"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)
Host: Keith Olbermann
Topics/Guests:
ONE WEEK TO GO UNTIL ELECTION DAY: Dana Milbank, Washington Post national political reporter
Olby wasted no time in batting clean-up for John Kerry. In the opening spiel he flat-out declared that Kerry was calling the President "stupid", but:
that President's people claim the insult is directed not at the President, but at the troops.
KO went on to suggest that the White House is "stupid" if they think Kerry was referring to the troops. More spielisms: Laura Bush is "in the gutter", and the Clinton/Wallace interview, which has a punchline "you will not believe". Well that's a pretty good bet, considering who's reporting it.
The Hour of Spin proper kicked off with Olbermoronn again insisting that Kerry was calling the administration stupid:
and they were too stupid to know he called them stupid.
Stop the tivo! Herr Olbermann is pulling another fast one here. Consider this:
Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry drew election-year fire from President Bush and other Republicans on Tuesday for saying college students could "get stuck in Iraq" if they do not study hard.
That's not from the "stupid" White House. That's from the Reuters news agency. And consider this:
Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.
That's not from the "stupid" White House. That's from the Pasadena Star-News, who broke this story. Now how is it that Edward R Olbermann doesn't call them stupid? Why isn't Krazy Keith slamming them all as too "stupid" to know any better?
But we digress. KO gushed over the D-student's hyperbolic press conference and called in his first guest. Milbank, lacking lurid livery, at Herr Olbermann's suggestion, said this is a "made for Fox News" dust-up. Then Krazy Keith's insightful brilliance spotted something:
There seems though to have been a pattern in this administration, uh, criticism of the administration is turned by the administration into criticism of the troops.
Stop the tivo again! How is it that perspicacious Olby spots that pattern, but doesn't seen any pattern by Kerry, like, oh, calling US troops war criminals akin to Genghis Khan, or accusing them of terrorizing innocent women and children? That's not a pattern? Well, not on OlbyPlanet.
Again, we digress. Dana said it's all "pretend" outrage, despite the calls for apologies from the American Legion, Veterans for Freedom and other groups. KO, of course, saw the whole thing as benefitting Democrats (Rule #1: whatever happens, it's bad for the Bush administration), and when Milbank didn't immediately agree, Olby reworded the leading question and took another swing. This time Dana's response more closely comported with Krazy Keith's talking points and he was accordingly great thanksed.
Then it was off for more of those eeevil Republican "scare tactics" and poll numbers. Another great example of Olby Spin: KO read off various poll numbers showing tight races or (D) candidates leading. Until he got to Corker vs Ford, where the (R) was eight points ahead. Quickly Edward R Olbermann moved to insert an addendum he didn't use for any of the other results, adding:
Other polls, however, give Mr Ford the slight edge.
Huh? What other polls would those be? It ain't any of these. Does Krazy Keith have a secret survey that only he knows about? Maybe it's the much-respected poll by the Other Corporation. One might be tempted to say that Olbermann has no "other polls". That he just made it up. But that would make this another Olbermann lie.
So whom does a slovenly political hack call in for an impartial analysis of these numbers? A political strategist for...the Democrats! Yes, Joe Trippi, again hailed by Monkeymann for his "successes" on behalf of President Howard Dean. [Updated: The List] We heard about hollow scare tactics, failed policies, desperation, "stupid", and how, of course, the Kerry kerfuffle is bad for Bush. Naturally, Herr Olbermann plugged his Speshul Komment for tomorrow night, how the President has broken some code or other.
The #4 segment was a rerun of the Today show's free ad for Michael J Fox's political causes, but KO introduced it with shots at Rush Limbaugh and Laura Bush, of all people. The latter dared to state that it's "easy to manipulate people's feelings", and Rev Olbermann was in high dudgeon, because Mrs Bush was now "in the mire". The one-sentence clip was so heavily edited that it was impossible to know if she was referring to Fox, or the campaigns that ran his commercials, or people like Olby who get on their high horse when anyone dares to disagree with someone who has an illness. That sort of free speech (aka dissent) is not permitted on OlbyPlanet..
