Let me begin by getting my own reaction to Keith Olbermann’s departure from Current out of the way, because it is not the topic I want to tackle, but people are asking.

I’ll miss Keith. Love him or hate him, he had an informative, entertaining show. His guests, his point of view, the topics he tackled, his attention to the Occupy movement, his special comments, his sense of humor, his intelligence and perceptive, aggressive approach made Countdown DVR worthy. He didn’t miss a trick, IMHO.

I say this as someone who found myself at a loss when he seemed to misinterpret something I tweeted, leaving me no practical way to rectify or explain once he unfollowed (no, he never blocked… oh, those Twitter rumors), but it didn’t matter. I like him and continued to watch and promote Countdown, because I value his reporting and style, and continue to admire him, despite that one frustrating moment. For those who know what I’m referring to, all is well, he has since engaged, including retweeting something I said to him that meant a lot to both of us, and he was never uncivil to me. That single incident did nothing to change my mind about his work or my appreciation of him. In addition, I will never ever forget, and always be grateful for, his advice about end of life issues as it applied to his father and to my own (who is 92 and hanging in there).

Now that that’s out of the way…

I suspected something was up with the show a few weeks ago when I started noticing both major and minor changes in the program itself, and even some of his tweets, and of course, Keith’s absences. Others noticed, too, but attributed some of that to his bout with bronchitis or other factors. Who knows if what I picked up on was relevant or not, but it sure felt like something was brewing.

And then he was let go. Which finally brings me to the reason for this post. Twitter provides immediate– and often prematurely speculative and impulsive– reaction to breaking news. In the case of Keith’s firing, the responses were starkly divided between devotees who were very vocal about their disappointment over their favorite host being abruptly yanked off air for a second time, and harsh critics who wasted no time in sending venomous tweets directly to Keith and about him to the Twitterverse.

People were, and are, vowing to boycott Current, while others were viciously maligning Keith, calling him a misogynistic, egotistical, megalomaniac who deserved what he got. And those were the milder examples.

Why do that? Why is that necessary? He’s a human being, after all, even if he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Why, before all the facts are out, would anyone feel the need to insult and berate him like that? What purpose does that serve, even after more is revealed?

And what purpose does it serve to stop watching other Progressive hosts who are helping our cause?

Destructive, rude behavior is hurtful, both personally and politically. Penalizing liberal voices who are still on air is only punishing them, and ourselves. Write to Current, call them, tweet them, but just as when MSNBC suspended Keith and viewers went ballistic, shunning shows like Rachel Maddow’s (and now Jennifer Granhom’s or Cenk’s) by tuning them out in retaliation just doesn’t seem fair to them, or ultimately, to any of us.

As for KO, if you have that much hostility toward him, don’t watch him (well, now you can’t anyway), but it seems a little childish to send rude (and from what I’ve seen, irrationally so) tweets to him. It accomplishes nothing.

It’s about time the Progressive community learns some civility when it comes to dealing with one another. Instead of eating our own, save your vitriol for the right wing extremists, because we need all the liberal voices we can get.