NBC has announced that Chris Matthews and the tonsorially enhanced David Gregory will be the co-hosts in St Paul. The infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann will stay in New York to bobble host hurricane coverage

For this relief, much thanks.

UPDATE: MSNBC's Phil Griffin to conservatives: you're not wanted here!

One network staffer, who declined to be named describing private conversations, says MSNBC President Phil Griffin told him that "our audience hates Bush" and that squeezing conservative shows into a liberal lineup would just drive them away.

UPDATE UPDATE: It must be true that absence makes the heart grow fonder:

OLBERMANN: Chris Matthews, at St. Paul at the Xcel Center. I miss you already.

Meanwhile Jossip weighs in on the question of whether Keith being sidelined is just his way of avoiding those contrary viewpoints that make him "nauseous", or a slap-down from his bosses:

No doubt, the demotion will infuriate Olbermann. He's threatened to quit the network before if he doesn't get his way. Will he go to such extremes this time around?

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: It's official. Edward R Olbermann will sit out the convention in New York. But an insider ominously adds:

He'll co-anchor with Chris who will be on our Rice Park set.

Half a continent away from those dangerous terrorists, the Republican Party. It's Bathtub Boy in a Bubble!

Newsbusters is working over the weekend and I am working on other things so jump over there and check out the video of Bill Maher saying:

I think there is a problem, though, with the media gushing over him too much. I don't think he thinks that he's all that, but the media does. I mean, the coverage after, that I was watching, from MSNBC, I mean these guys were ready to have sex with him....It's embarrassing.

UPDATE: Vote in the TMZ poll!

Yeah, it's a classic moment in the sort of journalism that began with Edward R Murrow, continued with Tom Brokaw, and now is de rigeur at MSNBC. And yeah, you can see the video at the Countdown website, or at Hot Air. But here at Olbermann Watch we like to put these things into OlbyPlanet perspective for you. And that's the purpose of this special remix:

UPDATE: You know you've moved beyond the lunatic fringe--out to where the busses don't run--when the Daily Kos thinks you've gone too far:

• I had to turn Countdown off
• What I don't get is his incoherent glee. His delivery was tasteless, and there's no excuse for it.
• You can't begin to compare a rainstorm to ruin an outdoor speech and the potential disaster of a category 3 (4?) storm hitting an already struggling area. Really poor taste on moore's part, and Keith should have called him on it.
• There is no excuse for the disgusting things Michael Moore said. And why didn't Keith rip him a new one? Keith has no problem attacking President Bush on a daily basis. But he's afraid to stand up to Michael Moore?
• KO and MM have gone so far in their hatred for GWB and the Republicans that they appear to be rejoicing in any and all disasters that take place in our nation or around the world. The death of any soldier in Iraq, or the destruction of any home in New Orleans is no longer a tragedy to KO, rather it is more material for his show and his hatred of the President. How sad when persons like KO or MM actually take pleasure in the death and destruction of others.... Shame on Olbermann.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• PALIN SMEAR DU JOUR
• PALIN SMEAR DU JOUR PART DEUX
• THE COMEDY STYLINGS OF MICHAEL MOORE

Guests:

• Howard Fineman, Pundit for All Occasions
• Rachel Maddow, failed Err America comedian
• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller
• Michael Moore, object of upcoming satire "An American Carol"

Hoo boy, wait until you see what Moore crapped out tonight!

howard hughes:
I think tonight Keith was at his best sharp, articulate, and right on about McCains choice of a vp.

J$:
Too bad the bell was off tonight, because it would have been one [Ding!] after another for all the mentions of "beauty queen", "beauty pageant", etc. Yes, the well-known Olbermann objectifying and demeaning of women. Apparently he has learned nothing from Karma.

dcmeyer:
Open spiel was almost all about VP pick Palin's so-called "inexperience"; lame Michael Palin Monty Python joke....

#5 olby doing his best to diminish Sarah Palin and tamp down the excitment of McCain's VP pick. Not-so-Fineman and Maddow cluck in agreement of their dark master.

#4 Trying to make Obama relevant, the mouth breather, Robinson prattled on about the best speach in the history of the world.

#3 Fat ass meets really fat ass in some anti-American hatred.

J$:
Michael Moore set the tone of his segment by thanking God for the approach of Hurricane Gustav. No I am not making this up. And as he did so, Oralmann sat there grinning ear to ear! Nothing funnier than devastation, eh Fat Ass? We'll have a special video clip up within minutes that will put this Great Moment of Journalism into OlbyPlanet perspective.

dcmeyer:
#1 A look back at the dem convention sans any mention of all the problems of MSNBC all week. [Talk about burying the lede! --J$]

MikeC:
It's baaack! Take cover. The Media Matters Minute! No O'Reilly attacks tonight, but there were News Corp attacks and a McCain attack.

Worst was Richard Johnson of the New York Post's Page Six. Yes, Olby took their accurate reportage personally. Johnson works for "Rupert Murdoch's bribe-friendly New York Post." Quote. [ding!] "Let me explain this. I am damaging Rupert Murdoch's television network and his politicians." That's right, Fat Ass. The anchors, reporters, and commentators are "politicians." "Thus, Rupert Murdoch is trying to damage *me*. They make...this...stuff...up! Besides which, the only time I *really* needed more security was the day the New York Post itself sent one of its reporters to *stalk* [ding!] me at my hhhhome!"

Worser was "the endlessly entertaining Steve Doocy of Fixed News [ding!]..." Boy, did I not miss that this week. "...who didn't read the McCain Talking Points [ding!] on Sarah Palin carefully enough." KeithO the Klown went on to use the Obama Talking Points: Palin is a lowly mayor, like Cicely, Alaska ("Northern Exposure" reference). Then came the Doocy dumb guy voice as Olbermoronn read a transcript of Steve's JOKE on this morning's "Fox and Friends" about Alaska being only 30 miles from Russia. More well-researched reporting from Keith "Rip 'n Read" Olbermann. With a sneering grin, Keithy snarked back: "Right. This is like Steve Doocy saying he's a journalist and not a *clown* because his Fox Noise [ding!] office is down the street from NBC News." Well, he isn't a journalist, nor does he claim to be one. He is a host--in fact, a co-host--of a cable news morning show.

Worst was the zillionth McCain attack. Merkle pointed to isolated Iraq violence to discredit the notion that the country is now, for the most part, peaceful and stable. Keith gave his typical Academy Award-nomiated acting job as a response. "So, an average of four people a day dead in suicide bombings means a country is peaceful and sssstable?! But a peaceful and stable country does *not* mean...victory has achieved and we can get our men and women out of there! One way or the other, you are witnessing a man suffering from at least one actual *deluuuuusion*...to say nothing of an utter disrespect for the *meaning*...of the loss of life. It is not funny. It is shameful." And without bombast, he dramatically and mournfully entoned, "John McCain, today's Worst Person in the World."

dcmeyer:
Quiet Anbar ready for handover, Move expected to free up Marines for Afghanistan
By ROBERT BURNS Associated Press
Conditions in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, where a brutal insurgency once ruled, have improved so dramatically that the United States is handing over responsibility for security in the Sunni stronghold to Iraq within days. Troops freed up in Iraq could shift to Afghanistan.

Katy Turic:
John McCain and his master stroke
Make the Democrats look like a joke
Put moonbats to shame
Beat them at their own game
Barack/Biden just went up in smoke

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 845th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 29 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will constitute our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann

What to watch for tonight: Will Keith's misogyny lead him to fantasize more violence toward women, as he did when he suggested that some man needs to beat up Hillary Clinton and leave her for dead? Or will Olbermoronn just be royally pissed at how McCain's choice has made the following bit of Keith's kommentary sound pathetic and laughable:

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

If you want a preview, just jump over to that Orange Guys favorite Orange Site. We want to know what you think about Gov. Palin's selection as John McCain's Vice-Presidential running mate.

On his final show from Denver, Joe Scarborough could not help but get in one last jibe at Keith Olbermann, mocking KO for praising Hillary's convention speech as a "grand slam".

The New York Post reports:

MSNBCs increasingly paranoid Keith Olbermann is threatening to quit unless his bosses beef up his security, sources say. Olbermann - upset to be anchoring at the Democratic National Convention from an outdoor set near Denver's train station - 'announced that his bosses [had] better find a more secure location for him to broadcast from at the Republican National Convention [in St. Paul, Minn.] or he's not going,' one insider said. 'He thinks someone will assassinate him.' MSNBC had no comment.

Always the prima donna, Keith nearly stayed home when his limo was a few minutes late for his trip to the airport:

Even before he left New York, the biggest mouth at MSNBC was worried about his safety. When a car was late to take him to the airport, Olbermann threatened via e-mail to stay home, another insider told Page Six. The blowhard whined to producers, 'I could have been attacked on the street.'

We thought that those MSNBC honchos said Olbermann played it straight down the middle when hosting these political events? Tell that to Charles Babington, an AP writer who dared to express mild criticism of some aspects of Obama's Thursday night speech. He got scorched by the impartial Edward R Olbermann and told to find a new line of work!

Olby's outburst was so extraordinary that even the Keith-friendly Editor & Publisher couldn't ignore it, calling it "an unusually heated attack on a veteran political reporter by a cable news host".

What E&P failed to note is that Keith Oralmann surfs websites like the Daily Kos while on the air. He was doing so tonight, and even posting comments, presumably during a commercial break. So there can be little doubt that when the Great Kos himself slammed Mr Babington's article, Bathtub Boy would be ready and willing to take the Kos talking points and spew them on Peacock air. Which he did just minutes after Markos published the attack.

We have the video for your viewing pleasure:

How bad a week is MSNBC having in Denver? They're not even the preferred TV network among Daily Kos readers. Despite the Olbermann-inspired lurch to the left, Kossacks prefer to get their Democratic National Convention coverage on another network. Maybe the peaceniks are too offended by all the trash-talk and confrontation on NBC's cable news channel but whatever it is more Kossacks are getting their political news coverage from C-SPAN than MSNBC, according to an ongoing poll on Daily Kos.

Here's the current vote count:

How are you watching the convention?

C-SPAN 30% 4285 votes
MSNBC 28% 3949 votes
CNN 6% 943 votes
Fox 2% 286 votes
ABC 0% 30 votes
CBS 0% 34 votes
NBC 1% 155 votes
online 10% 1461 votes
I'm not 6% 909 votes
other 13% 1857 votes

It will be pretty fun if MSNBC loses out to C-SPAN when the poll closes. You know what to do.

Looks like Keith picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

As the Democratic National Convention approached Keith Olbermann must have been feeling pretty good about himself. Over the past two years Olbermann has systematically gutted MSNBC of anyone that did not meet Keith's "high standards" for journalistic ethics*. Rita Cosby - gone, Don Imus - gone, Bernard McGuirk - gone, Tucker Carlson - gone, Larry Johnson - gone, Dana Milbank - gone, Dan Abrams - gone. The plane ride out to Denver must have felt like a victory procession for the conquering hero. Never in his career has Keith Olbermann achieved the type of power and prominence he enjoys now at MSNBC. Over the past two years he has become the number one star of the network, posted the biggest ratings the network has ever seen, and "broken out" in media parlance with appearances on Leno and cameos on Fox Television comedy shows. He even has his own baseball card. Keith is now bigger than Countdown, bigger than MSNBC, bigger than cable news. Keith is now a "playa" on the political scene where he has become the primary conduit into the mainstream media for the far-left and "his" candidate just captured the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States.

Unlike Caesar however no one was whispering "all fame is fleeting" in Keith's ear as his Boing 757 touched down at Denver International Airport. Olbermann, who now gets more coverage from TV critics, political bloggers and gossip columnists than Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams gets in a year, has managed to turn what should have been the greatest week of his life into a train wreck of epic proportions. Not satisfied with single-handedly remaking the entire day of MSNBC programming to comport with this vision of wrong and right, Olbermann has now picked very public fights with the two remaining holdovers from past administrations - Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews - sicced his attack pup, David Shuster on Morning Joe, run around the set peripatetically shutting off the microphone of any guest or analyst who dare question Obama's supremacy or say something nice about John McCain. All this as Keith's blog calls for Scarborough's firing. Now, into the mix comes a report from the New York Post's Page Six that Keith has sought to ban Tom Brokaw from appearing on "his" network. Despite this, Olbermann manages to work himself into a tizzy, coming as offended that anyone would believe Keith capable of this sort of thing when it comes to Tom Brokaw, the last remaining news icon at NBC.

So, with his world collapsing around him, what better time to publicly embrace his wildest paranoid delusions in a disoriented, rambling late night blog post on the kookiest of the far-left web sites. A sequence of events predicted with startling accuracy by Irina Briganti, a Fox News spokesperson who said of Keith two years ago:

Because of his personal demons, Keith has imploded everywhere he's worked," Ms. Briganti said. "From lashing out at co-workers to personally attacking Bill O'Reilly and all things Fox, it's obvious Keith is a train wreck waiting to happen. And like all train wrecks, people might tune in out of morbid curiosity, but they eventually tune out, as evidenced by Keith's recent ratings decline. In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.

We are happy to report that Olbermann Watch did its share to fuel Keith's persecution complex:

Having been staked out at my home by a Post flunkie, I can tell you from experience that there are a lot of effective self-defense steps one can take. A small video recorder is a useful device, the stalking equivalent of a bright light for cockroaches. Also, exposing them in a public forum like this, helps.

The "flunkie" in question is blogger Evan Gahr who stopped Keith on the street near his apartment building to ask him about our reports on Keith's tax warrant problems.

To defend himself against the rumor that Keith is now seeking to ban Brokaw from MSNBC, Keith reveals he carries in his wallet a printout of a complimentary email that Brokaw sent him in March. What, is Keith like ten years old? Once again the classless Olbermann confuses the professional courtesy of a compliment, something unknown to him, with friendship and respect. Olbermann tried to put forward the same canard after the death's of Tim Russert and Tony Snow both of whom Keith attempted to claim as "friends" in the hours after the news of their passing.

I can't say anything about Russert beyond finding it hard to believe that Tim had anything but contempt for Keith's work but I knew Tony Snow and talked to Tony about Keith many times. In fact, I was with Mark Levin and Tony just last April where we discussed Olbermann. It is absolutely revolting to me that Keith would try to claim Tony as a friend or colleague or anything else. I can assure readers here that Tony Snow never had anything good to say about Keith Olbermann. As White House Spokesman, however, Tony was intent on having good relations with ALL members of the press including Keith no matter what he thought of them personally. I will not get into that here so let me just say that to my knowledge, Tony commented publicly about Keith on two occasions - once on his radio show and once as White House Press Secretary when he was asked about Olbermann's role in covering a GOP debate. It was on his radio show, just after Tony had been offered the White House job and was attacked by Keith, that Tony made the now famous quip about Keith being able to fit all of his friends inside a phone booth.