After an "oddball" that included another attack on Bill O'Reilly (in the blue blog precincts this sort of stuff never gets old), Keith was back with the #3 story: the Bad News in Iraq segment. He claimed US troops were "under the command of Iraqi politicians", which we haven't checked out yet but are willing to bet is another Olbermann lie. (Because our commanders agree to do what the Iraq government wants, that doesn't make the Iraqis "commanders" of the troops.) Brought in to comment on the Pentagon, P.J. Crowley of the far-left "Center for American Progress". Wow, on Countdown you get the full gamut of viewpoints: everything from A to B.
Then it was on to the "unfair, ambush question" asked of B.J. Clinton, which was described by Clinton himself as "a perfectly legitimate question". Yes, Keith Olbermann revisited his great triumph of weeks ago, when he called Chris Wallace, a Jewish journalist, a "monkey", an anti-Semitic term widely used by jihadists. "Fat Ass" Olbermann again repeated his lie that Mr Wallace was violating ground rules of the interview (which specified how much time each subject could be covered, not the chronogical order of the questioning). There was a surprising punch-line to this, Olby claimed, in that Clinton agreed to sign the Fox News Sunday guestbook. This is big news, why? Because it shows B.J. Clinton wasn't as angry as he appeared? Olby didn't mention that possibility. Yes, this was the big story that A-Mess-NBC promoted all day long! KO must really be desperate to ingratiate himself with the Clintonoids. Then: Bob Barker, Madonna, and the #1 story: a treatise on "measuring for drapes". In the Media Matters Minute, some Republican was nominated, as was an abstinence-proponent in HHS.
Muted mongrels: For the second day in a row there was no reporting whatsoever of the air strike at an Al Qaeda training center in Pakistan. Olbermoronn has devoted entire segments to the "failure" of our policy toward North Korea, but he deliberately refused to report on the news that North Korea has given in and will resume six-party talks. KO regurgitated his phony "sandbagging" charge against Chris Wallace, but not a word of criticism for how Wolf Blitzer treated Lynne Cheney. And he still has avoided any mention of Harold Ford's (D) outlandish claim that Democrats love the Lord, but Republicans don't.
Olbermann's book The book that bears Olbermann's name is #374 in sales at amazon, while Mr Bill's "Culture Warrior" has risen to #8. At Barnes & Noble, the OlbyTome is mired at #2,193, while O'Reilly's best-seller is up to #10. In case you're wondering why Krazy Keith has suddenly found a reason to schedule another Speshul Komment, just look at Monday's numbers. On what is usually his strongest night, Olby found himself back in third place again. Time to mobilize moveon.org and the blue bloggers! Tonight's MisterMeter reading: 6 [ELEVATED]
A few links that deserve a bump up from the KO Mini-blog...
Jessica deGraffenreid speculates whether KO's labeling of the Republican Party as the "leading terrorist group in this country" undermines his claims to be non-partisan:
I have to go back to one of Olbermann's appearances on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in the summer of 2006 during which he stated that he had no "rooting interest" in who wins elections. I'm sorry, but calling one party a bunch of terrorists pretty much gives your agenda away.
Gee, ya think?
Meanwhile, KO continues his love affair with the blug blogs. OlbyWatch readers will recall that KO invited lefty blogger Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake on Countdown purportedly to discuss Clinton, Inc.'s outreach to lefty bloggers (she spent most of her time shilling for her pet candidate, Ned Lamont). Now, Jane is returning the favor by doing all she can to flog KO's hapless, unreadable "book". And, KO plans on returning THAT favor by "appearing" in the "FDL Book Salon" next week. All of which explains KO's choice of segue music last night - Bob Segar's "Fire Lake". To those not up to speed on the little games played in the political media, this is known as a "dog whistle" - few viewers would even notice what "bumper" music is playing on Countdown but Fire Dog Lake users would be sure to recognize the tune immediately and understand it as a sly little "wave" from Keith to his ardent, OlbyLoon admirers who frequent Hamsher's site. Of course, we all know that Keith denies coordinating with the MoveOn crowd so maybe this is all just coincidence!
"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)
Host: Keith Olbermann
Topics/Guests:
COUNTDOWN TO ELECTION DAY: Richard Wolffe, Newsweek senior White House correspondent and MSNBC political analyst; Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning News and author of "The Architect"
WHAT REALLY IS GOING ON IN IRAQ?: Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Krazy Keith rattled off the opening spiel with near-maniacal intensity. He resurrected the old phone-lime jamming scandal of four years ago, bellowed something about secret letters from Iraq, and took a shot at "comedian Rush Limbaugh". But Olby saved his biggest blue blog applause line for the start of The Hour of Spin proper:
The President is no longer charging admission for each of his campaign appearances. That's right, he's now lying for free.
