perch later this year, he might want to heed the advice of another cable news mainstay who left a popular, partisan network only to pursue some so-far fruitless side projects on a less popular network. Keith Olbermann is downright giddy at the news that Glenn Beck will soon no longer be a Fox anchor.

In a lengthy post on his blog, the FOK News Channel, Olbermann appeared to simultaneously sneer (he calls the press release a "television suicide note") and chide Glenn Beck for exiting the major network. "Nowhere in the early coverage of his departure is there seemingly the slightest suggestion that the well-oiled Murdochian Perpetual Motion Propaganda Machine will miss his daily presence," he muses before speculating about his replacements.

Here's a few revealing outtakes from Olbermann's note:

• On empathizing with Beck: "I know this route well (except the megalomania part). I considered it, briefly. As even Oprah has shown, it is a dicey path in which the “talent” may be guaranteed nearly all the profits, but is definitely guaranteed all the risk."
• On his potential Fox replacements: "There are a couple of true believers with whom they could replace him; more likely they will simply reach into that inexhaustible supply of those so desperate to remain on television that they’ll say anything (see Megyn Kelly, Stuart Varney, Steve Doocy), and fill up the hour quickly."
• Why he wasn't really a good fit for Fox News anyway: "He may have produced astonishingly high ratings for 5 O’Clock in the afternoon, but with the low-end sponsors that did not necessarily mean astonishingly high profits."
• And why he'll slide into relative obscurity: "Whatever show(s) he does, whatever Beckian Stamp Of Batcrap Crazy Nonsense he produces, whatever he sells for $19.95 a pop, whatever hour is the 60 minutes of Revelation – whatever The Plan is – he’s got a big problem now. It’ll be on against Fox News."

What Olbermann fails to mention is that all of the pitfalls that await Glenn Beck appear to have already happened to him.

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Erik Hayden