Imagine the uproar if Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, or any other conservative pundit dared to make a 'joke' like this in public. They wouldn't, first of all, because it is cowardly and insensitive. Regardless, the calls for resignations/firings would be immediate.

Little has been made of the Nazi salute, probably because the AP article conveniently left it out, and TVNewser has strategically chosen to ignore this gaffe by the kid's hero.

I guess the prediction about Keith imploding has come true, because it is beyond anyone's imagination that a cable news anchor would make a Nazi salute in public while mocking his competitor.

This is truly disgusting.

Didn't that John Layfield/Bradshaw (the wrestler) get fired from CNBC for doing some sort of a Nazi salute a few years ago?

So I'm SURE NBC will do the same in this case, just as sure as I am that the Easter Bunny will be by next spring!

Great! Great! point Missy. If this was baseball you would get "Play of The Day!"

Oh wait I have to steal the libs comeback. "Well you know he does show on the (how do you spell it in libspeak?) Faux News."

Beat you to it Non!

Oh wait I have to steal the libs comeback. "Well you know he does show up on the sat morn.(how do you spell it in libspeak?) Faux News."

Beat you to it Non!

Wait, John, Robert.

Didn't Keith make Glenn Beck or somebody worst person for making a Nazi reference a week or so ago?

Oh! Oh! Is it a double standard "The Rock" smells cookin'?

Hey maybe Keith could join with Ted Danson and they can do a blackface skit at the next meeting.

It seems Krazy Keith is calling Bill O'Reilly out. Everytime Olby looked at O'Reilly, O'Reilly " looked down" ( sheepishly, we are to presume, out of fear). The funny face mask on a stick. The Nazi salute. Keith is desperately trying inject some fresh fire into the one-sided feud. Feud equals ratings for comedian-Keith. O'Reilly shouldn't bite. And he won't.

Thanks Robert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now get that pic to Drudge!!!!!!!!!!

Puck,

You are more than welcome to tip Drudge to the photo...

Scroll down the right-hand side of his site to submit a tip:
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Note that Olby also made the preposterous claim that his email account was hacked, suggesting it might have been the eeeevil Fox News that did it. Sounds like he's REALLY worried about what else might trickle down to Lloyd Grove.

Thanks Robert Done! Just as a side note if it means anything. In the AP photo on the Myway article. Olby is holding the stick with right hand. So somewhere he did switch.

Title: Far-Left Keith Olbermann cries for attention on Television Critics Meeting @ AmericasNewsToday.Org

America's News Today:
"He never got within 20 feet of me," Olbermann told the Television Critics Association's summer meeting Saturday. "Every time I looked up, he would suddenly look down (yup, and the moon is made of cheese)." -- "He was staring over at me (I think this is called "obsession"!)." --

AmericasNewsToday.Org:

During his "Countdown" show on MSNBC, Olbermann regularly smears O'Reilly, whose "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox is #1 in the cable TV news ratings. Olbermann generally runs fifth in the same time slot.

The "kool-aid drinker" host, Keith Olbermann said his phone number has been distributed at Fox and his e-mail hacked into. (hello, hello, obsession anybody?)

Olbermann opened his session by whipping out a mask of O'Reilly —

Bill O'Reilly haunts Opie's wet dreams. This is the stuff of a Harlequin romance.

Gee, ain't unrequited love grand?

O'Reilly couldn't have paid for this kind of shit.
Hilarious! Olbermann, you're a bona fide schmuck.

Olby makes his lovers wear the O'Reilly mask.

TVNewser continues to ignore this.

Hmm, classy.

Desperate rating-seeking men do desperate-rating things (okay, it needs work).

I guess Mr. Olbermann will have John Dean on his show to discuss this controversy.

Something about the "Orwellian backlash against my attempt at good-natured humor".

SMG

KO says in 1977 he was told he had no place in this business if he didn't change his style.

Yes, he must take great pride in coming in last place.

What a burnout.

Olbermann's plan:

Step 1. Copy Howard Stern

Step 2. Fail miserably

Step 3. Lie, spin, cheat in attempt to keep job

Step 4. Repeat steps 1 - 3

Step 5. Orally gratify Dan Abrams, lose job anyway, start using crack.

Someone should tell Keith that he is not an innovator like Stern, and he is immensely less capable. When he tries to pull Stern's antics, he looks like a complete fool. Even Stern looked like a jerk when he attacked his imitators.

Is Dan Abrams a supporter of this insanity? Is he really so stupid as to think it a good idea? Abrams should cringe when he sees crap like this.