Barking that "Mister" Bush's rhetoric was "divisive", Monkeymann gloated that some Republicans don't want the President's help. He cited a poll showing Steele (Michael, not Remington) behind 11 points; cleverly, KO failed to mention a more recent poll that puts the margin at five points. Must have been a mere oversight. Cue The Wolffe Man, who said Bush is a "stone around the neck" of GOP candidates. Olby wanted to know if it was too late to "trot out" the issue of gay marriage, and Wolffie was doubtful of its impact.
After great thanksing The Wolffe Man, it was time to go after Karl Rove with the author of "Bush's Brain". Perhaps the book should be retitled "Mister Bush's Brain", in honor of the discredited sports guy. We got another of Keith's Kolloquial Kwotations, but the ace broadcaster had problems spitting it out:
To, uh, to quote the late David Frye, those who, uh, those who are to blame lose their jobs, those who are not, uh, those who are responsible do not.
Slater said there's something "almost delusional" about Rove, and Herr Olbermann brought up the NPR interview about math and used the phrase "whistling past graveyards" for approximately the 89th time. In response to a convoluted, undiagrammable double-helix of a query about a split Congress, Slater managed to make a question out of it and opined that the Rove machine will survive even a November loss.
The #4 story revisited the 2002 phone-jam scheme that KO has been so fond of. It was recycled video from NBC, and not just there; it's been on A-Mess-NBC repeatedly throughout the day. So why not play it again, Olby? Another brilliant episode of "oddball" revealed that Fox News viewers are "zombies" [Olbersaurus updated].
The #3 segment accomplished two goals: to attack the eeevil O'Reilly, and bring on lefty Rieckhoff to attack the administration. From soldiers' letters carefully selected by Time and Newsweek, Krazy Keith just happened to carefully select on that criticized Mr Bill. Shocker. KO asked his guest about the Army monitoring what troops are saying in "private blogs", referring to it as "a hint of censorship". Rieckhoff conceded security issues in the blogs, but said they present valuable information on what's going on there. He gave his usual analysis: if we stay it's bad, if we leave it's bad. The politicians don't care. Herr Olbermann picked out another letter to quote from: it included the magic words "Bush should be ashamed". Rieckhoff replied that it's the job of the military to "kill people and break their stuff". What would Olbermoronn have said had he known his guest was paraphrasing "comedian Rush Limbaugh"? There was also some talk about Rieckhoff's ratings of Congress (interestingly, his system counts a vote for a resolution supporting victory in Iraq as a "wrong" vote).
#2: Red Auerbach, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Ritchie, and Cruise News! #1: The Beatles divorce. And of course the Media Matters Minute. We here at Olbermann Watch were hopeful that we might get nominated. Instead, KO attacked the National Review (with the "funny" disrespectful touch of deliberately mispronouncing the writer's name) for their article on Olbermann's obsessive use of "Mister" Bush. Rather than defend himself, which might take a modicum of original thought, Keith just parroted the language on the Soros site. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes every episode of The Hour of Spin! A nomination went to a Congresswoman from Ohio. Amazing, it's another (R). And of course, the "nutjob" [Olbersaurus updated] "comedian Rush Limbaugh". KO excoriated him for his "lies", but then lied about what Rush said:
Comedian Rush Limbaugh, who is now claiming that tv networks speeded up the video...
Actually, Mr Limbaugh said nothing about tv networks; he referenced "cable outlets". But that's not all the discredited sports guy got wrong. Limbaugh never claimed anyone--networks or cable stations--were speeding up his video. What he said was some emailers had told him that, but added: "I haven't seen it". This is how desperate the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann is to attack anyone on his enemies list. If the actual words someone says aren't useful enough for attack purposes, he'll just rewrite them. A doctored quote is so much better than the real thing, especially when nobody at Media Matters or in the MSM will ever go after Monkeymann for making stuff up. He just has all those artificial "facts" in his head.