We can only hope that Keith is including us when he talks about bloggers and commenters on cable news blogs working for Rupert Murdoch.

Within the television news industry it is generally accepted that a lot of the stuff bashing other networks on blogs is too inside to not be literally composed by somebody in the Murdoch chain. This was done by one Fox Sports PR person, to my personal knowledge, when I worked there in '99-'00. The comments of one poster at TVNewser read so similarly to O'Reilly's "Talking Points" that his/her/its posting privileges were revoked. So the one here this morning - consider yourself privileged - somebody may have done this while on the clock working for the Aussie Pirate.

Ha! Apparently Keith is not reading enough blue blogs. If he did he would know we all get paid by Karl Rove not Murchdoch...although to be fair we can't be sure where Rove gets his money.

UPDATE

*Keith Olbermann has now succeeded in having Time magazine columnist and NBC News political analyst Mike Murphy banned from MSNBC for claiming that Bill and Hillary Clinton were secretly supporting John McCain and would vote for McCain.

John Gibson analyzed the latest skirmishes in the MSNBC anchor wars, including Morning Joe mocking Keith Oralmann's over-the-top baseball analogies over Hillary Clinton's speech, and Keith's blog launching a petition drive to get Joe fired. We have the audio for your listening pleasure:

UPDATE: Howard Wolfson says he'll work to defeat a Chris Matthews Senate run. Audio here!

UPDATE UPDATE: Mike Murphy on A-Mess-NBC: "I mean come on, this is, you guys are so in the tank we ought to be filming this on a submarine." Uh-oh. That led to--yes, Yes!--another Klassic Keith open-mic moment:

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: Guess who won? Guess who won't be appearing on MSNBC any more? Olbermann's Purge continues.

On June 13, 2008 Tom Brokaw came on the air to announce the startling news that NBC News Washington Bureau chief Tim Russert had collapsed and died. Just ten weeks later, as we witness the near total collapse of the last vestiges of credibility at NBC News, it was worth remembering Brokaw's sign off that sad spring day:

"This news division will not be the same without his strong clear voice...he'll be missed as he was loved...greatly."

Brokaw could not have imagined then how swift would be the fall.

Facebookers rejoice! Olbermann Watch is now on Facebook.

Click the "find us on facebook" image and become a FAN of Olbermann Watch.

We are going to need some fans based on the numbers for the "Keith Olbermann" fan groups (there are several) on Facebook. They have a few thousand members and we just got started so we've got a long way to go You can do your part and "fan" OlbyWatch today. Don't have a Facebook account? What better reason to start one - and they're FREE!

I am not very knowledgeable about Facebook (maybe someone can expand on this in the comments) but apparently if you become a "fan" of a Facebook page your friends can see that, jump over and become fans too, so this is a great way to raise awareness of the most important blog on the web today. What's also pretty cool is that our blog posts and videos and such appear in our Facebook page.

BTW, a note of thanks to OW readers for pushing over the 1,000 mark in YouTube subscribers. That is quite an amazing number and explains how we've managed to push towards over 1,000,000 views of our videos in a little over a year. A special hat's off to J$ for that as he does the vast majority of the heavy lifting on the videos including the always great radio talk show "videos".

Keith Olbermann, who thinks Fox News is worse than the KKK, and worse than Hitler, donned his Edward R Murrow hat last night to call Democrat Howard Wolfson a "Toyko Rose" for appearing on Fox. (Apparently Olbermann, who lectures against Nazi analogies, is just fine with analogies to the Axis allies.)

Fox News issued a colorful response, and today Howard struck back. We have the video for your viewing pleasure:

You can see the complete interview here.

UPDATE: Make this your open thread to discuss tonight's convention antics!

At this point, the only thing missing from the MSNBC set near Union Station in Denver is a pig's head mounted on a stick.

Never in the history of television has a news network gone into meltdown on the sort of grand scale that has been on display this week at NBC News. Things have gone from bad to worse during MSNBC's coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver - and the week is only half over. With the meek and ineffectual Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd busying themselves with coverage over at the big network, the biguns and littleuns at MSNBC have divided into two warring camps. Keith Olbermann now leads a savage band of far-left kooks posing as reporters and news analysts (David Shuster, Rachel Maddow, etc.) while a disorganized rabble of establishment types (Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, etc.) scrambling to stave off defections to Olbermann's tribe and protect their own hides.

Krazy Keith seems perfectly prepared to burn the whole set down rather than let one dissenting voice make air to criticize or challenge the Obama Informercial that Olbermann is attempting to orchestrate.

You can find the video clips on this site and all over the internet as Olbermann interrupts Scarborough, Scarborough mocks Keith on his morning show, Olbermann accuses Matthews of stealing other people's ideas, Matthews snarls at Olbermann, Shuster goes after Joe and so the world turns on the soap opera that has become "Your Place for Pettiness".

Is this the honoring of Tim Russert's memory that NBC executives like Jeff Zucker, Steve Capus and Phil Griffin had in mind for this year's convention. Class acts all. Maybe for "Election Night 2008", Keith can pound Matthews over the head with a white board while shouting "Florida, Florida, Florida!"

UPDATE: Jon Stewart Loved Our "Lord of the Flies" Analogy

Last night's "get a shovel" crack, sneered by the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann into an open mic, just exposed to the world what is going on behind the scenes. Edward R Olbermann already has several scalps on his belt: Tucker Carlson and Dan Abrams lead the list. Now he's ready to remake MSNBC mornings into the OlbyPlanet model of ideological purity by taking aim at Joe Scarborough.

Was it just by accident that OlberToady David "Slippery" Shuster just happened to pick a fight with Joe the very next morning? On Scarborough's own show, no less! As our favorite MSNBC ex-insider explains, this is the modus operandi of Keith Oralmann. And we have the audio for your listening pleasure:

UPDATE: And so it begins. Olbermann's blog has launched a petition to fire Joe Scarborough. Keith's Kos kolleagues are hard at work trying to figure out how they can implement King Oralmann's plan to rid MSNBC's airwaves of impure political thoughts:

Do a little investigative work on Joe's background to see what drives the man. There's probably a few skeletons hidden there.

Who killed Joe Scarborough's secretary in Joe's office might be a start.

It's very possible that Scarborough is a heavy drinker, uses drugs, and has extramarital affairs (unless he's impotent). He might cheat on his taxes and hire illegal aliens to do his yardwork and watch his kids. I have no evidence at all of any of that but I've seen the pattern in that type.

Olby must want Joe gone real bad for him to permit his own blog to publicly do his dirty work.

UPDATE: Olbermann makes fun of Chris's long-winded ways, and Matthews snaps back at him. Ah, the beauty of it all:

If it's Tuesday, it must be day two of the four-day Olbergasm. So get your shovels and prepare for another night of convention fun and games.

In addition to slapping down Joe Scarborough last night (will he be allowed to speak in King Olbermann's presence any more?), it appears the Kossacks are chattering about Bathtub Boy walking off the set when Pat Buchanan was speaking. Of course, Oralmann insists it was all planned that way, but we know better, don't we? Mr "I know how to keep my opinions separate" did a great job doing that last night, as he all but declaed the election over on the first night of the convention!

Whether you watch the Fox team, the Wolf team, or suffer through Fat Ass and The Drooler (we wouldn't blame you if you couldn't bear it), here's your thread to express your comments on the developments and the coverage.

"Jesus, Joe, why don't you get a shovel?!"

Will Scarborough be the next victim of King Olbermann?

It happened just a few hours ago, and we have John Gibson's audio play by play for your listening pleasure:

It's Monday night of the four-night Olbergasm on BONBC. Here's an open thread to discuss the coverage, the convention, and however many gaffes are made by the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann.

You can watch the gang at Fox (Mr Bill O'Reilly, Ham & Cheese, the Hon Brit Hume, etc). Or perhaps you favor the other Wolf Man, the one at CNN. Or you might just be a glutton for punishment and are willing to sit through hours of spittle from Fat Ass and The Drooler, so that you can help document their smears and lies for future generations to ponder.

In any case, the comments are open and we invite you to use our valuable bandwidth to post your convention-night commentary.

Fox & Friends has fun with Ed Rendell's comments about MSNBC and the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann. Of course we have the video for your viewing pleasure:

You know its bad when your former fans start sound like Olbermann Watch contributors. "Thomas Paine" opines:

Olbermann's genuinely outraged Special Comments - the ones he aimed at Bush when he first started offering them on Countdown - were things of beauty. Lately, however, they've lost their impact. It started with the one he aimed at Hillary Clinton. They have become, successively, less effective with each attempt.

As part of the effort to add in more social media functionality to Olbermann Watch I went back through the Olbermann Watch account and did a bit of clean up including deleting messages in the Inbox (I had over 2,000 messages!). Among the messages were "personal messages" with cheers and jeers for Olbermann Watch. Rather than delete all of them I copied them and am pasting them here below for you reading pleasure. More than a few of our viewers over there are under the impression that this site is run by Keith himself! Enjoy.

Olbermann you may not be the worst in the world, but your still horrible.
I have watched MSNBC and your show "Countdown" many times and I have to say it is the most biased, hate driven, show on TV. I think that all news networks are biased, but you take it to a new level. While FOX and CNN have their biases, at least they have someone with another point of view to get in the fray. You just are usually talking to one person with some brainwashed mindset that everything you say is right. You provide the most uninformative news of any political pundit or anchor, and it's sick to watch you talk. You twist, lie, and leave out the other side on every occassion. You may be right on an issue here and there, but overall you present America with the most unreliable sources and you should be off the air. Don't expect this to be the end of me, because I plan to expose your bias on the internet and to let the world know your just a complete fool.

Student
Philadelphia, PA

Do you like this guy or hate him?

I dont agree with his democratic politics-but
Who else but him and Dobbs expose the criminality and lunacy of the last 8 years-Iwish he would talk about all the slime going back to Clinton and thru into the Bush sr. adminstration -In some ways he takes it easy on them steering clear of their really evil doings

Proof 2: Bush - Clinton Connection
A clip from "The Proof" exploring the covert history of George HW Bush including Director of the CIA, Iran Contra drug smuggling, Operation Desert Shield, and a little known connection to Bill Clinton.

Keith Uberdouche
I am a very staunch Conservative and I applaud you for your work here on YouTube. Uberdouche is a dire threat to our country being that some people actually believe what they hear from him. It pains me (as a huge football fan) that NBC actually brought this liar to "Football Night in America" to further his exposure to the public. Thank you so VERY much for the effort you have put in toward exposing this liberal hack, and I MEAN that with EVERY FIBER in my body!!! I don't know much about subscribing, but when I figure it out, you'll be the very FIRST I subscribe to.

God Bless You! Keep it going on!

???Olberman
I dont understand do you hate Keith Olberman??

If you do, do you support the Neo-Cons??

Thank you
Thank you SO much for being a voice out there against Keith Olbermann. He is possibly the most half-truth telling, overly dramatic story spinner on air today. Thank you for taking this project under your wing. I know there will be those who mock you - I support your endeavor.

Dave Sheehan

none
Keith Olbermann rules! I watch his show everyday. It rocks!!!

liberalgrl

8==D
you're a douche...kill yourself

machineguneddie79

Truth is a Force of Light against the Forces of Darkness
Internet: "George Bush is the Antichrist" pages from the book by R, Stephan Hanchett entitled "Is George Bush the Antichrist?", "Barbara Bush and Aleistar Crowely"; "Jah Home Truth"; www.spirituallysmart.com; www.the7thfire.com Do a You Tube search for: Zionists, Khazarian Empire, Reptilians. Satanists, Ashkenazi Jews the 13th. tribe; "Ophiuchus, the burning towers, and the Doppleganger Universe"
I know many more truths, and stand for truth, not lies!

JUDGEMENT DAY AND THE LAKE OF FIRE ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER for you members of the Evil Empire!

peacenowwhitedove

Sunday ratings
Some fun news:

Let the smack talking begin: NBC ran a special one hour Countdown with Keith Olbermann and it pulled Quarterlife style numbers (3.37 million) and did even worse in the demo with a 0.5/2. I'd blame that on the basketball overrun except that a rerun of King of the Hill on Fox did about three times as well as KO in the demo. Even a rerun of America's Next Top Model on the CW had a better 18-49 result than Olbermann. We know from our regular coverage that almost all of Olbermann's (and O'Reilly's too) viewers are over the age of 55 on cable, and it would seem NBC was doing their own little Katie Couric experiment to see if it could capture the youth using Keith Olbermann. The verdict is in: nope.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/03/31/nielsen-ratings-mar-30-cbs-and-abc-split-sunday/3126

mikedel10

keith olbermann dancing.
Did you see that idiot keith dancing around because Bill O Reilly has retired.

It makes me sick. I hope O Reilly gets rid of Keith when he goes too.

By the way great work. You are an inspiration to all keith bashers who follow in your footsteps.

PoliticalssIdiot

new rochelle
Hey thanks for all the olbermannn watch videos, Also I saw you are from new rochelle. I was born and raised In new rochelle my whole life. Sure is a small world lol.

ZomgZintos

Hello.
I don't like Olbermann much either. Here's some videos I made about him.

Why won't Keith Olbermann debate anyone? Many other people do it better than him. I'm calling his bluff. He doesn't even want to hear conservative views on his show.

I do not own copyrights to this video. No copyright infringement intended to the parties that do own this. I do not make any ...

PoliticalssIdiot

Provide bckground info for video posts
I love your site and was in a sad state of heart-broken disbelief when it went away for a few days after the new contract was signed.

I have noticed that when you post on YouTube, you should try to give more background on what Olby is lying about, or how he is contradicting himself, etc. People that read your blog will know where the lies are (i.e. the Iraq the Model story). I'm not sure if you have the equipment to write text over the videos while he's lying, but that may be the easiest way to point out "Olby logic." It's best that viewers not need to make a series of "clicks" to find the facts. I think one of your posts suggested you'd start doing that, which would help.

