Just for the fun of it, we wanted to see if we could write the start of tonight's OlbyWatch report before the program even aired. Here is what we came up with, verbatim:

Tuesday's Hour of Spin began with the NSA surveillance controversy. The new wrinkle Olby used as a pretext to make this his top story again: the effect on the prosecution of various terror defendants. KO warned convictions may be in jeopardy, and to parrot that chosen talking point, Keith interviewed Jonathan Turley. As is standard practice, no one was brought in to present an opposing point of view.

Hey, we didn't do too badly! [As long as you don't count our writing Tuesday instead of Wednesday.] Yet even we didn't anticipate that KO would flatly decree the eavesdropping program to be "illegal". But in the opening moments of the program, that's just what he did:

What happens to terrorism prosecutions when it turns out the evidence came from illegal wiretaps?

What Judge Olby based his ruling on remains unclear. The last time we checked, the legality of the operation was a subject of debate. "Debate" is what John Kasich did with the issue: have legal experts that give both sides of the question. But presenting multiple viewpoints is antithetical to Keith. How can you have an Hour of Spin unless you only present one side of the story?

KO followed up the Turley love-fest with a brief taped piece about John Yoo, the legal scholar who formulated many of the legal theories favored by the White House. But before you get the idea that Olby may have committed balance, Mr Yoo was permitted to utter all of one sentence in this NBC news vignette, while another expert who disagreed got twice the time. Will Keith invite Mr Yoo in for a friendly chitchat a la Turley? Not likely. Chances are Mr Yoo will never be permitted on the Countdown set and will become the forgotten man, while the Turleys who echo the KO talking points will keep coming back like the proverbial bad pennies.

An NBC report from David Gregory reviewed the President's year. Note the graphic Olby used:

The #4 story was a recycled NBC piece on possible fraud at the Red Cross. In the #3 slot we got another one of those over-the-top Olby productions, this one dealing with athletes and steroids. Keith was so hysterically manic that we wondered if he was on something. Probably not; chances are he's still on a high from the thrill of having served as judge, jury, and executioner in Tuesday's heresy trial of John Gibson.

Countdown dragged to a conclusion with more fluff about a man who drank at 1,000 bars (#2) and the year in weird (#1). As for the "worst person" segment, Olby is having a hard time coming up with any zingers for his favorite targets this week. Media Matters is apparently on holiday vacation. So Olby's picks were all about stuff like bottles of urine and do-it-yourself cemeteries. When Brock's brigade is back next week to do Keith's research for him, KO will be back to slamming Republicans, conservatives, and those evil Fox people.