Dogs that did not bark: KO's insistence that the war on terror is "so-called" requires that he downplay real news on that front. That's why there was no reporting whatsoever of the air strike at an Al Qaeda training center in Pakistan. Because Olby loathes the military, he's not about to say anything the significance of the naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. For all the promos about dirty campaigning, KO didn't report on Harold Ford's (D) statement that Democrats love the Lord, but Republicans don't. And we've pretty much given up any hope that "Fat Ass" Olbermann will ever apologize for his disgusting smear of Albert Pujols and Chris Mihlfield, lifted from a discredited and retracted blog entry.
Olbermann's book The book that bears Olbermann's name is #372 in sales at amazon, while Mr Bill's "Culture Warrior" has risen to #10. At Barnes & Noble, the OlbyTome has submerged to #2,223, while O'Reilly's best-seller is at #26. With his nemesis taking a night off, Krazy Keith had a better than usual Friday night in the Nielsen numbers, narrowly edging Lou Dobbs for second place, but still losing handily to The Kasich Factor. Tonight's MisterMeter reading: 5 [ELEVATED]
Best-selling author Vince Flynn talked with Michael Medved last week, and the subject turned to the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann. In an earlier hour a caller also brought up the discredited sports guy. We have an mp3 file of the relevant excerpts for your listening pleasure.
Ultra-left, Soros-funded, Media Matters for America is attacking Olbermann Watch for pointing out Keith Olbermann's disturbing habit of referring to the President of the United States as "mister" and monitoring Olbermann's behavior with the nightly "mister meter". Citing a profile of Keith Olbermann by media writer Stephen Spruiell of National Review, MMFA contrasts Olbermann with a few lines taken out of context from a column by National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. In neither case does MMFA provide working links to support its claims.
As a service to our readers, the Olbermann Watch Research Division has assembled a comprehensive glossary of terms used by Keith Olbermann for his smears, insults, and personal attacks. Our lexicon includes specific examples, so that newcomers to OlbyPlanet can better understand Keith's usage patterns. The Olbersaurus will also serve as an invaluable resource for clinical study, offering a unique insight into the mind of the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann.
The Olbersaurus:
adam's apple - from the Olbermann misogynism quiver, used on women to attack their appearance; example: Ann Coulter
airhead - from the Olbermann misogynism collection, an attractive woman who may actually be dumber than Olbermann; example: Paris Hilton
amoral - one who criticizes liberals; example: Brit Hume
bag - from the Olbermann misogynism library, an elderly woman; example: Lindsay Lohan's mother
big giant head - barb used against competitors with big giant ratings; example: Bill O'Reilly
boob - someone who disagrees with OlbySpin; example: Rush Limbaugh
brainless - used for those who don't think in OlbyLogic; example: John Stossel
bozo - insult line for conservative writers; example: Brent Bozell
bullshit - email term used to describe any action by "Mister" Bush; example: "totally wrong, bullshit everybody"
child bride - personal attack line used against men with young wives; unclear if this is still in play as long as KOKat is viable; example: Nicholas Cage; variant: Melana Trump
circular - clever villification for someone who is overweight; example: Roger Ailes
clown - see "bozo"
corrupt - see "amoral"
crazy - standard Olbermann attack line; examples: Michelle Malkin, Meredith Viera
creepy - favored slur for successful persons; example: Donald Trump
crypt-keeper - personal attack on the elderly; example: Rupert Murdoch
c-nt - from the Olbermann misogynism compendium, used to describe a female's private parts; example: "Ann Coulter's c-nt"
deranged - abuse line for someone who types a wrong name on a website; example: NewsBusters
delusional - not a liberal; examples: John McCain, Rush Limbaugh
deteriorating - becoming more conservative; example: John Gibson
dick - slang anatomical term, used to put down emailers; example: "you obviously have your head as well as your dick up each other's asses"
dim-witted - all-purpose invective especially useful when no factual basis can be found for an attack; example: Bill O'Reilly
disconnected from reality - see delusional
discredited - all purpose attack line, useful when there is no specific justification; example: "discredited columnist Robert Novak"
dumb - standard bash line; example: Rita Cosby
dumbass - variant of "dumb"; example: "case closed, dumbass"
evil - often applied to Fox employees; example: Bill O'Reilly
facist - ignorantly misused against talk radio hosts; example: Bill Cunningham
fat ass - attack line for overweight persons; example: Roger Ailes
fathead - characterization of competitors; examples: John Gibson, Bill O'Reilly
fatso - attack line for large-framed conservatives; example: Rush Limbaugh; see also "fat ass"
flack - slur used against reporters; example: Brian Wilson
fool - all-purpose gibe for conservatives; example: Michelle Malkin
fuck [noun] - used against enemies, restricted to emails; example: "evil fuck" Bill O'Reilly
fuck [verb] - retort to critical emailers; example: "go fuck your mother"
garbage - someone who criticizes Democrats; example: Bill Donahue
gaunt - see "stick-figure"
horse - personal attack used to demean women; example: Ann Coulter
idiot - people whose opinions differ from Olbermann's; examples: Dick Cheney, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck
insane - used for conservatives; examples: Ann Coulter, Leslie Sanchez, Michael Savage
infamous, deplorable - all purpose attack-line; example: "the infamous, deplorable Matt Drudge"
Jabba the Hut - see "fat ass"
jackass - term of nonendearment for competitors; example: Geraldo Rivera
kill yourself - used to conclude emails; example: "Save the oxygen for somebody whose brain can use it. Kill yourself."
