Olbermann Watch - MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann: The Mouth that Didn't Roar

Olbermann Watch, "persecuting" Keith since 2004

February 15, 2006

The Mouth that Didn't Roar

It was less than a week ago that Countdown told us that The Great Leak Case "roars back to life", because of a news report that Libby was authorized to leak "information". We now know that Keith Olbermann, and his partner-in-crime David Shuster, lied about what that report said. We bring this up because today there was another loud roar on that very topic.

But that roar didn't get any mention in the opening of tonight's Hour of Spin. Cheney's shooting and the "softball" interview took precedence:

Not in a news conference, nor in a written statement, nor to a panel of interviewers from a variety of news organizations, but rather before the more malleable cameras of Fox News.

Keith's take on this was so easy to predict that it was, to use a familiar phrase, like Pavlov's dog in a bell-testing factory. He then went on to point out a great contradiction in the interview: at one point Cheney called the man he shot his "friend", and at another his "acquaintance". Aha! Caught him again!!

Then Olbermann pulled another fake rabbit out of his hat:

It happened Saturday night at 5:50 local time. The Vice-President's people agreed to let the Sheriff's office talk to the Vice-President at 8:00 the next morning. That's an extraordinary drag time...

KO is obviously up on all the latest rumors from the blue blogs, but doesn't he read the daily newspapers? Isn't he aware that the Sheriff in the case told the Washington Post today that it was his decision to do the interview the next day?

Or how about the Dallas Morning News, which quotes Sheriff Salinas:

"They told me what happened," Salinas said. "I decided (to) let them sleep on it. I said we'll go in the morning."

So the Veep's people did not agree to "let the Sheriff talk to him" the next morning, as KO claims. It was the Sheriff who made that call. Another Olbyfication of the truth.

Undeterred, Keith went on to suggest that Cheney's one beer, five hours before the incident, was a factor that would "linger", but guest John Harwood wasn't impressed. Olby again brought up the difference between "friend" and "acquaintance":

Are these the kinds of little details that can undermine somebody's credibility? If you were in court and, or making a statement to the police, and you gave the same description of the same person in three different emotional terms, some people would say Mr Vice-President, you have to pick one or at most two of the above.

No, "some people" wouldn't say that. Only the "anchorman" of The Hour of Spin.

After a rundown of whom Cheney gives interviews to (attributed to TVNewser) and a historical note on Aaron Burr, KO then purported to analyze the mechanics and physics of the accident. Could this be some sort of Olbermann Damage Control for the unfortunate events of Tuesday night, when his medical expert decreed that the wounds were consistent with a 30-yard distance, despite Olby's desperate attempts to muddle the issue?

First he ran a recreation of the accident, with extensive caveats about how unscientific it was both before and after. Why all the cautions? Because the recreation matched the Vice-President's story! Then Olby called in Tony Cangemi, a "bird shooting expert". Cangemi was "somewhat surprised" that the pellets penetrated as far as they did "to cause the ensuing heart problem", overlooking the fact that the doctors say the birdshot did not penetrate to the heart but rather migrated there. KO didn't set him straight, of course, and added this:

A piece of birdshot got to the heart, and others, maybe as many as 200, broke through the skin, any protective clothing he was wearing...

Dr Olbermann must have examined the victim himself, since the doctors treating him said that fewer than 150-200 pellets penetrated. How could it be "as many as 200" if it was fewer than 150-200? And don't accuse us of nitpicking, after KO's obsession with the differences between "friend" and "acquaintance".

After "oddball", the #3 story was all about...Dick Cheney! Keith complained that the Veep never said, "It's my fault", and added:

Mr Cheney was questioned about the CIA leak investigation. Lest we forget it was just last Thursday reports that Mr Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Mr Libby, had already testified that he was authorized by superiors to disclose classified information to reporters...

Again, Olbermann misrepresents what Libby said. Libby said that he was authorized to release information about the National Intelligence Estimate, period. We went through all this before, but when it comes to faking the news Olby is incorrigible. Convicted felon John Dean came in, and was asked to ditto Keith's latest conspiracy theory:

Could there have been an attempt, or an aborted attempt, to cover this up completely so that people would not know this is what happened?

The felon suggested that Mrs Armstrong (the witness) may be lying, then yet again KO brought up the difference between "friend" and "acquaintance". Man, give it a rest! Even disbarred lawyer Dean didn't bite on that one. Keith again misrepresented the Libby "superiors" comment, and asks:

Is that a missing link in taking this investigation into the Vice-President's office...

