When Dick Durbin made his US-Nazi-Pol Pot analogies, Countdown was not all that interested in the story. It wasn't until Wednesday night that the Hour of Spin got around to even mentioning the Durbin flap, and then sought to minimize it. But when Karl Rove commented about liberals and 9/11, that was the #5 story on Countdown the very next day.

Which brings us to Friday night's backwards newshour. Olby was in such high dudgeon that he dragged himself into the studio to host the entire program for only the second time this week.

KO's lead story was that Tom Cruise interview with Matt Lauer where the movie star attacked psychiatry--so compelling that Olby replayed a five-minute chunk of it. But why? What made this the most important news item of the day? The answer lies in one of the most bizarre instances of OlbyConvergence yet:

It was only Wednesday that Presidential advisor Karl Rove had dragged psychiatry and psychology into the retroactive political namecalling about 9/11 when he said that after the attacks liberals wanted to "offer therapy and understanding for our attackers".

And just in case that wasn't enough of a stretch, and just in case the viewers of Countdown are insufficiently gifted to catch KO's insightful analogy, he hammers the point home in a question to guest Dr Catherine Birndorff:

Could Mr Rove's references have been more damaging even than the Cruise interview, because he essentially associated therapy with weakness?

But that's not enough; after all, this is Karl Rove, not Dick Durbin. So after 22 minutes on story #5, Olby spends the entire #4 segment rehashing the Rove statements with lefty Bush-basher Laurie van Auken. Both the guest (Rove's comments were "cold"), and Olby himself (Rove was "smug") conspired to present only one side of the controversy--which is why the Hour of Spin is the single most biased newshour on US television.

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On Tuesday Olby made a desperate attempt to pump up his ratings by interviewing porn star Mary Carey (a repeat of a ploy he used the previous week). The numbers tell the story:

8pm: O'Reilly: 2,779,000 / Zahn: 490,000 / Countdown: 157,000 / Grace: 523,000

In short, Bill O'Reilly had nearly 18 times as many viewers as Olby did. And Mr Bill doesn't even have a puppet theater.

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Countdown with Keith Olbermann for June 13 2005

OLBYWATCH GUIDE:
#5 story: Michael Jackson. #4: Michael Jackson. #3: Jackson. #2: Jackson. But the #1 story was: Michael Jackson.

The notable quote came from MSNBC's ace judicial analyst, Dan Abrams:

The reasonable doubt standard is what won this case for the prosecution.

Now that's an MSNBC exclusive.

Other than that, the one-hour MJ-fest will be remembered only for the first appearance on MSNBC of former FNC reporter Rita Cosby. As soon as she finished her phone interviews, Olby gushed, "Great work!" Because as soon as she left Fox and appeared on Countdown she suddenly stopped being a hack and became a journalist so superior that KO had to go out of her way to praise her on-camera!

And finally the last-ever (we can only hope) Puppet Theater. In this installment, an old OlbyFetish is revived: the Jackson puppet pulls off a mask and turns out to be Bill O'Reilly. There was something about a "loofah", but the Keith obsession with O'Reilly is clearly diseased. He should try cold showers.

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'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Monday, June 6

Host: Keith Olbermann

Read the transcript to the 8 p.m. ET show
Updated: TRANSCRIPT PENDING
Guest: Charlie Savage, John Dean, Dan Abrams
OLBYWATCH GUIDE: Olby set the tone for the Hour of Spin in the very first minute:

Is the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba the best defense against the chances--however slim--of another 9/11, or is it the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting terrorists around the world?

For fair and balanced insight, KO again called in lefty reporter Charlie Savage from the lefty Boston Globe, whose writings (like those of Sid Blumenthal et al) are favorites at lefty websites like Veterans for Common Sense and Democracy Now. (Savage also wrote several articles on OlbyObsession Jeff Gannon.) Tonight the Savage one bloviated about how soft the press is on the horrors of Gitmo, because if you "just Google" Gitmo, then you'll see.

And of course there had to be another segment on Deep Throat. Three guesses which Watergate criminal KO brought on yet again: John Dean, because you can never talk too many times to John Dean. A few more appearances and they'll be obligated to put his name in the show's credits.

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