Do we need anymore proof that Keith Olbermann is a worthless sack of shit who has completely lost his mind. Question: Which is he worse at? Being a human being or being a broadcaster? Oh, and I'm sure O'Reilly kept looking down whenever dumbass looked his way. Keep digging that hole deeper, MSNBC.

Opie is clueless. Did ANYONE actually laugh when he did this?

Note to Keith:
With the exception of your fervent MSM Kool-aid drinkers, any laughter is being directed AT YOU, NOT WITH YOU. Now go back under your desk and contemplate that little heapin' helpin' of paranoia.

Keith, the reason Bill didn't look at you is because he didn't recognize you without Craig Crawford's thong on your head.

I do believe Herr Olbermann is metamorphosizing into the character "Frank" from the movie "Blue Velvet."

I can see him screaming "don't look at me," then taking a whiff of helium and yelling "Mommy!"

Just read the parts where Frank does his thing and imagine Olbermann in the role:

http://www.lynchnet.com/bv/bvscript.html

I like the AP story. "Olbermann has named O'Reilly worst person at least 15 times."

Does it come as any surprise they can't count at AP?

And that he didn't look at me crack. Did I not get a High School Flashback? This comming from a guy who thinks he is the next Edward R. Murrow?

What a frikin' putz!

Too soon? Talk about false outrage by the conservatives on this site.

"Sich Heil" salutes are humorous only in a Mel Brooks production. Way to fall on your fat arse, Olby. Good timing, as Hezbollah rockets fall in Haifa. And we know that in humor, timing is everything.

Bob, about the links: The Cable Game link leads to ICN. FYI.

Whoops. Fixed.

I have a post about this on my site. http://republicans06.blogspot.com/2006/07/keith-olbermann-flashes-natzi-salute.html

A note on KO's "hacked email" claim...

I have sent an email to the AP asking for a clarification. On a related topic, I have emails in to officials at GE asking how KO's emails square with their corporate policies. I also sent an email to the Anti-Defamation League asking whether they had any comment on KO's Nazi salute.

Chip,

A friendly word of advice...don't post links like this in a comment thread or people will accuse you of link-whoring. Email me the link and I will post it on the mini-blog. If it is particularly noteworthy I will link it on the main blog. Generally, I will see all blog posts that mention Olbermann and link most of them.

So, Olbermann makes a joke about O'Reilly being a Nazi and O'Reilly constantly insists people on the left are terrorists. Who is the bigger man? I'm not sure.

Ap Story . . . very weird behavior by Olby

Olbermann Dons O'Reilly Mask at TV Meeting

[NOTE: I deleted out the AP story for two reasons. First, we already linked the story in another post so it is redundant. Second, the entire article was posted and I don't feel like getting a "take down" notice from AP.]

You can find the link to this AP story here:
http://www.olbermannwatch.com/archives/2006/07/msm_ko_bandwago.html

If you want to paste in a line or two from the story and comment on it please be my guest.

Larry the Cable Guy:
Apparently you haven't paid attention to the ratings for the last year. O"reilly is down to 400,000 viewers while Greta is kicking his butt. Actually Fox viewership has gone down this past year overall, as well as people who go to drudgereport. It doesn't surprise me, America is finally starting to wake up to their propaganda.

KFK:
Olbermann doesn't lie on his program, if he does please provoide real examples of this. O'Reilly on the other hand lies on a regular basis. He even makes up stories that certain schools ban Chritsmas songs and you people by it hook line and sinker. Please post an undeniable lie that Olbermann has reported on.

You people need to get a life. O'Reilly is one of the biggest BS artists of the Right Wing Psychos.

Olbermann doesn't lie on his program, if he does please provoide real examples of this.

Okay, here's one, albeit a small example that still shows the mindset that KO uses on his show.

When Drudge reported on leaked e-mails from an ABC producer, e-mails that had critical comments about Bush by the producer, Olbermann said that the White House was behind the leaking.

Two days later, it turned out that the e-mails were leaked by a disgruntled former ABC employee and the White House had no role in the affair.

Olbermann had zero evidence - none - that the White House was behind the leaking.

Did Olbermann correct his allegation? No.

Now, did Olbermann lie? Well, since I can't get into his mind (thankfully - what a Felliniesque trip that would be) I can't prove his deceit.

Let me just say I have my suspicions.

There are others or examples. Just hunt around here if you insist on documentation.

SMG

Mr Populist:
Apparently you haven't paid attention to the ratings for the last year. O"reilly is down to 400,000 viewers while Greta is kicking his butt. Actually Fox viewership has gone down this past year overall, as well as people who go to drudgereport. It doesn't surprise me, America is finally starting to wake up to their propaganda.

