Keith Olbermann Suspends Twitter Account Over Assange Controversy

(Dec. 16) -- Is Keith Olbermann all tweeted out?

The host of MSNBC's "Countdown" said he will suspend his Twitter account today following sustained attacks regarding his coverage of the rape charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Now, going so far as to remove his icon, @keitholbermann is merely an unhatched egg in the microblogging universe.

On Tuesday, the MSNBC personality sparked controversy when he and film director Michael Moore, who recently offered $20,000 of his own money to bail out Assange, expressed a "dismissive" attitude over the rape allegations against Assange.

Watch the interview in question here:

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Olbermann also received criticism for retweeting a message from Bianca Jagger that downplayed the charges against Assange and allegedly revealed "the identities of Assange's accusers," according to The Huffington Post.

Olbermann responded to the attacks via Twitter (condensed from five separate tweets by Mediate):

Rape has touched my family, directly and savagely, and if anybody thinks I have addressed it without full sensitivity, then that assessment is the one that counts, and I apologize. But these accusations that I "revealed" an accuser's identity by retweeting Bianca Jagger's link, or that I 'shamed' an accuser by asking a question about the prosecution of a man governments are trying to bury, or that I do not 'understand' charges that have yet to be presented in their final form, reflect exactly the kind of rushing to judgment of which I'm accused, and merit the same kind of apology I have just given.

After continued, and according to Olbermann unwarranted, attacks, the "Countdown" host finally announced on Twitter that he was suspending further activity on the site:

I've discovered that I am accused of being a rape apologist in part because I didn't remove the quotes from the word rape in a retweetless than a minute ago via webKeith Olbermann
KeithOlbermann

I'll thus unblock all blocks, wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll suspend this account until/if this frenzy is stopped.less than a minute ago via webKeith Olbermann
KeithOlbermann

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