Keep it up.

vikesnwild

Hi - A fan of your site
I will send you some videos in the following mails. Some are linked to your website already by chance

Hope you will give the malmedy one some attention too. Im really tired of people not seeing the Olbyspin

Jordi

Every Keith Olbermann Special Comment you ever heard
This guy is such a dork

TheFriendlyGeek

Imus
If Imus had said Nappy Headed Hoes about women who were White, Irish, Polish, or possibly Muslim nothing would have happened.

snoopyrocks200

Impressed
Yeps, I went to look at what you wrote and I was impressed - you sound like a lawyer haha very well exposed. However, I just wish there was a 3 sentence slapdown I could come up with of what KEITH did

Revealingly, someone on my comment board of that video just mixed up what he heard and "accused" the field artillery unit of being the unit that massacred germans...when they were actually the victims

!! Of course it goes over his head that he made a simple mistake but what if I went on a tirade telling HIM how he disrespects the field artillery unit men who died by accusing them of murder while they were the victims etc

the simple fact is always KEITH knew OReilly didnt mean to say the victims of "the malmedy massacre" were nazis...yet chose to pretend he thought this is what OReilly meant. Its really sick

The Friendly Geek

let it go.. Don is not the problem.. we are
As an african american the truth is we are the problem. We started pushing this kind of language thru our music and rap and movies. DOn needs to forgive us for creating a climate that supports this derogatory speechabout our black women. Its the rappers and the music executives that need to be fired... not don

stavros333

Keith Olbermann
> Are you a reader of OlbermannWatch.com?
>
> you will find that we are asking the same quest...

Yes, I am a reader of OlbermannWatch.com. I just found it the other day after doing a google search since I cannot for the life of me see what he really has to offer and me thinks not a lot, just a smart ass mouth. If that the best MSNBC can do, that pathetic;)

I can't see one redeeming value that Keith Olbermann has. What the hell is his background? All he seems to do well is make dumbass remarks. Why does MSNBC keep that overbearing jerk who obviously doesn't have a clue on what is going on in the real world.

Wyliesmom

Re: Re: who are you?

oh really? I stumbled accross your pathetic little site already and I've learned that you are probably a fat moron who cannot think for yourself. Why should you? you have Fox to tell you what to think. Drive your nascar bush/cheney biblemobile foxcar right up your neocon ass you fucking loser.

olbermannwatch wrote:

> Mickey,
>
> You are more than welcome to stop by OlbermannWatch.com and educated yourself.
who are you?
who the hell are you? do you work for fox? why don't you try pulling your head out of Bill O's ass for just a second and let your brain get some air you fat no nothing asshole.

mickey5088

im confused
i watched a couple of you videos and i have to ask. is this a spoof? i cant tell if your just using satire or if you seriously after olbermann. if it is a spoof, your doing a great job =D

sheepwshotguns

Your Collection
Dude,

FYI: parroting the talking points of the Fox Noise channel is really a waste of time. Every time I've looked at one of your clips, I see nothing but honest news and strong opinions.

Too bad you've decided to tilt at windmills.

FL86

clips are rather short
Yes... your clips about Keith Olbermann do not do a good job of convincing me that the man is a liar or a bad journalist. Perhaps if you included clips that were of a longer duration and had more of his words, one might be able to make an informed opinion.
OH, THAT'S RIGHT!
If you put any more of his words on, people might actually think Olbermann is right on because he actually IS intelligent, informed and in the right on most issues. NOW I see why your clips are so short about him!
Thanks, I answered my own question.
PEACE
~Tim/FanFanofLife

hi
i watched ur video interviewing with mary carey...
months ago i saw one of her video in which she farted while interviewing....
can u please send me that video
i'll be really greatful to you

parameur

The Real Problem
"The real problem with Olbermann is that validates the nonsensical tin foil hat conspiracy theories of the far left in what I suspect is just pandering for the purpose of getting SOMEONE to watch his show. The problem FOR Keith is that there are only so many far-left kooks out there who own television sets and get basic cable"

WHAT!?!?!?!?! so lemme guess, you think calling out assholes who make dangerous mistakes is pandering to conspiracy therorists? dude you make about as much sense as ya boi jackie mason. of course KO will make mistakes and YES i even agree the entertainment shit he does his stupid but he is forced to by msnbc because if he didint asshole who eat up the anna nichole smith bullshit would go somewhere else to hear about it. all your videos are weak, they dont make KO look bad at all. you have failed.

olbermann
i have drawn only one conclusion as to why you have 80+ videos of KO wit the intent to make him look bad, you must have some relation or connection to billo or fox news. you may not agree with him because he does have a liberal bias and it shows but you cannot argue that he is not smart and does not report on anything without having a solid thesis and and a clear message. KO is a quality commentator unlike, billo , hannity,rush, savage,coulter,malkin or most other close minded cradle to grave neocons.if im wrong please inlighten me as to why you think KO needs to be stopped.

sethvicious

keith
looks like someone is scared of keith :)

jihadlovestoyota

JFK murder

Do you have the video of Olbermann taking about the JFK murder from May 17, 2007?

ejonestexas

Keith Olbermann
If I could, but I can't so I won't seek olberman out and make him a handicap.He is a communist weasel that needs to have a baseball bat connect to his knee cap or better ,his scull. He is an enemy of this country and needs to be swiftly taken out you fucking low life american hater. Move to France and do your show from there where you will feel right at home you piece of shit ! I hope you fucking contract aids and die a horrible death. Of coarse if it happenend it wouldn't be horrible at all. I'd laugh in your face. May you Die. To whom it might concern. This blog might seem like a threat. It is and it's not.I would never carry out such a deed....unless my doctor told me I had only months to live. In that case I would sell my home and go on a methodical spree. Thats all I'm gonna say other than Olberman would be on my list. Clint Eastwood -Dead Pool

CoventryRD

Keith Olbermann
its gd to see that not all americans are utter twats and that there are a few sophists who keep the fight the fight against the low class religious right wing idiots.

mike210000007

Re: Re: Keith attacked Billo's wife?!
Pea sized brain? I host a progressive talk show and I spend 12 - 14 hours a day prepping for it. As for White House officials lying, #1) Iraq. Unless you've limited yourself to republican friendly media sources, you know that while the Bush administration likes to say "Every intelligence agency in the world thought Saddam had WMD," the truth is, our own intelligence community did not. Period. And the Bush administration knew this. That's why they set up the Office of Special Plans within the Pentagon to Enron the intel.

Secondly, remember when Bush said whenever he was spying on American citizens, he was getting a warrant? He wasn't, he knew he wasn't, and eventually it became public he wasn't. Ergo, he lied. I don't say he lied. He lied. Period. Or are you going to counter with "Would you rather let the "terrorists" kill us all?" No I wouldn't (altho' GWB has proved time and time again that the word "terrorists" is just a buzz phrase meant to instill fear and gain control) but that doesn't change the fact that he lied.

When Bush said the air quality was safe enough to return to Ground Zero after 9-11, it was not, and his administration changed the EPA's report to back their lie. And people have died and are dying as a result. And the government is fighting them all the way. Nonetheless, he lied again. I don't say he lied. He lied.

And I could go on and on, but I think that's enough for my pea-sized brain for this particular message. Oh, one last thing. You claim Keith Olbermann "attacked" Mrs. Billo when in actuality he just mentioned her? And then you claim you're not a republican? Right. You will forgive me if I remain sceptical. I sure hope you're not a progressive. I like to think we are smarter than to accuse someone of "attacking" someone else, when they just "mention" their name.

As well, if you are NOT a republican, you'd have much more success finding discrepancies on any one of the FAUX News shows that you would on Countdown. Again, sounds fishy to me.

As far as not visiting your web site, I actually appreciate it. It gives me videos I can post on my web site/blog featuring Olbermann in action. So I thank you for that. Anyway, Bush lied. The rest of the world has known he's a liar for years, more Americans are awakening to that reality every day. How long is it going to take YOU, Mr. non-republican? The truth will set you free.

Doug

Original Message:

> I know this made me hard for someone with your pea-sized brain to fathom but that White House offici...

Keith attacked Billo's wife?!
Are you serious? I realize you have a colossal hard-on for the only cable news host who won't repeat Bush white house press releases as if they were factual, but are you really trying to make the case Keith "attacked" Billo's wife? If so, what in the Hell did Billo do when he was trying to squeeze some nookie out of Andrea Mackris? All Olbermann did was "mention" Billo's wife. "Mention." If anything, he was attacking O'Reilly and demonstrating what a colossal hypocrite and liar he is. But "attacked" O'Reilly's wife? How amazing it is what political partisanship will do for perspective. Oh... and in case you haven't noticed? This Bush administration is the most corrupt, dishonest and criminal in our country's history. Why in the world would you set up a special web site and place on YouTube to demonize the only person in the media who has the balls to point this out? Even if you're a die hard right winger, you do your party and ideology no good what so ever by defending these criminals in the Bush administration. If you believe in your party and ideology, you should "join" with people like Olbermann, not demonize them, because demonizing truth tellers and defending political criminals - while it might make you a loyal political partisan, it also makes you a mindless lemming - at least, when it comes to this horrid Bush administration.

Oh yeah, and Valerie Plame was covert, and Scooter Libby lied. Period.

bashamradio2007

olbermann is an idiot
this guy is so left he looks like an aussie journalist! this silver headed square glasses look is becoming more prevelant on the left isn't it. the australian opposition leader and the lateline guy from ABC in australia look just like this commie.

rangerscoach

Olberman/O'reilly
Thanks for the videos. I absolutely love keith and appreciate you makeing it easy for us all to see how he hands O'Leiily his ass night after night. Cheers!

valerie1

Keep up the fight. You are the Man.
Keep Up the fight.

That Bill O'Reilly needs to get shut down.

Anything i can do .. I'm your man.

TheTruthxx

robert murdoch
i saw last week that keith did a couple of stories about robert, when are you going to posts those vids?

candygirltasteright

so sdo you like keith or not?
i really cant tell

slimmdogg2968

You are a fool
Drink their Kool-Aid all you want, but the MAJORITY of us are laughing our ass off at ya!

Keep listening to drug-addict Limpballs and Luffa-man...they suit your narrow mind.

Keep posting your hate...it is so much fun to watch reight-wingers explode on their own regurgitated sewage!!

Love ya.

My God Beats Your God!!

mygodbeatsyourgod

Great site
Very glad to see someone exposing Olbermann for what he is. Keep up the good work.

topcat42
Tony

Thank you
It's good to see that there are other people who share the same hatred for Olberman as I do.

Hollis123321

what is your motive?
i really don't understand what you're trying to prove...do you really have such a one track mind that you can't see the absurdities/theatrics in almost all shows like this?

where do you get off editing this crap together?

what single moment did olbermann turn you into a such a one-sided pinhead?

lenn9o9n

thanks,
im glad keith has inspired you to spend hours watching him and spending your time on him.

;-)

oreillywatch

Dear Olbermann Watch.

Your site and YouTube Vids have inspired me to FINALLY start making some videos of my own.

PLEASE WATCH THIS and tell me how you like it. I take a stab at Olbermann in the middle.

I used to love Keith Olbermann's show way back in 2003 when he was less of a pshyco and a GRUNGE-FUL PERSON.

Now he just PI$$ES ME OFF! Heck I no longer dislike Michael Moore anymore.

And this is coming from a former temporary leftist Moderate.

Please add me to your Friends list.

CBC Iraq Good News Sarin Gas Found Connections to Al-Qaeda
A Canadian News Story that thank goodness I recorded at the time.

This is a RARE news story that I doubt will ever be repeated again, SARIN GAS FOUND IN IRAQ, ANSAR-AL-ISLAM CONNECTIONS TO AL-QAEDA! This was NOT done by Fox News, NOR any American ...

RedNebulaStudios

you're a moron.
really? you're going to make an entire channel that nit-picks every tiny mis-step that olberman makes, while you let fox slide with their outright lunatic bias? I'll bet you have a kentucky-sized IQ.

onrobertson77

get a fucking life!
i cant believe you! your hobbies are watching keith obermann??? you like the guy that much? are you seeking medical attention or just so sad as to watch the same guy ALL the time or.... paid to download bullshit. if its the last one then thats not so bad, your getting paid for it. if not, YOU ARE A SADDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nxu89

i love your site keep it up :) lol :)
:)

peejaa

hey scumbag!
Nice video....

Gee, should we make one about bush, "we never said stay the course...?"

oyajiterminator

YOUR CHANNEL
I recently subscribed to your channel and have taken the liberty of creating an animated gif for your channel icon. It is my gift to you. If you would like to use it or just see it, I will need an e-mail address to send it to, unless you know a way within YouTube to transfer such an item.

Keep up the watch. He is dangerous.

Thank You
Thank you for getting the word out on this nut Keith Overbite. He is the most reckless and irresponsible individual on television without question.

Keep up the Good Work!

whenryg3

i dig your style
im also a fan. i feel he is virtually the only watching out for the people.

jason

therhinocard

Thank you
Just wanted to thank you for all the videos you post. Granted I don't agree with O Rielly on most issues, he is fair and is a professional.

olbermann, on the other hand, is an attack dog who throws personal insults, which is completely childlike.

keep up the good work! this man needs to be fired

davelenar

pro or con
is your page actually against oberman ? or one of those bizzare leftist
p

grandconjunct

Keep up the Great BathTubBoy Watch! Thank You
Thank you . LOVE the videos.

DemonKnight86 On Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQyDTwBr_O4

Seems to be upset with me though lol

Thanks again fight the GREAT fight.

palmerblade

keep up the good work...

olberman is the biggest partisan half-wit on television. he is a mean spirited jack-ass, (literally) the single largest public distributor of mis-information and one who unfortunately needs very close "watching."

good work.
cnedwick

you are my hero
keith olbermann you are my hero I love you on the msnbc you are like john to jesus I am in love with you I enjoy your show keep up the work and please don't change you are the only true news man on the planet please keep exposing the fix news and the propagandist

brendam44

Is Keith Olbermann gay?
Or is it just a rumor?

PoliticalssIdiot

WHAT THE HELL?
Man do you really like Kieth olberman ir do you hate him? With videos like that you hate him.

ak2800

Nice work!

Hi,

Just a personal note that your representation of Olbermann is spot-on and exposes him for the almost conspiracy theorist he is. I really appreciate your videos and hope you continue to post them. It's obvious by most people commenting that they have not considered what Olbermann (or others like him) are saying, and prefer to post knee-jerk liberal responses. Oh well. Thanks, from a conservative to another (?).

-Victoria
chinchilla8

Our old pal and Olbypologist Brian Stelter of The New York Times blog TV Decoder has a piece on the Maddow-MSNBC deal - MSNBC moves to the left. Will advertisers go along?

For those not familiar with Stelter's style we help decode the decoder:

Stelter writes:

There are three distinct options for American cable news viewers in prime time: Fox News, which is largely associated with the conservative hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity; MSNBC, which is dominated by the Bush administration critic Keith Olbermann; and CNN, which continues to cast itself as a network for independent-minded news consumers.