Just because you THINK is true, that doesn't make it REAL, you Mr. PupuCRAP

Numbers, SHOW ME THE NUMBERS...O'Reilly has been the #1 in cable news for the last three years. O'Reilly is down 300,000 from almost 6,000,000 million every night vs. OlberCRAP 449,999 + you = 450,000 every night.

Larry,

The numbers fluctutate nightly with those fluctations being news-driven (e.g., numbers for cable news are up across the board since the fighting in Israel and Lebanon began). If you look at the moving average of the quarterly numbers O'Reilly gets around 2mm; Olbermann gets around 350k - give or take. Olby's numbers did go up dramatically around the time of the Winter Olympics which were aired, in part, on MSNBC. Since then Olympics ended KO's ratings have been in steady decline.

The Nazi salute is now linked on Drudge. He really is finished this time.

By the way, TVNewser is still silent.

i'm no fan of keith's but that photo sure does look photo-shoped i could be wrong but it looks fishy.

Photoshopped? Is that going to be the defense here? Wasn't that photo posted and written about on a cable media site? Not even Obly's FANS are claiming that the photo is doctored. Unless they can get ahold of Mary Mapes to get a list of her "experts". I am sure they could find someone who thinks FOX news not only hacked into Olby's email but also incarnated the spirit Dr. Strangelove to make him force Olby to do that salute.

Sorry, that dog don't hunt. It humps.

This may get a bit interesting, since there's no other news going on (ahem).

MSNBC will ask Olbermann to apologize for the stunt. Now, I can't imagine Olbermann apologizing to O'Reilly even if Olbermann accidently ran over one of O'Reilly's children. Much less a mea culpa over this frat boy act.

So, Olbermann will likely offer up a mealy-mouthed apology to "Those I may have offended" but not an explicit one to O'Reilly.

If he's asked by his superiors to apologize to O'Reilly, he'll refuse and likely be suspended. Martyred Keith, the new patron Saint of pomposity.

Anyway, as we know, radio DJs often do things like this in order to hype up ratings. Act silly, get suspended, get in the papers and then come back two weeks later with a tan (orange or other color).

As I said: a bit interesting (emphasis on "a bit").

SMG

I emailed Beth Harris of the AP to ask why she omitted the Nazi salute and why she did not try to ascertain the credibility of Olbermann's allegation that his email was hacked into (by Fax news?)

info@ap.org is the general mailbox. I think all AP empoloyees are first intial and last name at ap dot org

maybe someone more familiar with the events of the Nazi salute can ask better questions.

Regarldless, let's see what the AP will say . . . oh, "We didn't see the Nazi salute" or "It was not newsworthy" or "It was in the good of the people to leave that out" or "Our camerman was out of film" or "I was busy saluting back so I didn't put that in my notes" or "That picture is pohotshopped" or "Stephen Glass was taking my noted for me"

Any others?

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/funny/weekend_caption_contest_40630.asp

TV Newser is running a caption contest for a different photo. I doubt my suggestions will be used

1. Olbermann gives O'Reilly head at TV Ciritics Assocation

2. Olbermann, as always, in O'Reilly's shadow

3. Wow, one area where Olbermann and O'Reilly are even is in the number of chins they have

KO's never talked to anyone who didn't share his opinion. So KO assumes everyone agree's BO is a nazi like propoganda machine. I think it's called projection. He's not very original though. I mean nazi accusations are already played out.YAWN.

Anyone who is sincerely interested in the lies of Keith Olbermann need only watch his rarely watched program for a sample or 10. Or simply dive into the archives here at OlbermannWatch. Asking for proof of Keith's lies is like asking for proof of Bill O'Reilly mercilessly destroying him.

Mr. Populist asked whether Keith lies. I don't know whether he does, but what he does do is tell half-truths. Presenting only one viewpoint (when many are out there) does not tell the whole story and significantly distorts the story that gets presented.

We think that what Keith did was completely appropriate. The courage!

If Keith doesn't lie, then the world is a very strange place! The conspiracies that I seem to have ignored astound me. I never realized that there was massive voter fraud in 2004 that benifited only the Republicans. I never realized that every terror alert by homeland security was a ruse. And I never realized that Cheney was actually drunk and deranged when he shot his friend, and that the police covered it all up. In fact, when the old man who was shot came to Cheney's defense, I didn't realize it was all for sho like Keith said!

If Keith were a physics professor, he would cnange the name of electrons to "conspiratrons" and claim that Karl Rove controlled them all.