lackey - one who works for a living; example: NY Daily News employee Katherine Thompson
liar - knock for one who does not speak in Democrat talking points; examples: "Mister" Bush, Bill O'Reilly, Tony Snow
Limpbaugh - personal attack line for persons using Viagra (but not Cialis, for obvious reasons); example: Rush Limbaugh
mister - obsessively used to demean and/or suggest illegitimacy of incumbent Republican Presidents; example: "Mister" Bush
monkey - insult most famously used against Jewish journalists; example: Chris Wallace
moron - slam for people Olbermann dislikes or envies; examples: Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly
nitwit - general use attack line on conservatives; example: Michelle Malkin, John Derbyshire
nutjob - jibe used to criticize conservatives, especially when using doctored or fake quotes to make a case; example: Rush Limbaugh
paranoid - used to compare conservatives to mass murderers; example: Rush Limbaugh
pig - all purpose attack line; example: Bill O'Reilly
pimp - intellectual journalistic analysis; example: George Bush pimping General Petreaus
poop - scatalogical insult; example: Bill O'Reilly
psychotic - retort to emailers and Republican Presidents; example: "if you really are that psychotic...", Bush is "psychotic"
racist - personal smear for use against conservatives; example: Neal Boortz
racist - one who believes immigration laws should be enforced; examples: Lou Dobbs, Mitt Romney
reprehensible - conservative; example: Melanie Morgan
schmuck - all purpose attack line; example: the mayor of Miami
sick - smear for non-liberals; example: Bill O'Reilly
Slappy - insulting nickname with racial connotations, derived from name of black comic Slappy White; examples: emailers, Bill O'Reilly
sleazy - not in agreement with OlbySpin; example: "Mister" Bush
slovenly political hack - see "deranged"
slut - from the Olbermann misogynism treasury, useful for attacking attractive females; example: Paris Hilton
stick-figure - from the Olbermann misogynism armamentarium, a personal attack on a thin woman; example: Nicole Kidman
stupid - another all-purpose slam; examples: John Gibson, "Mister" Bush
swine - someone who gets the best of Olbermann; example: Bill O'Reilly
tart - from the Olbermann misogynism collection, used to describe female entertainers; example: Britney Spears
Ted Baxter - moniker applied (without irony) to people deemed insufficiently deferential; example: Bill O'Reilly
toady - conservative; example: Robert Novak
toxic - slam for outspoken conservatives; example: Rush Limbaugh
unattractive - from the Olbermann misogynism reservoir, used to make a personal attack on a woman's appearance; example: Ann Coulter is "not as attractive" as Michael Moore
weird - see "creepy"
whore - attack line favored for use against more successful competitors; example: Fox News
yutz - Yiddish swear word, used to vilify conservatives; example: Glenn Beck
zombie - one who does not watch Countdown; example: Fox News viewers
"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)
Host: Keith Olbermann
Topics/Guests:
DESPERATE, DIRTY POLITICS: Craig Crawford, Congressional Quarterly columnist and MSNBC political analyst
VICE PRES. CHENEY SUPPORTS WATERBOARDING?: Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor and constitutional law expert
Tonight, we break from our usual format to focus on one facet of Friday night's Countdown. One gigantic, hulking, overwhelming dose of Olbermann hypocrisy. The Hour of Spin of course is built on the altar of imposture, but this was so shameless and partisan that it demands we focus on it like a laser beam.