Both Olbermann and O'Reilly routinely reject any partisan labeling on what they do; in press interviews O'Reilly denies he is a conservative and Olbermann denies he is a liberal. But Stelter, once again displaying his anti-Fox bias, accepts Olbermann's self-characterization at face value but ignores O'Reilly. But the boy-wonder is just getting warmed up.

Stelter continues:

The ratings for MSNBC's signature show, Olbermann's "Countdown," have nearly doubled since August of 2006, when the host started delivering "special comments" criticizing President George W. Bush. Olbermann now regularly attracts one million viewers every evening, far below O'Reilly's average of 2.25 million but far above MSNBC's previous ratings for the time slot.

As we have often noted on Olbermann Watch, this is a favorite trick of the far-left media critics of which Stelter has become an all too eager acolyte. For regular readers we all know this is like shooting fish in a barrel but we'll do it one more time just for the fun of it.

Mythbusting the TV Critics on Olbermann's Ratings

1. Olbermann's first "special comment" was given in August 2006.
The Rummy Rant was actually Keith's fourth "special comment". Keith himself has said in press interviews that he considers his Hurricane Katrina Rant, delivered in September 2005, to be his first "special comment. In that video Keith begins by observing he has delivered two previous commentaries on Countdown.

2. Olbermann's Ratings Growth Began with the Rumsfeld Commentary

Olbermann gave his seminal "Rumsfeld Special Comment" on August 30, 2006 after spending a good part of the day promoting the show to blue blogs like Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos. The result? Keith finished fourth in the ratings that night, losing to O'Reilly at 1,680,000 viewers (387,000), Paula Zahn at 744,000 viewers (282,000) and Nancy Grace at 534,000 viewers (224,000). Keith managed to beat out CNBC's Fast Money with 481,000 viewers (216,000). The next night ratings were about half that and by Friday the ratings were abysmal - the lowest single night for the show for the entire year.

3. Measuring Olbermann's Ratings Growth from August 2006 is meaningful statistical trend analysis.

Up until the night of the Rummy Rant, Countdown's ratings were in a trough. This was due to a variety of factors including coming off an artificial high due to the Winter Olympics in February, coming off an artificial high due to a MoveOn.org "pledge drive" for MoveOn's 3 million members to watch Countdown, and another artificial high which was, ironically, driven by a spate of glowing media accounts of Countdown's ratings spike which was actually a function of the first two artificial spikes. TV viewership is always low in August, and the week that Keith gave his special comment is always the lowest week of the year, the week before Labor Day. Keith was also on vacation during August including the three days prior to the night the Rumsfeld comment aired.

So just how low a month was August? Does it surprise any regular reader of Olbermann Watch to learn that August 2006 was the single lowest rated month for Countdown for all of 2006. Or that given the later growth, if we look back over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 we find that August '06 is the worst month Keith has had over those three years.

So why is it that this month is the month that EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the sniveling TV Critics Association uses when writing a story about the "growth" on Olbermann's ratings. Could it possibly be that in order to inflate Keith's numbers the TCA boys and girls pick the lowest starting point they can find and call that data point one and then pick some recent number that is above that number and call that data point two and then trace a line up and to the right across a little chart called "Keith's Ratings Growth". Do you think we will EVER see a story that note that Keith's ratings growth in the demo has "stalled" or that most of Keith's ratings growth is now in the "old" demo or that the vast majority of Keith's viewers are "old" or that the average age of his viewers is not much different from any other cable news program? Do you think we will ever see a comparison of Countdown's ratings with shows that are often mentioned in the same breath like The Daily Show or the Colbert Report? Or maybe a story about just how small the ratings demo is for news programming and thus how trivial the demo is to measuring cable news audiences? Don't count on it.

One more final note on the quote from the Stelter article. Brian writes:

Olbermann now regularly attracts one million viewers every evening...

Let's think about that sentence for a moment. Keith "regularly" gets a million viewers? And "every evening"? If Keith is getting a million viewers every evening then why use the word "regularly". Does this even make sense grammatically? Perhaps it is because the reader is meant to believe that Countdown is getting a million or more readers "every evening". This is not remotely true. What is true is that Keith gets over one million viewers on some evenings. It is also true that this has occurred dozens of times over the past two years. So, it would be perfectly true to say "Olbermann now regularly attracts one million viewers". It would also be true to say that "When compared to 2006, Olbermann gets much higher rating every evening". But is definitely not accurate to convey to the reader that Keith is getting over a million viewers every night. So why not just say that Keith is regularly getting over 1 million viewers a night? Duh! Because Brian is a fellow traveler in the TCA and as a card-carrying member of the TCA you must always find ways to promote job security for Keith Olbermann. This is actually in the by-laws of the TCA and a critical part of the TCA's secret swearing in ceremony at which pledges are required to bend over while TCA Board members spank them with beta max tapes of Keith's early appearances on ESPN. Therefore when you can write a story make sure it sounds like Keith's ratings are on an every ascending spiral to the heavens regardless of what the Nielsen data says and never, ever share bad news about Keith's ratings with readers. In this case, make it sound like Keith is averaging over 1 million viewers a night without actually saying that so if someone calls for a correction you can convince your editor that the statement is technically correct and therefore no correction is needed. You know like "fake but true".

I could do this all day long but I think folks get the point. It's like one of those puzzles where there are drawings hidden inside of a drawing and you have to circle the hidden drawings. I would encourage readers to try this at home some time. It's pretty fun. Pick out any story you see on Keith Olbermann by a TV Critic and go line by line looking at all the ways they've manipulated facts and data to overstate Keith's ratings performance. If you can't find at least five examples embedded in each article then you are not looking hard enough.

I don't know how I missed this show at the time but The History Channel did an informative, fascinating account of Keith Olbermann's early life and career. Fortunately, someone uploaded an abridged version to You Tube. Parts of it, especially Keith's "family problems" go a long way towards explaining some of his more outrageous antics on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

The video comes from the video vault of Fleetwood Factor.

Registration/Comments

This message is addressed to regular readers so if you are just passing through you can skip it. As regular readers know we had a troll infestation problem here. To deal with it we shut down all commenting until we could get the new Movable Type software installed. We did that in March. The plan from there was to slowly roll out registered comments and then eventually open them to a wider group through some of the tools in Movable Type 4.2. We've done that and I believe all will agree that the level of discourse has improved dramatically now that we have required registration to comment. As folks here know, I've kept a tight lid on adding new commenters by requiring people to email me and then adding new commenters in batches. As of today, you can register to comment by clicking the "Sign In" link at the bottom of any post with comments enabled (most of them). You can either register directly for this site or take advantage of TypeKey or OpenID if you have them already.

Social Media (left sidebar)

I also added a few new goodies to the left rail that I believe are excellent additions to the site and allow readers a significantly better way to interact with our Flickr Photo Gallery and You Tube Channel. As noted in a previous post, I also added a Yahoo Pipe called the Olbermann Flood which both pulls from a variety of internet sources and allows a select group of Olbermann Watch readers to "tag" web pages using Yahoo!'s Delicious bookmark service and have those tagged web pages flow into the Olbermann Flood Yahoo Pipe and display in the left sidebar. Flickr and YouTube now offer readers a way to contribute to the site beyond commenting on a post. If you come across an Olbermann-centric Flickr Photo or You Tube video that you believe should appear in the left sidebar in the Flickr Photo Flood or in our You Tube Faves Channel all you need to do is send us a message through those services (do NOT send emails directly to Olbermann Watch as those submissions will not be processed at all). We will get a notification when you send us a Flickr Photo or a You Tube video and if we like it we will "favorite" your image or video causing it to automatically appear in the appropriate section of the left sidebar. The idea is to bring our readers deep into the fun of OlbyObsession. Now, when you see a video or photo that your fellow OlbyWatch readers just have to see, you can click a few buttons and share with the group. I've got this all set up so that I will be get notifications on my iPhone where ever I am and when you send us something good I can click and add to the widgets on the left side bar. As mentioned above, some readers have been invited to add bookmarks to our Olbermann Watch Delicious account. Because these bookmarks go directly onto the home page without moderation I am not willing to hand out the password to the account. However, there is way that I can set up a Yahoo Pipe just for Delicious accounts that would allow trusted readers to set up their own "olbermann" tag in their account so that everything they tag as "olbermann" would flow into the main Olbermann Flood pipe. I have no way of knowing whether readers care about this or even use Delicious so I need to hear from folks if you this interests you. If you have a Delicious Account or are prepared to open one and would like become a contributor to the Olbermann Flood, you can send an email to my robert_a_cox account over at yahoo dot com. If there is sufficient interest I will set it up. Lastly, I am opening up our long-closed, highly secret, classified press list over at Google Groups. This email list was originally set up as a list exclusively for certain reporters, columnists, pundits, radio show hosts and bloggers who "take" out material from time to time. As this is primarily our "media" list which we use to alert traditional media outlets and blogs to important Olbermann Watch blog posts, we keep this in reserve and use it judiciously. If you get an email from this list you can rest assured it is, in the world of Keith Olbermann, a major news item. As you can see from scrolling the archives, we have only sent out 17 alerts in the 16 months since we set it up. Putting this all together was no small task so I hope readers will appreciate the effort to make Olbermann Watch the finest OlbyExperience anywhere on the web. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions experience any problems or bugs or just add a comment here.

Once upon a time, Sen. Joe Biden would surely have qualified as a WPITW for dragging Obama into a meandering and offensive response to a question on AIDS prevention at the Tavis Smilery All-American Foru last September. Now that Obama has annointed Biden as his running-mate, Biden's bizarre remarks will all be forgotten...except here on Olbermann Watch.

[NOTE: the video and audio in this clip has been spliced together for purposes of a lame attempt at humor; Obama did not really say "whatchyou talkin' about Willis" during the debate and some of the laughter is canned from the TV show "Different Strokes"]

BTW, I just noticed that our Olbermann Watch channel on YouTube stands at 995 subscribers. That's awesome. We need a few more to push over the magic 1,000 mark. For those of you not already subscribers please consider double-clicking the video above and then clicking on the subscribe button on the YouTube site.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• VEEP VEEP WHO'S GOT THE VEEP?
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR PART DEUX

Guests:

• Richard Wolffe, UK exchange student
• Craig Crawford, aka Olbermann's Brain
• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller
• JPaul Reickhoff, left-wing phony soldier-spokesman

If there were any doubt that the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann is nothing but a slovenly political hack, that doubt was removed tonight.

Remember the ad about Obama's wife, the ad that wasn't even run by the McCain campaign? Recall Merkle's righteous outrage about it, as he bellowed night after night after night about how evil it is to attack the wife of a candidate? Remember how he demanded McCain speak out against it, and demanded he pull it down--even though he had no power or authority to do so? Think back to how Olbermoronn then demanded that McCain threaten the Tennessee Republicans with everything short of waterboarding in order to make them take it down?

Today, the Democrats in Florida put out an ad about Cindy McCain. Did Oralmann scorch Obama? Did he demand that it be taken down? Did he express outrage that the wife of a candidate was being targeted?

Silly rabbit. Of course not. Edward R Olbermann is a slovenly political hack.

And a hypocritical one as well. Talking to the phony soldier-spokesman about how horrible it is that McCain cites his service in the military (you know, like Olby condemned John "Reporting for Duty" Kerry...oh, you don't remember Olby condemning that?), Fat Ass complained that it's gotten so bad that McCain is actually citing his POW status and even worse, he "used it to validate his policy decisions". Horrors!

How about when Olbermoronn was making one of his 500+ attacks on Bill O'Reilly, in this case for the crime of disagreeing with John McCain (this was before McCain was the nominee so Bathtub Boy wasn't obligated to attack him nightly). Do you know what the trump card that Keithy pulled out to prove how wrong O'Reilly was? You guessed it: Olby used McCain's POW history to validate his policy decision! Said KO, O'Reilly was "worst person in the world" for disagreeing with someone "who spent five years as a POW in North Vietnam".

Keith Olbermann: slovenly political hack, and The Biggest Hypocrite in the Wooorrrrld!

Philly:
Ding! Commence Olbergasm! According to MSDLC, Kaine and Bayh are not the veep picks. Craig Crawford makes an appearance. I wonder what he had to do to get back in Herr Olbytard's good graces. Never mind: I don't want to know.

About the McCain "houses" (that belong to his wife) flap, did the Dems forget how wealthy John Kerry, John Edwards (har!), Ted Kennedy and other Dems are? Does John Kerry know how all of Teresa's dough is invested. I doubt it.

chuckerchucker:
"Comedian" Keith Olbermann comes up with a new McName, this time McNopoly in regards to the several houses that McCain owns. Yah, McCain was way out of line suggesting A Mess NBC was being unfair to him. He should grow up, I mean Keith has done several parodies of Obama's name right? Oh wait, you're a facist if you make fun of Obama's name.

dcmeyer:
I wonder what the count was on the "McCain homes" tonight? It seems like olby was trying every segment to work that hackneyed phrase in. I got a chuckle of olby whining about the use of unnamed sources in the Chicago Trib, seeing as olby dedicated a whole hour of "breaking news" to a NYT report of McCain and a lobbyist that used unnamed sources.

CountDung:
We should ask the Obama campaign how many times they insist Olbermann use it.

dcmeyer:
That would make sense, CountDung, since olby is the only one flogging the story.

J$:
Speaking of the Obama campaign, as Bathtub Boy was spouting off statistics about the cost of the McCains' domestic help on The Hour of Spin, just down the dial an Obama spokesman was attacking McCain by bringing up...the cost of his domestic help! The exact same talking points, only on The Factor we got them straight from the Obama campaign, without having them go through the repellent middleman on The Hour of Spin.

MikeC:
In the Media Matters Minute, Worse was two Chicago Tribune writers. Skip. Worser was two "Grammar Vigilantes." Next.

Worst was Sean Hannity. According to Keith Oralmann, Sean "jumped the professional shark, both in terms of journalism and Americanism" when talking about Obama's controversial Born Alive abortion bill vote...which turned into a defense of Jerome Corsi. Edward R. Olbermann dusted off his squawky hem-and-haw Hannity impression while reading a blue blog quote from "his radio comedy show." The full-blooded, fire-breathing, get-Lord-Obama-elected-at-all-costs Rev. Olbermoronn played the race card. "Now that you have crossed the line into full-blooded, fire-breathing...*stop-the-Black-guy-at-all-costs* racism, go the whole distance! Get a hood! And wear it on your show!"

Katy Turic:
Olby's "source" is the Huffington Post
Know as "research" by McKountdown's host
Blue blog rip-n-read
Arianna's his lead
(She's also disliked coast-to-coast)

If it's Friday, it's our weekly assessment of Krazy Keith's masculinity. This week Monkeymann attacked Fox and other broadcasters 23 times. Olby's source (Media Matters) criticized (MS)NBC five times, but again, Keithy protected his corporate masters with zero criticisms. That makes this week's Olbermann Manhood Quotient: -56 [mama's boy limp].