As nice as it might be to slam KO for claiming Fox News hacked his email account, the truth turns out to be a little less interesting. With apologies to Aquaman and TVNewser, I thought I would fact-check the story first. Turns out KO did NOT say or even imply that Fox News hacked his email account which was one reasonable interpretation of the carelessly worded AP story:

I posted on it here (note: I changed the time stamp on the post below so that the Nazi Salute story would be on top as we roll into the beginning of the new week).

http://www.olbermannwatch.com/archives/2006/07/who_hacked_olby.html

Mr. Cox,

One wishes that Keith would correct himself in such a forthright manner. I should have realized the AP guy couldn't be trusted when he said Keith attacked O'Reilly 15 times. He was off by a factor of 8.

If this latest "incident" isn't sufficient proof of Olbie's meltdown, I don't know what is. And to think the the head honchos over at MessNBC want to model their entire network after this nut! What are the odds that KTO will spin this in his favor tomorrow on his show?

I love this Olbermann quote (if the retard from the AP got it right):

"It's just so much fun," Olbermann said. "I've always liked playing in traffic. "

Man oh man! Olbermann can't board a subway without hitting his head and giving himself brain damage and he likes to play in traffic? Queef can't drive because of his brain damage from the subway incident but he likes to run out in front of cars?

No wonder he gets hit so often!

Hey KO looks quite comfortable with that nazi salute. It must come natural to him. And his propoganda is Goebbel-esque. Yep KO is the minister of propoganda of the Fourth Reich. And John Dean is Colonel Klink. Hillary can play Hitler if she could get like 10 times the charisma she currently has. Murtha is definitely Sgt. Schultz.

UPDATE: OlbyWatch Radio - I will be live on the Pat Campbell radio show at 8:05 to 8:20AM ET to discuss KO, his Nazi salute and all things Olby. Pat's blog is here. There is a live stream here(you have to register but it's free).

Bob, if Fox didn't hack into it- who is he blaming?

KFK, thanks's for the name 'queef'. Queef Odormann might good too.

Indeed!

Kfk - just to be clear, no one is correcting anything. I did not post on the Fox News Email Hacking line in the AP story. I held off because it did not seem right. The line seemed vague. My patience paid off because the AP story was...not wrong...let's say "imprecise". But I never posted on this so I am not correcting my own post and AP has yet to reply to my email and has not, to the best of my knowledge, has not issued a correction.

Kiki - KO says his email account was "hacked" but does not say who would have done this or why. This is the first he's said about this. It is quite different from the statement he put out after the Grove columns where apologized and took responsibility. I can only wonder what his co-workers at NBC Universal's IT department think of this claim that their security is so weak that "hackers" get break in just to send "dirty" emails. You would have to wonder why a hacker who breaks in to the NBC email system would bother with KO's account. Why not go after Brian Williams or Katie Couric? Quite frankly, it does not pass the smell test but it would seem reasonable to ask Keith whether he was backing off his previous apologies for what he wrote in his "dirty" emails.

I was just looking through the tv listings. Does anybody know when MSNBC will be having Adolf on Headliners and Legends?

For the record, ICN is not part of the "Olbysphere". Olbermann Watch is not The Borg and ICN has not been assimilated. :P

You'd think someone with a German last name and a Jewish general manager at MSNBC would be a bit more careful with the Heil Hitler salutes wouldn't you?

Ah that Keith, never known for thinking before he opens his mouth and shoots himself in the head.

Queef wouldn't know 'subtlety' if it hit in the face with pickaxe.

Just because he has German ancestry does not mean he should be any more sensitive about Nazis/Holocaust.

Anyway the lessons we learn from WWII are not just about the Holocaust which killed many Jews and other minorities.

Facism is likely what he was referring to, not killing Jews.

If Fasism is what he was refering to, then why did he have the O'Reilly mask?

If he thinks O'Reilly is a facsist why not put that in his speech. Spell it out. Instead he puts on a mask and makes a Nazi salute.

Besides, the classic facists was Mussalini's Italy. The Nazi's were also a dictatorship but they were the National Socialist Party with a polical arm, a military arm and a police arm that was brutally authoritarian, but they were also pagens, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic i.e. pro "Aryan". To wit, they were sick and twisted and evil in ways that facism does not cover.

So, if Olbermann's salute meant Facism to you, you might want to study a little more.

Further, might you explain what other lessons "we" (and by "we" I mean YOU)learned about WWII.

Your comments strike me as very queer.

I just wrote the general manager of MSNBC, Dan Abrams, and told him I was very offenened by Olbermann giving the nazi salute. I also asked him to cancel the show.

DAbrams@MSNBC.com

Please send an email and let him know we want that horrible show canceled.