There were all the usual Countdown spin segments. Dirty campaign ads were bashed, but the only wrongdoers cited by KO and Olbermann's Brain were those eeevil Republicans. Dana Milbank helped Krazy Keith to focus on "desperate" ads, which coincidentally were also all by eeevil Republicans.
After Olbermann Watch embarrassed Olbermoronn for not reporting on the California wildfires, he caved to our just criticism and actually ran a network rerun tape about them tonight. Olby and the Perfessor regurgitated all their mutual talking points to each other. KO lied again about the efficacy of waterboarding (which has saved thousands of lives) while The Perfessor yammered his usual. In the Media Matters Minute: a Republican, a Republican, and a Fox News employee (the last to Dennis Miller for criticizing Nancy Pelosi). All slots filled as per Mr Soros's instructions.
But it was Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann's hyperventilating outrage over the George Allen campaign that served to epitomize the discredited sports guy's sleazy tactics. The circulation of passages from the novels of James Webb provoked exactly the sort of Pavlovian response that every self-respecting blue blog telegraphed the moment the news broke, and Herr Olbermann fell right into line:
Novels from 30 years ago...written literally decades ago...
Decades ago? How about the alleged "n-word" remarks by George Allen, reported on night after night? Did you dismiss them as being from "literally decades ago"? No, you brought in Slippery Shuster to devote an entire segment of the program to them. What's more, you had Slippery edit his tape, to snip out the fact that the accuser was a volunteer worker for the Democrats. That's how important you thought statements from "decades ago" were when they were being made by someone with an (R) after his name. So important that you had to doctor a report to make them sound as credible, and damaging, as possible.
And that's not all Monkeymann had to say about the worldly Webb writings:
the work of fiction, mind you...works of fiction...
Yes, mere works of fiction. Not worthy of serious attention by any rational being. Yet again, Edward R Olbermann contradicts his own past practices for purely partisan purposes. What about Mr Bill O'Reilly? In one of his 110-plus attacks on his vastly more successful competitors, Krazy Keith found it convenient and opportune to go after Mr Bill for...his work of fiction! The book ("Those Who Tresspass") was just another excuse for Monkeymann to level personal attacks at his nemesis. After all, it has racy scenes in it! Olby pontificated that it was a "soft-porn novel" and cackled: "a real load in the pants". All this over a work of fiction, mind you.
But there's more. As noted elsewhere, the infamous deplorable Keith Olbermann didn't exactly shrug off the meaningless, unimportant, irrelevant fiction writings of one Scooter Libby, during the height of Countdown's coverage of The Great Leak Case. Back in those glory days, when Karl Rove's indictment was coming. Any day now.
Back then (less than a year ago), a "work of fiction" had deeply significant probative qualities. According to the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann, Libby's fictional novel gave us a:
look into the mind of the vice president's former chief of staff
Krazy Keith read at length from the book, lingering over its steamiest scenes, and detailing others at length:
this is not just a book about bestiality. There's also incest and let's call them wooden prosthetic devices, and sex between women and fox spirits
This work of fiction was so immaterial, peripheral, and inconsequential that KO dedicated an entire program segment, with interview, to analyze its sauciest chapters, and took the occasion to sermonize:
Now we have beaten the hell out of Libby for this, and deservedly so. If a Democratic White House official had written this book, his head would be on a pike somewhere.
Wrong! If a Democrat writes a book like this, "Fat Ass" Olbermann does not tell us how it is a "look into his mind". No, he rushes to disregard it as an off-subject, irrelevant diversion. Far from suggesting the writer's head be figuratively put on a pike somewhere, KO instead demonizes those who raised the issue. But who raised the issue regarding Bill O'Reilly's work of fiction? And who raised the issue of Scooter Libby's fictional writing? None other than Keith Olbermann, The Worst Best Hypocrite in the World.