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 838th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 21 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will constitute our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann. You know, the guy who runs MSNBC.

What to watch for tonight: Will "Man on Fan" Olbermann have a complete Olbgasm over Obama's Veep pick? Is Obama delaying the pick until the 8:00 pm hour so that Olbermann can "do it live"? Will the leak up on Drudge force Obama to move earlier? Or is it another red herring?

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR PART DEUX
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR PART TRES
• VEEPSTAKES

Guests:

• Howard Fineman, pundit with shoe polish in his hair
• E.J. Dionne, reliably leftist scrivener
• Vote Vets Obama tank-dweller
• Jonathan Alter, affectionately known to his friends as "Lefty"

Shock! No Wolffe Man? Was Chris Kofinis out of town tonight? Another Shock: Olbermann's stunning treatment of the threatening letters and pseudo-anthrax sent to two different McCain HQs today.

Remember the outrage when Edward R Olbermann got his letter with fake anthrax in it? Remember how he rushed to blame people like Michelle Malkin, blaming their words for demonizing him? Merkle tonight did not blame anyone for demonizing McCain (whom Olby has called everything from a disgrace to a delusional crackpot). He oddly made no such reference. In fact he was strangely silent about this news. Here we have terrorist attacks (Oralmann's own description) directed against a Presidential candidate, but Fat Ass doesn't get riled up about it, doesn't even bother with the story. Why would this be?

dcmeyer:
I couldn't get past Olby's carnival barking opening spiel tonight, "McCain meltdown." I guess getting spanked by The Ingraham Factor last night really gave KO the vapors.

Great Thanks:
John McCain is out of touch with Americans because he's made wise choices with his money.

EddieB:
I tune in to see just what "olbydouche" might be discussing on a particular night. Tonight, it seemed to me, his WHOLE show was going to be ridiculing McCain for his "HOW MANY HOUSES DO I OWN?" "controversy". I feel utterly stupid even saying this, but how much play would this get if were Obama?? The answer is obvious. How this lunatic still gets 50 or 100,000 people to watch on a given night is a scary thought. What a tool.

ramjet:
The Flaming One Legged Flamingo, previously known as Whatzizname, unbelievably ridiculed the McCain campaign spokesman for using the term " 5 1/2 years in prison" instead of "POW camp," like that's an attempt to try and make the experience seem worse than it actually was--showing precisely how ignorant, insensitive, cruel, and torturous this sad excuse of a pink wading bird really is.

Memo to FOLF:

• 1. POW = PRISONER of War
• 2. The Hanoi Hilton = Hoa Lo PRISON
• 3. Built in 1901 by the French who renamed the street it was on rue de la PRISON," or in Vietnamese, "Pho Nha Tu" which translates to PRISON Street.
• 4. When the French left in 1954, Vietnamese officials changed the name of the street and PRISON back to Hoa Lo.

All things considered, I'm certain Sen. McCain would have preferred to spend 5 1/2 years in whatever the FOLF's conception is of a prison rather than the "camp" he 'attended.'

Quads:
Howard Fineman wishes he can be "cool and accepted" on Countdown with the olbyloons. The black hair dye just is not cutting it, but he tries oh so hard to hit Olby's wheelhouse demographic of 18-24 year old young boys.

Citizen Keith continued to advance the notion that by McCain commenting on the draft, he was essentially announcing his true intentions once he becomes president. It does not matter that the Al Jazeera @ 30 Rock gang (which has become NBC news) reported the story ad nauseam a couple of years back, accusing Bush of wanting to reinstitute the draft --which never happened.

Fat Ass is clearly under the misguided assumption that he can pick an issue and actually make it a campaign issue. Keith is clearly as narcissistic as "legs wide open" John Edwards. But what do you expect from the gang of MSLSD. The acid has clearly gone to there head as they fly the American Flag upside down.

10th Cavalry:
Honestly, I suspect McCain probably doesn't know. The boss has the cash in the family and she is likely to be the owner. At least McCain pays his property taxes. How much property does Fatass own? Hizzoner appears to be a real estate mogul himself but like the slum landlords, tends to forget those tidy little things like property taxes.

Klein should take some hair off the backside and put it on top. Perhaps he can consult with Biden on how to do that.

Observer Dan:
KEITHS MOST PRICELESS BACKFIRE MOMENT: You could almost hear Homer Simpson coughing " DUH!" E. J. Dionne Jr. insisted on squeaking in one last comment, thankfully. It took all the air out of Olby's segment ridiculing John McCain for being a wealthy out-of-touch elitist:

Olbermann: " ..and thank you, uh, go ahead..."
E.J. Dionne Jr.: "uh, ok, and I was going to say we can bring in John Edwards Barber and do some $400 haircuts!
Olbermann: " ..........alright".

Billy Hill:
E.J. Dionne has never looked more like a frog than he did tonite. When his picture flashed up he looked like he was ready to leap, arms spread apart, hunkered over posed in the fly catching mode. What a bunch of weirdos.

Philly:
Lefty Alter prognosticates that Barry Soetoro's veep pick is Joe Biden. The deluded Alter somehow thinks Biden's big obnoxious yap is a plus, not a minus. Gaffetastic! Biden will blow another hole in Barry's sinking ship in no time flat. Olby thinks it's Hillary. Never say never, says Lefty. Hillary's "cathartic process" during Tuesday's floor vote will help unify the party, Alter says. There's no incentive for her to sabotage Obama. How silly. The Clinton's would get someone else to do their dirtywork. What is Alter thinking?

MikeC:
And now, the most dreaded two minutes in television, the latest from the Media Matters grapevine. By that, I mean, it's time for the Media Matters Minute. The good news is there was no O'Reilly attack. The bad news is the following people *were* attacked:

Worse was John Gard, a Republican running for Congress in Wisconsin's 8th District. T. Boone Olbermann says the notion that Cuba is drilling off the Florida coast is "flat-out horse hockey." "Cuba granted *leases* to foreign countries to explore for oil on Cuban *land*. Mr. Gard does make sense at one point in the ad when he concludes, (mimicky voice): 'Makes no sense to me.'" This is the same clueless conservatives card he played with Rudy Giuliani a few weeks ago.

Worser was Gen. David Petraeus! Yes, Jane Fonda Olbermann once again goes after the military...not to mention organized religion. Gen. Petraeus endorse a book by an evangelical Lutheran Chaplain. Horrors! He must be taken down! "Never mind the impact on those soldiers who are not of [the Chaplain's] faith. How about Army regulations against...promoting religion against *proselytizing*?! General Petraeus, who never has never been troubled by Army regulations, nor *Constitutional* ones, claims that when [the Chaplain] asked him for a recommendation, he didn't give him permission to *publish* it, that it was only intended for [the Chaplain] personally." An evil grin sets in. "Yes, you're right," Rev. Olbermoronn tells his credulous lemmings, "that *doesn't* make any sense. Guy asks ya for a book blurb and you don't expect him to print it. But it gets worse." I'll bet it does. "Petraeus' endorsement has been on that book jacket...since the book was published *last year*." [But he only made 'worst person' tonight, because the blue blog source, HuffPo, only recently covered this. And it ain't news on OlbyPlanet unless it comes from a Blue Blog.--J$]

Worst was "comedian [ding!] Rush Limmmbaaaugh, defending John McCain... What else? That's what it says on the Talking Points Rush gets. ...by attacking Obama's response to McCain's attack ad." There goes the Talking Points meme again. Talking Points this, Talking Points that. Oralmann does a Limbaugh impression while reading a parsed blue blog quote. He then chimes back with: "There's...4,000 jokes in there, like, uh, 'bout the last time comedian [ding!] was called either little...or a *man*. But hidden in that statement...Rush? You're suggesting that you should be able to hit the girl?" Okay, I don't know if that's a pleasuring reference or a violence against women reference. "Comedian [ding!] Rush Limmmmmbaaaaaugh!" And you know what the last line was.

Katy Turic:
McOlbermahn thinks he's McCute
McJournalist in a McSuit
McHack, McInsane
McObama's campaign
McOlbermahn will McPollute

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 837th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 21 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will constitute our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann. You know, the guy who runs MSNBC.

What to watch for tonight: Threatening letters containing white powder sent to several McCain HQ officers. Watch for Edward R Olbermann to talk about how the incessant demonizing of McCain inspired the terrorist threats on a war hero.

Or not.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

Any OlbyFan has a chance encounter with Keith after KO had wrapped Countdown for the evening:

"On the way through the door to 30 Rock, i see Keith Olbermann walking out the other.

After shaking off the "what the hell, was that?!?" -- i think to myself that i shouldnt be that idiot who when they see a celeb they throw away both tact & shame as they run & tackle their target in ways that call for both restraining orders & weaponry. And then I realize I had a camera. So I do a quick 180.

And that was just about the moment in time that I went in to stupid fan mode, talking like I needed meds or a refresher hooked-on-phonics course.

That aside, he smiled and was very polite about the whole thing. Little standoffish, but far less than im sure I would be if somebody random came up to me on the street. I asked him if he minded if I took a pic, and he said sure w/o hesitation. Thus the 'sticking the camera out at the end of the arm and pointing it back trying to get everybody in frame'. . . (More at my site) "

Sounds fun!

John Gibson points out how A-Mess-NBC continues its march toward total ideological conformity with the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann. And we have the audio for your listening pleasure:

I have fine tuned the Olbermann Flood RSS Feed which appears as a "badge" widget from Yahoo Pipes in the left sidebar (scroll down a bit).

I am going to link to the post in the left side bar permanently and use this post as a place to manage the list of RSS feeds that flow into the Yahoo Pipes to generate the torrent of OlbyNews we called the Olbermann Flood or just "The Flood".

Complete List of RSS Feeds piped into Olbermann Flood

Surfing the web is so yesterday. All the cool kids use RSS Readers to pull the web to them. If you do not know about RSS then go to Newsgator, sign up for a free account, download the free software and get with the program. There are many other RSS services/apps out there but my favorite is Newsgator. Feel free to use what you like. If you are one of those people who fears change and likes doing things the way you have always done them then here is my advice: do not listen to yourself !!!. RSS is the best way to read the web period. If you are not using RSS then you are being ridiculous (with RSS you get the headlines and links and can click to go to the web when you see something that interests you).

Once you have a Newsgator (or other) account, there are two feeds you will want to add right away:

Olbermann Watch: http://www.olbermannwatch.com/index.rdf
Johnny Dollar's Place: http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/xml/jdp.xml

If you want EVERYTHING about Olbermann you can get both of those feeds plus many more by adding the mother of all Olbermann Feeds:

The Olbermann Flood Feed: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=tmtRNTxu3RGlpr_ErbQIDg&_render=rss

It is this feed which is displaying in the left sidebar.

The CORE component of the Olbermann Flood Feed is a special Delicious Feed that is fed by a select group of Olbermann Watch contributors and commenters. We use this to bookmark items on the web that are not on the "beaten path" of the Olbermann-related sources below. If there is a story on Olbermann in The New York Times or on TVNewser or in Huffinton Post or Hot Air or Inside Cable News that story WILL appear automatically in the Olbermann Flood Feed so there is no need to bookmark it with Delicious. Posts and articles that fall outside of our "net" are bookmarked into Delicious.

Olbermann Watch Delicious Feed (unfiltered, every post is piped in to the feed)
http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/olbermannwatch.com)

To this feed we then added groups of feeds from other feeds starting with KO-only sources.

Keith Olbermann Specific Sites (unfiltered, every post is piped in to the feed)
http://feeds.dailykos.com/dailykos/user?user=keith%20olbermann
http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/rss.aspx
http://watchingolbermannwatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EitherRelevantOrTrue
http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/olbermannwatch.com
http://olbermannsego.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://www.olbermannwatch.com/index.rdf
[NOTE: "Thank You Keith Olbermann" removed due to bad RSS feed]

Friends of Olbermann Watch (filtered for keyword="Olbermann", only those posts with the word "Olbermann in them are piped in to the feed)
http://thecablegame.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://www.extrememortman.com/feed/
http://insidecablenews.wordpress.com/feed/
http://www.nationalreview.com/index.xml
http://newsbusters.org/node/feed
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://feeds.feedburner.com/hotair/main
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/xml/jdp.xml

Gossip Sites (filtered for keyword="Olbermann", only those posts with the word "Olbermann in them are piped in to the feed)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/jossip
http://www.nypost.com/rss/pagesix.xml

Blue Blogs (filtered for keyword="Olbermann", only those posts with the word "Olbermann in them are piped in to the feed)
http://www.eyesonfox.org/?feed=rss2
http://feeds.feedburner.com/OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid
http://feeds.feedburner.com/crooksandliars/YaCP
http://feeds.dailykos.com/dailykos/index.xml
http://feeds.mediamatters.org/mediamatters/latest
http://feeds.feedburner.com/rawstory/gKpz
http://thinkprogress.org/feed/
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/rss
http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/huffingtonpost/raw_feed
http://wonkette.com/tag/top/feed

Funneling all these feeds into one pipe gives us most of what is out there on Keith in the blogs. To pick up MSM coverage we then mix in Google News

Google News Feed (filtered for keyword="Olbermann", only those posts with the word "Olbermann in them are piped in to the feed, dupes stripped out)
http://news.google.com/news?client=safari&rls=en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&tab=wn&q=%22Keith+Olbermann%22&output=rss

We then use additional filters to further strain out duplicate stories (with about 98% success rate) and lastly order them so the most recent stories appear on top.

No one knows (and Yahoo is not telling) how often Yahoo Pipes pulls a feed but the frequency is not counted in seconds. We will just have to see how often the content updates but no one should expect that a post on one site will appear instantly in the feed.

YOUR HELP IS APPRECIATED

If you have a feed that you think ought to be included drop us a link at the robert_a_cox account over at yahoo dot com.

UPDATE 1 (8/21/08)

Olby Wiki War: Add heavily truncated feed of Wikipedia edits to Keith Olbermann entry; this will put just one edit post into the feed at a time so these edits are really more to remind folks of the war going on over there over Keith's entry.