Then Dean lets something out of the bag:

[Cheney] did say, in response to a question as to whether he had power to declassify, that there was an executive order out.

Yes indeed, that's what Cheney said:

HUME: Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a vice president has the authority to declassify information?
CHENEY: There is an executive order to that effect.

Note how Olby reported this earlier: he says the VP "was questioned" about it, but Keith never says what the answer to that question was! The last time this business came up, KO told us the leak case "roars back to life". What Cheney's response does is toss Olbermann's great roar right back onto itself. For all of KO's talk about the investigation going into the Veep's office, that executive order means that Cheney authorizing the release of information--whether it's the NIE or whatever else--is absolutely, 100%, wholly legal.

This is at least as important as the "roar" that led Olbermann to lie about what Libby said. It turns all of Olby's fulminating completely on its head. But on tonight's Hour of Spin, there was no roar. KO went out of his way not to say one word about it. And when Dean let it slip, Keith quickly moved on.

In the #2 slot, we got "exclusive clips" from The DaVinci code via a recycled NBC report. Those two-bit organizations like Fox had to settle for Cheney, but Countdown has exclusive movie clips with Tom Cruise! That led into celebrity news, by coincidence also about Tom Cruise. In the #1 slot, the dog show and doggie videos.

Ann Coulter was "worst person in the world" because when she voted in a local election she did so in the wrong precinct. With tonight's Hour of Spin presenting such an extravagant smorgasbord of bias, deceit, and propaganda, this was the smallest of potatoes.

Posted by johnny dollar | Permalink | Comments (21) | | View blog reactions

21 Comments

By Cecelia on February 15, 2006 9:40 PM

Johnny,

I hope all the Olbermann fans watched the Cheney interview just so they could compare Olbermann's histrionic persona with that of the utterly professional Hume.

By CJ on February 15, 2006 10:38 PM

The utterly professional Hume? Is it considered professional to blow the VP's cock while still on the air? I thought that was a strange choice for Hume.

By Anonymous on February 15, 2006 10:39 PM

The utterly professional Hume? Is it considered professional to blow the VP's cock while still on the air? I thought that was a strange choice for Hume.

By colin on February 15, 2006 10:48 PM

only on KO's show can one find out how many times the VP was interviewed by FOX . KO needs to back to ESPN.

By JDDog63 on February 15, 2006 11:01 PM

Olberjerk needs to just go!
Send him to that Marxist paradise Cuba!

By Eddy on February 15, 2006 11:11 PM

"Ann Coulter was "worst person in the world" because when she voted in a local election she did so in the wrong precinct."

LMAO! Wow. Today there was a bomb that blew up a bus in Iraq killing 7 and an 8 year old kid killed by crossfire in Detroit. Now the people who were behind these murders may seem bad but they are nothing compared to Ann Coulter voting at the wrong precinct... NOTHING!

I love when people still deny that the media has a liberal bias.

By JJ on February 15, 2006 11:16 PM

It was a tough night of viewing. Too many yea-we-know, wink-wink, nudge-nudges.

Gets pretty raw. I am beginning to suspect that there must be several Johnny Dollars.

Years ago, there reportedly was a fake brick made of a nerf-like material for Howard Cosell non-fans. Said Howard on it. For flinging at the tube when Howard was laying it on too thick.

One more "friend, good friend, or acquaintance?" from KO with that nudge-nudge intonation and it would have come in handy.

Actually, the lack of background on the political stories is continually annoying. Nabbed him again, JD.

Hmm, I see Anony's mask is slipping off...

By puck on February 15, 2006 11:30 PM

Cecelia

The only place the looney left thinks is utterly professional is STALE AIR-AMERICA! Which when KO seemed surprised that Cheney never went on. This made me come to only one conclusion. KEITH OLBERMAN IS THE FIRST NEWSCASTER IN A BUBBLE THAT IS IN A BUBBLE.

And no, Alan Commes would not have helped because all leftys would have said Alan was forced to give correct questions.

Look maybe Cheney might have gone on Larry King but Larry had already booked Felicity Hoffman. Hey, can't move big talent like that at the last moment.

I for one really want Olby to stay. I really want to see his viewership get into the single digits. I mean, I want to see infomercials, local access cable channels, test patterns, start beating this guy!

By puck on February 15, 2006 11:37 PM

Ann Coulter gos to vote in the wrong district but, gets to vote anyway. Hmmm, Must live in a Democratic district.

By KfK on February 16, 2006 1:09 AM

This episode of conspiracy theater was too much, even when viewing was limited to 5 second snippets.

