According to Olbermann, he was fired from Fox in 2001 after reporting on his MSNBC program "Countdown" on rumors that Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox parent company News Corporation (which became 21st Century Fox through the July 2013 split of its publishing unit and certain miscellaneous properties into a separate company), was planning on selling the Los Angeles Dodgers. When asked about Olbermann, Murdoch said: "I fired him...He's crazy." News Corporation eventually would sell the Dodgers to Frank McCourt in 2004. That year, Olbermann remarked, "Fox Sports was an infant trying to stand comparison to ESPN, but on the broadcast side there was no comparison—ESPN was the bush leagues."