Technorati: feed://feeds.technorati.com/tag/olbermann?authority=a7&language=en filtered for "Olbermann"

Google Base: There is a source in Yahoo Pipes to pull from a beta service from Google called "Google Base" which has all sorts of stuff jammed into it. I tried out all of them and found that pulling from the "Personals" and "Products" sections were interesting so I kept them in and dropped the others. Just like with Wikipedia, I heavily truncated this feed otherwise we would get every "Olbermann" t-shirt at Cafe Press showing up in the feed. The "Personals" feed pulls from dating sites where people mention their interest in Keith to get dates; the "Products" feed pulls from sites like CafePress.com, eBay and others auction and online merchandise sites.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• VEEP SPECULATION
• OLBY SUDDENLY SPOTS TIGHTENING POLLS
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR
• McCAIN SMEAR DU JOUR PART DEUX

Guests:

• Chuck Todd, slumming on OlbyPlanet
• Richard Wolffe, UK exchange student
• Chris Kofinis, unofficial OlbyPlanet co-host
• Bob Herbert, Obama tank-dweller

Wow, Todd and The Wolffe Man. We haven't seen them for--what?--hours! Yes, both were just on The Hour of Spin 24 hours ago. Looks like the parrot pool isn't very deep, now that Dana Milbank has been banished for activities counter to the State.

Observer Dan:
KEITHS EDWARD R. MURROW MOMENT:
Keith at least 7 times making the lofty assertion that Joe Biden announced he had just had a successful bowel movement.

10th Cavalry:
Oralmann is the consumate asshole. Obama maybe misleading his party about Biden as the choice and McCain about Liebermann. That is viewed as Obama doing a head fake and McCain lying. Oh well guys like him crash and burn. For awhile they think they have a rocket ship up their A_ _, but eventually the fuel runs out. Then it is crash and burn.

Quads:
Keith at the bidding of MSNBC News executives (oops that is Keith actually) are now playing the "draft card" in response to a question posed to John McCain on the campaign trail. How many times has the Al Jazeera @ 30 Rock gang that could not report straight tell us that Bush was going to institute a draft when the war was going bad?

Now Goebbels Wing Man is accusing McCain of lying to us about the speculation of the Lieberman VP candidacy. Amazing how on Olby planet, McCain can be accused of lying to all of us based on the MSLSD gang's ignorant speculation based on the mis-direction bait about Lieberman being VP timber.

"How many more wars does John McCain want to fight?" said the discredited communications director of John Edwards. The fact that this man is even still getting a slot on Olby planet is in itself mindboggling.

ramjet:
The flaming one-legged flamingo, formerly referred to as Whatizname, does the dealing from the bottom of the deck two-step by claiming Opama Opponent is either crazy or dangerous (do I here 'both') for allegedly changing his position opposing the reinstatement of the draft because he'll need all those extra troops for all the sabre rattling and bomb, bomb, bombing of Iran that would be the souless heart and heartless soul of the foreign AND domestic policies of his (God help us, everyone) presidency.

But seeing now that he has not walked back from that election dooming gaffe, guranteeing a street level gathering of outraged draftees and their sobbing mommies and daddies that will put the doddering candidate's doddering campaign out of its misery, once and for all, how can this possibly be turned around? Will the campaign shrug it off as just another verbal typo? Or will they trudge forward down the road of kamikaze kalamity.

Only problem is it's a conclusion that follows a premise that is founded upon a dilemma that was created by a decision that was caused by a bout of insanity or a strain of incompetence (or, do I hear both?) which can be the only explanation that explains how this happened, even though it didn't.

J$:
Notice how when the discussion is about the Democratic race, Oralmann interviews a Democrat. And to be fair and balanced, when it's about the Republican race, Olby interviews...a Democrat! Really, Chris Kofinis, Edwards hack, is on this show so much that they might have to start listing him in the credits. This of course mandated an updating of The List--here's just the past few months. See how many times CK has sat in the Seat of Honor on OlbyPlanet:

• June 6: Chris Kofinis (D)
• June 9: Scott McClellan (R) [speaking against Bush policies]
• June 11: John Kerry (D)
• June 20: Chris Kofinis (D)
• June 23: Markos Moulitsas (D)
• June 25: Robert Wexler (D)
• June 30: Jim Webb (D)
• July 1: Chris Kofinis (D)
• July 17: Chris Kofinis (D)
• July 21: Chris Kofinis (D)
• July 22: Chris Kofinis (D)
• July 25: Bob Barr (L)
• July 31: Chris Kofinis (D)
• August 8: Chris Kofinis (D)
• August 12: Chris Kofinis (D)
• August 20: Chris Kofinis (D)

MikeC:
In the Media Matters Minute, ONBC's (see The Cable Game) Keith Oralmann continued to take advantage of a vacationing Bill O'Reilly--trying to find *anything* related to him, even if indirectly--by doling out O'Reilly Attack #507. Before the attack came these:

Worse was Mitt Romney. "Joining the chorus of those on the right who are just not smart enough to recognize the irony in their own macho comments about Georgia and Russia." Yes, Merkle played the irony card again in order to make a conservative or Republican look stupid. In the spirit of Chet Huntley, Keith did a mock impression of Mitt, complete with moderate tempo and pauses, while reading a quote he got from a blue blog. The quote regarded Sochi, Russia, hosting the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Fat Ass snarked back: "Uh, Governor, I-I know we didn't like them and we decided their government was legit-illegitimate, but *Iraq* was still a sovereign nation and...we acted militarily against *it*. (flashing a thumbs up): Nice work, Bub. You may have just blown Chicago's chances for the 2016 [Summer] Olympics." No, he may not have.

Worser was "comedian [ding!] *Rush Limbaugh*." His crime? He disparaged St. Rachel of Madcow. Bathtub Boy wasn't going to take this sitting down...or in the bathtub. He came back with: "Homophobia and the latent homosexual tendencies contained in that answer notwithstanding, that's a lotta trash talk comin' from a guy with Viagra and an I.V. of it, no hair...and no TV show!"

Worst was another 1,000-mile stretch for an O'Reilly Attack, in this case, #507. Billo! [ding!] The Olbsessed one is mad that Mr. Bill hasn't attacked him personally, going after the big boys at NBC and GE instead. Keith took advantage of News Corp's price going down, trumpeting the news with evil glee, but not before going back to January to read a quote in the Ted Baxter voice. Maybe 1,000 miles was too short a number to describe the stretch. How about 2 light years, trillions of miles! And folks, when I said evil glee, I meant *evil glee*. Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann lurched backward in his chair as he let out an ultra-sinister chuckle, with the high school senior staff (I've dropped them a grade from my previous recap). Then, "I'll just read this verbatim from the Los Angeles Times." He whipped out a paper...again! What exactly is reading something from a paper, sometimes holding it, supposed be an homage to? I have no idea. Is it an old-timey "this just in to the news desk" sort of thing? Olbermoronn continued with the evil glee (including an "Arr!" for Rupert Murdoch") while reading the LA Times blurb. Yeah, I trust the LA Times. Not! When he was finished, "Now, you might expect me to take this opportunity to claim that I, somehow, influenced News Corp's stock price hemorrage. Nonsense. I will agree with Bill tonight." If you agree, then why are you attacking him? "Stock prices are *his* sphere of influence. Fox is down a third? (leaning right and looking back): Ask the clown! Bill Orally [ding!], today's...Worst...and now discounted by 34%...Person...in the Worrrrrrlduh!"

The Factor:
Hey Keith, what's better? To have a cable show that no one watches while making 4 million dollars or to have a Radio show that 18 million people listen to on 300 hundred stations making over $100 million? Oh and from what KarmaBites tells us, your Viagra joke came up a TINY TEENY LITTLE bit short.

The Factor:
Dogs That Will Never Bark: Rachel Madcow was shopping tapes at the EVIL Fox News.

demeyerr:
Pooches that didn't peep: McCain takes lead over Obama: Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Katy Turic:
NBC's on Obama's campaign
For two hours they'll bash John McCain
Meltdown to Mister
Maddow Keith's sister?
"News show of record" for the insane

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 836th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 20 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will constitute our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann. You know, the guy who runs MSNBC.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

Abrams: out! Maddow: in! John Gibson worked at A-Mess-NBC for years. He knows how management thinks, and he knows the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann. So his take on the recent hiring of Err America's Rachel Maddow (along with the firing of Dan Abrams from his 9:00 pm slot) is particularly trenchant. Gibby demonstrates what the once-proud NBC News brand has become, pointing the finger of blame directly at Bathtub Boy. And we have the audio for your listening pleasure:

This insightful analysis from Inside Cable News explains what MSNBC has become as a result of this move. Also don't miss the snark from Chickaboomer.

OlbyWatch Flashback: Keith Olbermann runs MSNBC:

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• VEEP SPECULATION
• McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR
• McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR PART DEUX
• KEITHY AND RACHEL MAKE A LOVE CONNECTION

Guests:

• Chuck Todd, slumming on OlbyPlanet
• Richard Wolffe, UK exchange student
• Rachel Maddow, failed Err America comedian
• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller

A typical Hour of Spin, this one had the requisite series of McCain attacks, plus a repellent orgy of self-promotion and mutual onanism between Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann and comedian Rachel Madcow.

dcmeyer:
Olby finally reports a poll negative to Obama with a caveat, it's because of McCain negative attacks. No, it's because Americans are waking up to who Obama really is. I also got a chuckle out of, "questioning Obama's patriotism." How many times will the left roll out this chestnut? Telling the truth about your political opponent equals calling someone unpatriotic.

Philly:
Barry's campaign is floating the VP rumors to divert attention from his disastrous Saddleback performance. Howie Fineman plays You Bet Your Life with the veepstakes; he claims Biden is Number Two. Gaffetastic Biden would be a great choice, I think.

The Factor:
Dan Abrams was no better than comedian Madcow and I am glad he no longer has a program but I hope he stabs Olbermann in the back. Dan Abrams, you have been purged. Get your shovel and report to the nearest box car. Oh and bring a warm coat.

Philly:
Another one thrown under the MSDNC bus. THUD! When will Scarborough's time come? I am surprised they have not yanked him off the air. Of course Olby has to plug Football Night in America. What an egomaniac.

True Conservative:
What is left of NBC's "reputation" after KO and MADCOW? Conservatives and Republicans better wake up and start supporting the news organizations which are fair to them. The Soros supported Media Matters is still crowing about how Chris Wallace (FNC) was shut out of the upcoming Presidential debates.

Can you imagine how much worse MSDNC is going to get? KO at least TRIED to pretend he was hosting a "news" program. MADCOW will not even bother with the pretense.

J$:
My guess is that Maddow will actually be marginally better than Oralmann. I don't think she's so afraid of people with dissenting views that she gets "nauseous" at the thought of talking to them. Meanwhile, Merkle decided to blame Bush for forcing those ignorant Poles into taking a missile defense that doesn't work, thereby angering Russia and triggering a new cold war. Bathtub Boy did not explain why the Russians would be angry over the installation of something that didn't work.

Rick:
What could possibly have possessed the MSNBC big wigs to hire Mr. Maddow as a full-timer? He's an Olbermann clone. Literally. I wonder why they don't try to lure in one of the hot FNC babes, instead of settling for boring androgynous Maddow. But hey, if it means KO is going to do one of those steroid-pumped rants that make his jowls shake and his veins pop out on command, well, I'm all for it. There's so little comedy on tonight. Comment forth, KO. I'll get my popcorn.

MLong:
Lets see Olbermann at 8..Maddow at 9 and a Olbermann repeat at 10..ewwww!!!....I just had a disturbing image of a Olbermann/Maddow/Olbermann sandwich...Oh god!!!! please get that picture out of my mind!!!.... LOL!!! New Murrow indeed.

MikeC:
In the Media Matters Minute, KeithO the Klown tried to defend Bill O'Reilly, but only ended up dishing out O'Reilly Attack #506. First, let's get the non-O'Reilly stuff out of the way.

Worse was Newt Gingrich. "How *have* the mighty fallen." "Animated prop on Sean Hannity's show." Alan Colmes is the invisible man on OlbyPlanet. (I searched through the two FOXNews.com videos of Newt's two segments last night and couldn't find the part that was parsed by Merkle.) Sheep viewers! Big oil! [ding!] Criticism of Obama's "inflate your tires" plan is uncalled for. Rev. Olbermoronn wouldn't let that stand via snarky comeback. "Nice try, Sparky." We're stealing Craig Kilborn's lines now?"ExxonMobil did not make $11 billion in the second quarter selling freaking air...Nooooooot!" Now holding up papers, Oralmann giggles and howls, "This guy was the Speaker of the Hoooouse!"

Worst was Harvey Kushner "of the woeful HumanEvents.com." Keith let out two frantic shudders at Kushner's image, and another when uttering his name a second time. How dare he "smear my old colleague, Mr. [Jack] [Hit-and-Run Driver] Cafferty". Lunatic fringe! [ding!] Worse yet, how dare he compare Cafferty to Joseph Goebbels.Herr Olbermann read Kushner's quote on a paper. Anyone else sick of that bit? Olbermann fought back with evil cheer, increased speech tempo, and hand gestures, all once again out of the Howard Beale playbook, which you can buy for $15.99 on Amazon.com. (No, you can't. I'm only kidding.) "John McCain gets 12 seconds or mless (he stumbled on 'less') on the 'Nightly News' and...it's the Nazis! John McCain is shorter? The Nazis did it! John McCain is caught (raising fingers with each word): lying, cheating, admitting his own admission to be President...(with all five fingers): being in the Keating Five?! It's the Nazis obviously! Harvey 'It's raining because of the Nazis' Kushner, today's Worst...Person...in the World." He said that last line without craziness.

Now to what turned into O'Reilly Attack #506. Worser was the East Coast Avengers, a violent rap group that created a six-minute ditty where they admit they want to kill our humble correspondent...and Michelle Malkin. Their Blue Blog Source, of course, Media Matters. Dean Olbermoronn called the group into his office and told them: "Gentlemen...I'm the last person to disagree with you on the chickenhawk, lying coward, sexist, racist, needs a facelift, whore stuff. But you really need to re-cut this track. Nobody's life should be threatened, not even in the hyperbole of the moment. Besides...you are rappers. You have better ethics than Bill O'Reilly does. Live up to them, don't live down to him. Word to your mother." The freshman staff lightly chuckled.

MLong:
I wonder if some Country music group did a song about killing KO or Maddow would he push it to his "comical" WPITW segment or would it warrant a "Special Comment"? New Murrow indeed.