Muzzled mongrels: KO's continuing efforts to minimize and downplay any terror dangers affected his coverage of the new threats to gulf oil properties. There wasn't any coverage! Olby has also been pounding on stories about disagreements between Iraq's fledgling government and the US. So what does he do when they issue a joint statement of agreement on the need for a timeline? He ignores it! Just like he did the signing of the build-a-fence bill. No time for any of that; we need to run that montage of "stay the course" clips again! And through it all "Fat Ass" Olbermann still hasn't apologized for his disgusting smear of Albert Pujols and Chris Mihlfield, lifted from a discredited and retracted blog entry.
Olbermann's book The book that bears Olbermann's name continues to decline: it's now #385 in sales at amazon, while Mr Bill's "Culture Warrior" is at #12. At Barnes & Noble, the OlbyTome has sunk to an humiliating #2,073, while O'Reilly's best-seller rose to #20. Krazy Keith was slightly improved on Thursday night, coming in his usual third place with total viewers, but eeking out a second place finish in his beloved "demo". Tonight's MisterMeter reading: 3 [GUARDED]
Glenn Reynolds has a roundup on the conntroversy over some salacious passages in novels written by Jim Webb in which the Instapundit agrees that if Keith Olbermann thought it was fair to judge Scooter Libby based on his fiction writing then it must be pretty stupid to do the same to Webb.
"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)
Host: Keith Olbermann
Topics/Guests:
IRAQ POLITICS: Thomas Ricks, Washington Post Pentagon reporter and author of "Fiasco"
POLITICAL AD UGLINESS: Steve McMahon, Democratic strategist
KO bellowed through the opening spiel touching on Iraq, "Bush's Brain", and the "racist" Tennessee commercial's "backlash". Olby believes if you say something often enough, it becomes the truth. Orange man falsely stated that the Bush administration "insults anyone" who asks about failing to meet Iraq targets. After rattling off casualty statistics, Krazy Keith claimed Rumsfeld said "any questions" about the Iraq plan were "politically motivated". A long clip (the best part of the show) included Rummy catching a reporter using a false premise in a question, but the purpose was to set up Ricks, author of a "definitive" (per Olby) book on Iraq.
Rumsfeld clearly nailed Miklaszewski in that exchange, but as can be expected, Monkeymann immediately started the spinning, saying of Rummy:
He came as close to losing it as we have seen.
Miklaszewski tried to worm his way out of a flawed question by claiming it was "too precise" (!). Olby had his own, more convoluted excuse:
Is Mr Rumsfeld numerically correct about, uh, Iraqi defense forces in service, but realistically incorrect because of how many of those were not useful?
KO and Ricks went on about benchmarks, unmet goals, Sadr City, and the administration blaming the media (something Olby is happy to do when it suits his purposes). Ricks said it's still a "fiasco" (book plug) and we could be on a slide to a civil war. But wait, The Great and Powerful Olb already declared it to already be a civil war--he did so just two days ago. So which is it? He never cleared that up. He did, however, tease an upcoming segment about "the Harol Ford miscegenation ad". This ought to be interesting: an ad that claims Ford is married to or living with a white woman (that's the meaning of the word). Was KO telling the truth, or was his description just another Olbermann lie?
In the #4 slot, politics and the elections. A Zogby generic ballot poll was cited, and KO finally caught up with Karl Rove comments from some time ago and ran a clip. Lefty Jonathan Alter showed up to give his impartial, nonpartisan analysis. Olby compared Rove to Stalin (we kid you not), Alter explained (more or less) what Rove was talking about, and said the GOP has a better polling operation than the Dems. Plus Foley has run its course, and the election will be all about Iraq. He got great thansked before Olby again teased the "vile" Harold Ford ad.
The propaganda came thick and fast in the #3 segment, all about those rotten, nasty, eeevil Republican ads. Keith misdefined miscegination as "a black man dating a white woman", just so he could falsely apply it to the "vile" anti-Harold Ford ad (hereafter the "vile ad"). Then a Corker radio ad that Olby preposterously claimed used "jungle sounding" themes whenever Ford was mentioned. Actually it uses the same ominous, generic backdrop music that ad creators license from production companies every day of the year. Is "Fat Ass" Olbermann losing it? We'd say he's off his meds, but the only meds we know of deal more with Katy's department.
Instead of the Democrat McMahon (who apparently backed out so he co
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