Hey maybe Olby is a skinhead wannabe and he thought he was at a rally?

A lot of people were out showing support for Israel this weekend. And Olby gives the Nazi salute.........Man does this guy know how to fall face first in it every time or what!

Better adress to use for Abrams is this one: dan.abrams@msnbc.com

Read your history. American citizens used to salute the flag in the same way before the Nazis took the salute.

Why does anybody care? Keith is not exactly a brain surgeon when it comes to world affairs and politics, a so-so sports commentator, and dead last in the cable news ratings --let me say that again. Dead Last.

His relevancy is attributed to what?

Why does anybody care? Keith is not exactly a brain surgeon when it comes to world affairs and politics, a so-so sports commentator, and dead last in the cable news ratings --let me say that again. Dead Last.

His relevancy is attributed to what?

If Uberloon's goal is to piss off Jews...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Obviously, the fact that you are speaking about it -- says volumes!

Just to be fair, TV Newser now has the "salute" picture up, and in another item, includes a few non-flattering (to Keith) captions on the picture without the salute.

We have a lot of new readers on the site this week. A note to you regular OlbyWatch readers - I have been updating this post as the Nazi Salute story spreads so be sure and check the original post from time to time.

No, it would speak volumes if I watched his show which I have not done since last year. In a word, it's boring.

How come none of you radical righties cared when Weiner/Savage called the left Nazis last week? Oh, I know the answer, it only matters when someone on the left uses the "Nazi card". Once again, the unhinged right is proven to be hypocrites. Thanks fools.

Sorry Mr. Cox, I did not see your updates. Thanks!

and ROFL,
If any conservative did anything close to this Nazi salute, it would have been all over the Sunday talk shows, over all of the Sunday papers, etc. Plus the guy would have been fired by now.

Just look what happened to Rush a few years ago - he stated that the media was hoping for a black quarterback to succeed (a true statement), and the media ran him out of town (so to speak). Or at least off ESPN.

And that's an interesting topic. If ESPN fired Rush a few years ago for making a true statement, should they likewise dump Keith over this idiotic and insulting gesture?

ROFL wrote "How come none of you radical righties cared when Weiner/Savage called the left Nazis last week"

Uhhh...maybe because this site is called OLBERMANN Watch and not SAVAGE watch. If you don't like Michael Savage then go start your own blog. Until then - bugger off.

Come on Russert, Brokaw, Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, Chris Matthews, Brian Williams, etc . Where's your roudntable on Opie.

This is your boy on your network self destructing - you can't even take care of your own house - hardly qualified to critique the world's problems.

Nazi salutes, 5th grade obscenity laced e-mails, 3rd grade attacks on Fox.

If Opie was a conserv - you would all be OUTRAGED. What a lying, double standard(ed), dishonest spin from supposed qualified journalists. Don't ever let integrity interfere with your agenda

What was it Brian Williams said after Coulter's book - a lack of civil discourse. Oh yeah - you forgot to add "when it doesn't agree with our lib agenda" What a disgrace

No need to start a Weiner-watch, ROFL. No one would pay attention because we expect the rabid-right to stay stupid things to try to get attention. That's precisely why this thread, and indeed this site, exists. KO uses ammunition invented by right-wing radio (sensationalism) to blast back in their faces. AND THEY CAN'T STAND IT.

slow death of the right inadvertently makes this blog's case by acknowledging that Savage and Olberman are cut from the same cloth. Yet only one of them appears as the host of a self described news program. The proper comparison is to Fox straight news hosts - Hume, Wallace, Van Sustern and Shepard Smith (not sure about Cavuto, O'Reilly as they are more point of view shows). Post Rathergate might one of them had dawned a Rather mask to childishly needle Kenneth?

And is there any news show on television more cocooned than Olberman's? Why is he so afraid to have someone on his show that will challenge his beliefs instead of echoing them? Surely engaging with one hand picked conservative isn't too risky, is it?

From Polopundit site.

A joke?, perhaps, but in 2004, a fellow Pro-Wrestler, John Bradshaw Layfield, (JBL in the ring), was fired for exactly the same thing from ????????. MSNBC, where he worked as a financial analyst:

"During a live event in Germany in June 2004, JBL attempted to get heat with the local crowd by mimicking the Nazi goose-step and salute, an act which is illegal in Germany. Although fired from his position at MSNBC, JBL continued getting a main event push. "

Something tells me if the roles were reversed, O'Reilly would have already issued an apology and enrolled in "sensitivity" training.

Dan Abrams has a master plan
Trick viewers it's not Olbermann
Keith as O'Reilly
Will be rated more highly
And he won't be in last place again