Observer Dan:
KEITHS MOST GROTESQELY SHAMELESS MOMENT: Damning Bill O'Reilly under the guise of "defending" him. Keith, appallingly, yet not surprisingly, delivered the despicable lyric on a platter to the previously uninformed. He did not, however, mention that his own voice can be heard in the rap track! Did Olby sign a release for the use of his voice? [You won't get an answer from Olbermoronn to that question; he's in a cone of silence. --J$]

Katy Turic:
Mister Maddow gets a new show?
Danny Abrams will have to go
(MS)NBC erred
Air Maddow fared
Poorly and her ratings are low

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 835th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 19 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will constitute our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: Undoubtedly the Big News is that comedian Rachel Maddow of Err America will now follow Herr Olbermann every night. A pair of partisanship! It's a two-fer of tendentiousness! Of course Keith Oralmann was quick to take credit for this development. Watch to see if he pops any buttons tonight.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

Ever since Yahoo! decided to "upgrade" Delicious and broke the darn auto-posting app we had come to rely upon I've been looking for a better way to share links to blog posts and stories about our man Keith. Today I have replaced the Delicious RSS headline app in the left rail with something called a Yahoo Pipe. You can google about it to learn more but basically this thing is an RSS Mashup tool that I've already been using to create the Olbermann photo gallery in the left rail. I set this up to pull from several types of sources: (1) KO Fan sites like Relevant Torture; (2) Blue Blogs that love Keith like Crooks and Liars and HuffPo; (3) KO "direct" sites like Keith's blog on Kos; (4) some gossip and TV sites like Jossip, Page Six, TVNewser, ICN, Cable Game; (5) some friends of OW such as Howard Mortman, Hot Air, Radio Equalizer, Newsbusters and others that mix in some KO blogging with their site. I am experimenting with various filters and sorting pipes to see if I can this to become a better way to strain out the dreck and get to the best stuff quickly, making it easier for all of us to keep an eye on Keith. I will be tweaking it over the next few days so if you see some stuff that look out of place in there do not be surprised. Give me time and I will either get it tuned up right or dump it. Since this may well be the most comprehensive Keith Olbermann RSS feed out there, I won't be surprised to learn that Keith himself is a subscriber. Oh, one last thing. The KO Mini-Blog is not gone. The mini-blog was also served up as an RSS feed so I just added it to the Pipe so all the same items will still show up in the newer, bigger, better version of the KO MINI BLOG ON STEROIDS!

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• McCAIN IS A CHEATING, CRAZED LIAR!
• McCAIN IS A CHEATING, CRAZED LIAR! PART DEUX
• VEEP SPECULATION
• McCAIN IS A CHEATING, CRAZED LIAR! PART TRES

Guests:

• Howard Fineman, Pundit for All Occasions
• Rachel Madcow, failed Err America comedian
• Chris Cilizza, Washington Post scribe desperate for air time

Keith Oralmann sings a chorus of "Your Cheatin' Heart" as he delivers breathless scoops of things that were known long ago. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's The Hour of Spin!

Don't miss our OlbyWatch Special Education Komment Exclusives: dramatic reading by the OlbyRobot, and fully-annotated transcript!

ktt:
Olby and Madddow are making me dizzy by talking in circles. I need to take some dramamine. Fineman just said the media is being too nice to McCain. Is he truly kidding me? Maybe he's dizzy from hearing too much Olbermann.

Philly:
Olby is not one who should talk about "failing upward". He is the poster child for that. How this mental case of a baseball card freak got on national television with a nightly hour of spin, I will never know. I think Satan played a part in that transaction.

Howie Fineman owes me a keyboard: He claimed that Loon Andrea Mitchell is "the paragon of objective reporting." HAR! That was a knee-slapper. The air is getting thinner on Olby planet.

J$:
All this slobbering over Andrea Mitchell and this great "scoop" about McCain being in a motorcade. That was known Saturday morning. It was reported Saturday afternoon, hours before the forum began! Did Olbermann need a diversion from how the candidates performed? Is that why he's pretending that McCain's Saturday schedule was a mysterious secret until the National Barack Channel talked about it on Sunday?

ktt:
Let me get this right. Olby's fake outrage is over his belief that McCain CHEATED at a FAITH forum? Like no one could predict what those questions would be? Like no one watched the democratic forum on religion earlier in the primaries, and gosh I bet some of those questions would be identical. Like no one hypothesized those questions in the multitudes of articles that preceded the forum? Has eveyone lost their freakin mind?

But hey, if it means KO is going to do one of those steroid-pumped rants that make his jowls shake and his veins pop out on command, well, I'm all for it. There's so little comedy on tonight. Comment forth, KO. I'll get my popcorn.

Philly:
Rick Warren gave both candidates a few questions in advance. And Rick Warren absolutely did use the term "cone of silence", which I construed as a joke anyway.

Given the timing, McCain wouldn't have had much time to get advance questions and then have time to rehearse spot-on responses from the hotel to the green room. And he already knew some of the questions because Warren divulged them to both camps. And I won't go into the ummmm, errrrrs and uhhhhhs uttered by Barry, which took up at least 10 minutes of the first 30.

The Factor:
John McCain won at Saddleback??? HE MUST HAVE CHEATED!!!! An EVIL RELIGOUS NEOCON ZELOT THOUGHT CRIMINAL gave McSHAME the answers. Karl Rove was with McCain in "cone of silence". Remember if republicans win, it is because they cheated on Olby planet. Diebold invented a special hearing devise for McCain. It was given to him by Karl Rove.

Mike C:
WPitW: Kristol was named because the NY Times corrected his column. Then, he was basically called a lousy writer. Corsi was named because, in a March column, he suggested that al-Qaeda was endorsing McCain (or something, I forgot already). This was followed by another conservatives-are-dumb jab.

Billo the Clown! [ding!] "He has cried havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" Stalker producers! [ding!] Church shooter hated liberals! Sainted "Newsday" columnist mentioned our humble correspondent in an article about said shooter. The producer "waited in her driveway and then abused her." Any of you OlbyWatch readers buying that? Fat Ass replied: "Seriously, Bill, for that?! Are you 100% paranoid now?! The next time you send one of these guys out, will it be to harass some guy that cut you off on the Pulaski Skyway?!" If a "Factor" producer did indeed ambush that Newsday columnist, it'll probably be a while before the video is shown, what with back-to-back conventions and all. [So it will be a while before we actually see how phony Oralmann's claim that the woman was "abused" really is. Nice timing, Fat Ass. --J$]

The Special Education Komment [see appendix for the complete annotated text as well as the dramatic reading by the OlbyRobot]

Great Thanks:
Wow, Olby still claiming the Surge didn't work....

ktt:
Special comment? A given. Those ratings were dropping. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and if it means spitfest and whiplash flipping from camera two to camera three then so be it. Grab the rain poncho for the laughing stagehand before he thinks tropical storm Fay has hit him.

Great Thanks:
This is easily his weakest and non-point-having SEK ever. Obviously thrown together at the last minute. And I guess "grow up" is more grown up that bellowing "Shut the hell up" into the camera, Jimmy Legs.

Philly:
This stuff sends Olby's roids in an uproar. A Meltdown Tizzy.

SoCal Rightist:
WOW, I mean WOW? I just got done watching Slobbermann EXPLODE. His Special Comment tonight was over the top for him. I almost fell out of my recliner when he said that McCain needed an ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT. Then he has the nuts to tell McCain to GROW UP. This wack job has finally lost it. It's like the joke that's going around that OsamaObama and McCain are ice fishing and whoever catches the most fish in 3 days wins the Presidency. To make a long story short, Obama claims McCain is cheating by cutting holes in the ice.

MLong:
he said that McCain needed an ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT"? I guess KO means like the one the North Vietnamese gave him? New Murrow indeed.

Observer Dan:
ANOTHER REASON WHY KEITH WOULD CATCH A BEAT DOWN IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD I COME FROM: He used the words " calumny, persiflage, and dyspeptic" all in the same sentence. And had a whiney, pinched look on his face,too !

J$:
And don't forget McCain telling kids to "get out of my yard". I mean, that's another great original thought of Herr Olbermahn's. So original that the blue bloggers sell it on t-shirts! Well, now we know where Edward R Olbermann lifted that part of his Special Education Komment from, don't we?

JohnO:
"What Davis is really saying here, of course, is that he wants no level of objectivity, that the only campaign he wants questioned is Obama,..."

Thanks for your interpretation Keith, but his actual words did not say that at all. If that were the case, wouldn't it make sense for Rick Davis to send that letter to all major news organizations requesting more objective coverage? After all, NBC and MSNBC's viewership makes up only a portion of the voting public. No, the reason MSNBC was singled out as a "concern" is because of the shameless pro-Obama hackery performed during the 8pm Hour of Spin. You even come close to admitting this yourself:

"Senator McCain -- did you pay any attention to the Democratic primaries? Did you notice the hair-pulling frenzy of some of Senator Clinton's supporters who could not face the possibility that her loss might have been her fault -- or theirs -- and thus it must be ours?"

Yes, remind us again Keith of how you threw Sen. Clinton "under the bus" [ding!]. But that was a nice trick, trotting out another Democrat to create a smokescreen of non-partisanship. You're right, though- the public sees through this nonsense.

CountDung:
Now this is funny and and prophetic, Olbermann always starts his 1st comment after his main Kos blog with: "Tip Jar". It's all about himself begging for recognition from the the KOS kids living in Mom's basement. This time asks for tips to buy popcorn. As if his spiel is equivalent to a great football game.

I remember Terrel Owens saying the same thing about playing my NY Giants. How'd that work out? I can see Olby crying just like Owens: "You know this isn't about Barack (sniff, sniff) You guys can talk about the vacation but if you do it isn't really fair (sniff, sniff). We lost as a team man, we lost as a team (arghh, sniff, sniff)

APPENDIX 1: SPECIAL EDUCATION KOMMENT, OlbyRobot dramatic reading:

APPENDIX 2: SPECIAL EDUCATION KOMMENT, annotated transcript:

Four times in just two days, Sen. McCain's campaign managers have, simply, hung him out to dry.

First, trying to scapegoat the media, in the exact way that has spelled doom for other presidential candidates already watching from the sidelines.

Second, doing so with a petulant statement so full of holes that it virtually confirms that which was reported, and which set off this pointless temper tantrum in the first place.

Third, sending the candidate out to speak before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, even as the millstones of a series of disastrous, anti-veteran votes, still figuratively dangled from around his neck.

And fourth, encouraging Sen. McCain, while there, to address his opponent in the language of unseemly contempt, undignified calumny, and holier-than-thou persiflage unsupported by reality, near-nonsensical bluster that at best makes the speaker look like a dyspeptic grouchy neighbor shouting "Hey you kids, get out of my yard."

[camera pivot, look downward at notes]

"Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight," you told the VFW today, Sen. McCain, "a great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president. The hard-won gains of our troops hang in the balance. The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Sen. Obama."

[look up to camera again]

The shifting positions of Sen. Obama?

Sen. McCain, on the 22nd of May, 2003, you said, of Iraq, on the Senate floor, "We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens."

[ratchet it up]

Senator, you declared victory in Iraq, five years and nearly three months ago.

Today you say, "victory in Iraq is finally in sight?"

The victory you already proclaimed five years ago?

Are we going back in time Sir?

[be careful not to squeak too much on "sir"]

If that had not been enough, in June of 2003, with even Fox News noting "many argue the conflict (in Iraq) isn't over," you answered, "Well, then why was there a banner that said 'Mission Accomplished' on the aircraft carrier? Look, I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict, the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it's very appropriate."

[look up from fake notes]

In 2003, your war was won, because somebody was putting up a banner.

In 2008, your war might finally be won, because you are putting up a campaign based on the mirage that Iraq is winnable.

And yet it is Obama shifting positions on Iraq?

Even if this country were to forget, Senator, the victory lap you and President Bush took five years ago just on their face, your remarks today at the VFW, Senator, are nonsensical.

"Senator Obama commits the greater error of insisting that even in hindsight, he would oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory."

This construction, Senator, is extremely simple.

If your surge worked, the troops would be home from Iraq. Or most of them, would be. Or all of them who were surged, would be. Or at least we'd have the same number of troops in Iraq now, as we did then. Or maybe one or two guys would be out of harm's way.

[whatever you do, don't stumble on "one or two"...oh well, never mind]

Please, Sen. McCain, stop! This is embarrassing.

[camera pivot here; don't forget your ad-libbed Sigh of Superciliousness]

Whether on his own impetus or an advisor's, the Senator also foolishly invoked his opponent in that speech today.

Previous political careers have foundered on the rocks of the VFW Convention: The Republican majority in Congress and the Senate, the very viability of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, began to unravel at this convention two years ago--that was the venue for the first of Rumsfeld's two references to Bush critics as Nazi Appeasers.

Prudence and judgment, demanded that Sen. McCain tred lightly. Instead he told the convention, "I suppose from my opponent's vantage point, veterans concerns are just one more issue to be spun or worked to advantage."

This would explain why he has also taken liberties with my position on the GI Bill.

"As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. But the people of Arizona, and of all America, expect more from their representatives than that, and instead I sought a better bill. I'm proud to say that the result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, and better serves the interests of our country."

Sen. McCain spoke out against that very bill last May on the asinine premise that the warwards to our heroes were so good that it didn't encourage them to stay in the service. Or perhaps force them. More over, Sen. McCain missed 10 of the 14 Senate votes on Iraq up to the middle of last year. This year, he has missed them all including one to honor the sacrifice of the fallen.

He has voted to table or oppose:

$20 million for veteran's health care facilities

$322 million for safety equipment for our troops in Iraq

$430 million for veterans outpatient care

$1 billion in new equipment for the National Guard

And, in separate votes:

[use the agitated side-to-side head shake here, but be careful that Ashleigh's glasses don't fall off]

$1,500,000,000 in additional Veterans' medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes

$1,800,000,000  in additional Veterans' medical care, to be created by closing tax loopholes

[look alive: another camera pivot!]

And yet, Sir, you have the audacity to stand in front of the very Veterans you repeatedly and consistently sell out, and claim it is your opponent who has put politics first, and country second.

[use your Voice of Ridicule for this]

"Behind all of these claims and positions by Sen. Obama lies the ambition to be president," you said, with a straight face, today. "What's less apparent is the judgment to be commander-in-chief. And in matters of national security, good judgment will be at a premium in the term of the next president as we were all reminded ten days ago by events in the nation of Georgia."

Senator, three points:

Your increasingly extremist and reactionary language towards Sen. Obama really the method by which you want to try to achieve the Presidency or perhaps split the country if you succeed?

[you might want to leave out that bit about extremist language; why make yourself a target?...oh well, never mind]

Criticizing a man for having quote "the ambition to be president?"  Seriously? You do realize you are currently running for president, as well, right? That either you also have "ambition to be president" or, what?, somebody's blackmailing you into it?

[louder; use the head-shake as well as the side-to-side sway as you crank it up]

You might want to ask somebody, somebody other than say, your Foreign Policy Advisor, Randy Scheunemann whether or not you are making a jackass out of yourself every time you bring up the conflict between Georgia and Russia.