Anyway, what's the difference between a 79 year old man and a bird? Answer: a couple of wings and feathers. Basically at 79 years old, we are all skin and bones. The guy is lucky he didn't get killed by birdshot. That a pellet managed to make it a whole two inches through his hide to his heart is not some miraculous event. In fact, I would probably use birdshot if I were hunting octagenarians.

Keith is on borrowed time. It's not if, but when. Again he signed off with the "mission accomplished" crap. Even Rita "the throat" Cosby no longer hides her disdain for Keith on the hand off. The guy is dragging everyone around him down. In the end, Cheney is humanized, people feel bad for him and his friend. Eventually his friend will come out and tell everyone he made the error and Cheney is a great guy, and Keith will continue to look like an angry nutty kook.

By johnny dollar on February 16, 2006 1:29 AM

> I am beginning to suspect that there must be several Johnny Dollars.

Which one of us do you want to reply to that?

By Cecelia on February 16, 2006 6:43 AM

Nope. There's only one Johnny Dollar.

By puck on February 16, 2006 11:52 AM

I don't know what this could mean but, KO hasn't updated his blog since Dec. 13. Libs are big into ghost writers. Not enough money in the budget for even that!

KFK
I only saw this once quite a while back but. I saw a article that had the ratings for all cable channels. It had mentioned Fox was number 8. CNN was 26. And, MSLSD was something like 63. It would be great to find a list like that cause than we could see Home Shopping Network maybe beating this channel.

After Keith gos, maybe we should turn this into MSLSD WATCH. I just don't see this channel lasting in it's present form. What happened to the WHOLE channel is a disgrace. And this is comming from a person who had this channel on almost 24/7 after 9-11.

By Billy on February 16, 2006 2:11 PM

Actually, the Dec. 13 blog entry (a quick programming note) looks as though it was almost certainly ghostwritten. After promoting his blog so heavily last year, I don't think he's actually written an entry since before Thanksgiving.

Here's reason #724 why on one watches this program. He introduced his #2 story (on DaVinci code) with the comment that "I really don't care at all." Then there were at least two other times when he referred to the Cruise-Holmes story as "Another story my producers are forcing me to cover." This has become one of his favorite catch phrases.

This guy is practically begging people to change the channel.

By Cecelia on February 16, 2006 2:40 PM

Billy,

Keith Olbermann is always going to be all about Keith Olbermann.

By Milla on February 16, 2006 3:00 PM

Mr. Olbermann, you said vice-president Cheney's interview was held "before the more malleable cameras of Fox News." Should reporters be adversarial when interviewing, not neutral? How do you define "neutral"?

Ted Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to a horrible death: trapped, suffocating, in a car beneath the waters of the Poucha Pond! An "accident" that happened the night before. He went to his hotel room to SLEEP and cure his hangover, the bastard!, and the "accident" was only reported at 10am of the NEXT morning!

Yes, how dare vice-president Cheney not jump to his cell phone IMMEDIATELY and call the (left-wing) media?! Ah, the pain you feel because he chose FOX NEWS and not "a news conference nor in a written statement nor to a panel of interviewers from a variety of news organizations"... The indescribable pain, oh! Does it really hurt?

;-)

By Cecelia on February 16, 2006 3:08 PM

The indescribable pain, oh! Does it really hurt?>>>>

We can only hope...

By Bluefire on February 16, 2006 3:13 PM

So let's see here. The Repukes hate Clinton for whatever reason. But they defend a guy that said, "There is no doubt Saddam has nuclear weapons. This guy got five deferments during a war, and I forget how many times was he arrested for drunk driving???? I love the hypocracy of the repukes!!!!!!!!

By Anonymous on February 16, 2006 3:22 PM

In case you think Olby-baby's obsession with FOX is only for his show, he sent another whiny e-mail to TVNewser, talking about how lucky FNC is that anyone considers them a real news organization at all. It was so weak, TVNewser yanked it off the site after about twenty minutes.

By Jim on February 16, 2006 3:33 PM

I caught Olby's little rant on TVNewser. And they did yank it within minutes. Amazing rant coming from KO, considering all the smears he makes against Bill O .

By johnny dollar on February 16, 2006 4:09 PM

Does anyone still have that in their cache? Can you please email it to me? Even a screengrab would be nice!

OlbyWatchTweets

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Blue-Blog-a-Palooza: Ann Romney Edition!

No Joy in Kosville...Mighty Olby Has Struck Out

If It's Sunday, It's Meet the Obsessed

Keith Olbermann: An Infantile, Dysfunctional, Empty Vessel

Olbermann Watch, "persecuting" Keith since 2004

21 Comments