The Georgians have paid Mr. Scheunemann and his companies 800-thousand dollars over the last several years to lobby for them. It's pretty clear the Georgians have bought Mr. Scheunemann. And, Sen. McCain, it sure as hell looks like the Georgians thought they had bought you.

When you had the tastelessness to paraphrase the rallying cry of 9/11 and say that we are now all Georgians, that nation's President called you out. He said that your words were very nice, but he needed action...

[Laughing Stagehand, watch out for spit here]

not a verbal receipt from a lobbyist and his pet Senator!

[ratchet down, and don't forget: another camera pivot; insert The Pause of Significance]

Going back to the beginning of this sad 48 hours of paranoia from the McCain Campaign.

We have manager Rick Davis's unfortunate letter to NBC News, about Andrea Mitchell's excellent reporting on the possibility that Sen. McCain violated the so-called "Cone of Silence" for the Rick Warren Presidential Forum over the weekend.

[remember not to call it "excellent" reporting, since it was reported before the forum began that McCain would be in a motorcade, and you'll just look like a corporate shill pretending like it was some big scoop...oh well, never mind]

The coverage of this detail, and that forum in general, is, to start with, overwrought. But Mr. Davis has elevated them to the ridiculous.

As Nate Silver at the website 538.com noted, Andrea's reporting, reporting of what the Obama camp claimed, included two essential observations:

"McCain may not have been in the cone of silence" and that he

"May have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama."

Rick Davis writes to NBC: "The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed."

As Silver astutely notes, for roughly the first half of Obama's participation, his own campaign manager places McCain in a car where he could have been made aware of the questions to Sen. Obama. "In a motor vehicle," Silver writes, "one may use the radio, a cell phone, a Blackberry, Bluetooth Wireless, a Sling box, and perhaps a satellite TV feed. Whether McCain actually used any of those devices, we have no idea. But he absolutely had the ability to use them, which is all that Mitchell had reported. Silver also tripped over Mr. Davis's strange observation that for roughly the second half of Obama's participation, his own campaign places McCain "in a green room with no broadcast feed." Not a green room without cell service or internet, nor without a closed-circuit feed, nor, for that matter, without a guy running back from the audience with notes, written in crayon.

Rick Davis's argument is, in short, illegitimate.

It is an attempt to pick a fight with the media, over the journalistic equivalent of chewing gum in class.

[crank it up a bit; we have to ramp things up for the Big Finish]

"This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle," he writes.

"We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC."

What Davis is really saying here, of course, is that he wants no level of objectivity, that the only campaign he wants questioned is Obama's, and that "partisan coverage" consists of questioning whether McCain or his campaign support the stage whispers branding Obama as somehow 'foreign,' or whether McCain is to be inoculated from all criticisms by dint of his military service.

[camera pivot; The Sigh of Exasperation; slam papers on desk]

Sen. McCain, did you pay any attention to the Democratic primaries?

Did you notice the hair-pulling frenzy of some of Sen. Clinton's supporters who could not face the possibility that her loss might have been her fault or theirs and thus it must be ours?

Do you remember the apoplexy of a washed up Republican operative named Ed Gillespie, writing a furious letter to NBC on behalf of President Bush?

Mr. Bush's support has since dropped.

And Sen. Clinton's supporters have now relocated to such a degree that her "eighteen million voices" first re-counted themselves as "two million" and were then unable to get even 250 people to show up at a meeting.

The public sees through this nonsense about media, Senator, they see through it quickly.

NBC and MSNBC do not have the power to seriously impact an election.

If we did, Sen. Pat Buchanan would already be serving with you.

Besides which, Senator, who in your camp thought it was a good idea to take a shot at NBC and MSNBC during the Olympics on NBC and MSNBC?!?

[louder; use the circular head shake here]

During the Olympics, Sen. McCain, on which you have already run millions of dollars' worth of McCain Campaign commercials on NBC and MSNBC!?!

[use the semi-asthmatic intake of breath, here]

Senator, let me wrap this up. You and your campaign need a serious and immediate attitude adjustment. Despite what you may think, Sen. McCain, this is not a coronation. Despite how you have acted, Sen. McCain, you have no automatic excuse to politicize anything you want.

Despite how you have whined, Sen. McCain, you have no entitlement to only sycophantic, deceptive, air-brushed coverage in the media. And despite how you have strutted, Sen. McCain, you have no God-given right to the Presidency.

[louder, crank it up to 11]

Let's have an adult campaign here, in other words and I am embarrassed to have to say this to a man who turns 72 at the end of this month Senator, grow up!

[Look away from camera, rustle papers]

Good Night And Good Luck!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 18 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. You'll get credit for your contributions, because we need your help documenting the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

We don't know if the host tonight will be Bathtub Boy or comedian Rachel Maddow. But in any event we still want you to be an Olbermann Watch blogger--without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

It all started when we pointed out the curious case of MSNBC's upside-down flag:

Now Chickaboomer notes an intriguing similarity between MSNBC's flipped flag and the convention credentials issued by the DNC.

We report, you decide.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: The Doctor is In!

Once again Keith stayed in the bathtub. His place was filled by comedian Rachel Maddow, the brilliantly successful Err America entertainer. A jewel in their lineup! She is, after all on 32 (count 'em!) stations. Not 22. 32.

So we have for you something else: after Annie NYC described her first-person encounter with a babbling Keith Olbermann, it appears that the infamous, deplorable one banged out a response. And it's classic.

First a few comments on tonight's Hour of Spin:

• Quads: In the number 5 story, Maddow delivered a steady stream of lies and attacks against McCain. According to the grand high exalted mystic scholar, Gramm's wife was knee deep in the Enron scandal, Gramm wrote all the energy loopholes while in congress and is now simply working to make all his energy buddies even richer. On a different note, Maddow is now officially playing the female version of Olbermann, or should I say the closest thing to a female. She is following Fat Ass's Countdown format to the T now, with voice inflections, stupid jokes, oddball, even the laughing stagehand. Somehow, I think that Krazy Keith is getting some kind of perverse gratification watching Maddow play the role of Olby while he sits at home in front of the TV watching doing god knows what.
• 10th Cavalry: I would guess he is probably trying to teach the jailbait how to sign her name rather than use an X.
• CountDung: Olby's jailbait, "Keith, why do I always have to wear this short butch wig, put fake moles on my neck and wear this playdoh on my adam's apple when she's on?"

But on to Annie NYC, who recently memorialized her brush with greatness (i.e. Merkle) outside the NBC building. It appears that "Man on Fan" Olbermann didn't take kindly to that, and he wrote about it in his blog. Or rather Keith Olbermann's Ego wrote about it:

I have no problem with her writing about me but where's the love? Where's the fawning? I need that dammit....

Those people at Kos nailed me to the wall on that one and I had to do a special comment and all of that because they did. They act like I owe them something because I blog on their damn site. Don't they know that it's all about me and not them? I'm there to plug my show and receive love, what don't they get about that?...

Hey! I was polite to you so what's the problem? So I'm not the genius you thought I was? Sue me. I have a lot on my mind. Baseball. Chicks. Got it?...

Fifty damn thousand hits about me being a misogynist. I love women. Come on. I love them! I even live with one. And she's 23! See how much women love me?

Heh. Read more, straight from the mind of the infamous, deplorable one, at Keith Olbermann's Ego.

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 15 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

We don't know if the host tonight will be Bathtub Boy or comedian Rachel Maddow. But in any event, we still want you to be an Olbermann Watch blogger--without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: The Doctor is In!

Curiouser and curiouser. Reportedly the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann appeared live on A-Mess-NBC today to promote tonight's Hour of Spin, tossing in a blatant lie about how he trounced O'Reilly on Wednesday. But tonight, no Bathtub Boy. Err America comedian Rachel Madcow showed up in his place.

So we will bring you instead an astonishing report by someone who had a close encounter with "Man on Fan" Olbermann himself. A chance meeting near the NBC building that reduced Edward R Olbermann to uncomfortable blabbering.

We'll get to this dramatic first-person account momentarily. But a few words about tonight's Hour of Spin are in order, since our OlbyWatch recappers team still found a few things notable.

• Quads: Olby is in the bathtub acting like Kris Kristopherson. Rachael Maddow....A STAR IS BORN!
• Philly: Madcow tarts up once more to spew her brand of Err America agitprop for the MSDLC Hour of Spin. Where's Olby? Is he hiding under his desk? She is wearing the same suit as Gordon Smith. They must have the same tailor.
• SP: Poor Keefie. After all the hard work last night going after Limbaugh, indignantly calling him a "hole," Rush refused to take the bait today and, as usual, never mentioned KO. So Keefie sulks in his tub, his ploy to gain a few more fewers through a manufactured feud with Rush is foiled again.

We wonder if the publication of the following incident threw Oralmann off his game tonight and sent him back to the tub. Annie NYC tells her readers that she had a chance encounter with Edward R Olbermann:

He was nervous and nerdy, hands in his pockets the whole time, he really seemed like a hollow fool. i was actually very surprised, i thought he had more than this.

It already sounds convincing.

Ok, what is with the hillary hate.

I don't hate her.

gimme a break. what is your problem with her, just tell me.

i don't hate her, i hate her policies and tactics

her policies? Obama is to the right of her!

he's moving to the middle because he's trying to win!

This sounds truer by the minute. The immediate springing to defense of Obama for moving to the middle, something he condemned Hillary for doing just a few months ago. Just what a tank-dweller would say.

what about late may Axelrod faxing YOUR worst person in the world report on her RFK comments to all the media, really? Hillary is the worst person in the world?!

that was only 10 minutes, and that's axelrod, it's not him...

Oh man, on the lame-o-meter, that's at least a nine. Hey, don't get mad. I didn't make Hillary a worst person in a 30-second segment. No, I screamed at her and pounded the table for ten solid minutes! That's his defense? Annie concludes:

The entire time, NO INTELLECTUAL RESPONSE WHAT-SO-EVER. NONE. NADA. ZILCH. Nothing new, just anything that some uninformed kid on the street would say. WOW. He was very nice, but i was blown away by how lame his responses were. amazing. He even at one point mentioned that he was called a misogynist, as if he couldn't understand why! wow. Maybe he didn't think suggesting someone should kill Sen. Clinton, hatred.

These are just highlights. Read the whole deal, and decide for yourself if this doesn't in fact capture the essence of Keith Olbermann, deprived of a teleprompter, faced with an opposing view, without The Laughing Stagehand to prop up his failing self-esteem.

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 14 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and the best will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR
• McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR PART DEUX
• LIMBAUGH ATTACK DU JOUR PART TRES
• SELF-PROMOTION OF OLBY SELF-PROMOTION

Guests:

• Jonathan Alter, Olby's most reliable lefty parrot
• Clarence Page, aka stuttering Clarence
• Chris Cilizza, slumming on OlbyPlanet
• Joel McHale, co-conspirator in tiresome, unfunny PR stunt

Today the meat of it is in the opening spiel. Two great big honking displays of Olbypocrisy so glaring that you almost need sunglasses to look at them.

First, Olbermoronn is teasing ihis attack du jour on Limbaugh:

OLBERMANN: Comedian [Ding!] Rush Limbaugh crosses the last line!
LIMBAUGH: Given his wife is smarter than he is and probably nagging him a lot about doing this, and he--found somebody that did something with her mouth other than talk.
OLBERMANN: Rush Limbaugh is a whole.

A whole what? Olby didn't say. But does no one see the irony? The rank hypocrisy? Has everyone forgotten Edward R Olbermann's own sensitive commentary?

OLBERMANN:Paris Hilton claims she was punched in the face yesterday morning at a nightclub in Hollywood [pause] 'Course she's had worse things happen to her face.

And Rev Olbermann says Limbaugh "crossed the line"! Relive the fun of Oralmann's sleaze: watch the video!

Now just seconds after this bit of self-embarrassment, Bathtub Boy walks into another propeller. Teasing an attack on Sean Hannity (is that all The Hour of Spin is now, attacks on people with larger audiences than Olby's?) Fat ass complains that Fixed News [Ding!] was "beating the Edwards story to death" yesterday, because it was discussed on Hannity & Colmes.

It couldn't have been funnier when Olbermoronn signed off, and MSNBC's The Verdict kicked off its hour with--an in-depth discussion of the Edwards story, which took up nearly the entire show! Meanwhile, H&C gave it five minutes, at the end of the hour. Who's beating the story to death, Merkle? Are you going to slam Dan Abrams tomorrow? Of course not. By your own standards, you have no manhood. As Karma can attest.

Philly:
How is John McCain's statement "We are All Georgians" arrogant, Clarence Page? Once again, Olby blames everyone but Vlad Putie-tang for the invasion and occupation of Georgia. No one heeded warnings, yadda yadda. Olby and the Moonbats keep comparing Russia's most recent atrocity with the invasion of Iraq. How is Georgia's president anything like Saddam Hussein, a villain and murderer? Stupidity is contagious on OlbyPlanet.,

Quads:
In the 4th story in the Countdown, the democratic veepstakes was discussed. If Fat Ass is reading the tea leaves correctly, the nation will be treated to either Joe "Dunkin Donuts" Biden or Evan Bayh as BhO's VP pick.

In the opinion of Quads, Bayh is probably out -- since he now eerily looks like he can pass for John Edwards, if he only got one of those $400 haircuts. Those Americans who cling to religion, guns and the National Enquirer will no doubt be confused that Bayh may actually be Edwards in disguise. Biden has a litany of gaffes dating back 20 years from plagiarism to Indian slurs. Both Olby and SleezCilliza felt his plagiarism-gate of 20 years ago was ancient history. Leave it to Olby to introduce The Keating 5 and McCain's marital mulligan--which is even more ancient history. Only on Olby planet can one democratic piece of news appear old and an older piece of republican history appear relevant.

Both hyenas chuckled and agreed that perception matters more than reality with the veepstakes and the VP pick should be designed merely to "do no harm". What? Is that it? Do no harm? How many endless hours on Olbyplanet have the VP choices been discussed? Now, the VP choice is dismissed as an "insignificant" subject.

I guess perception is going to have to trump reality since "Dunkin Donuts Biden" amassed around 3 delegates during the presidential campaign and will make an absolutely awful VP choice. He is the equivalent of John Kerry on steroids. I wonder how much air-time Fat Ass is going to dedicate to Biden's temper -- As much as McCain's?

Fat Chance Fat Ass.

Observer Dan:
The Bellowing Carnival Barker is upset. The Russian invasion is just putting too much of a spotlight on John McCain. Fat Ass decides to connect him some dots. Lots and lots o' dots. Konspiracy Keef manages to blame the entire mess on John McCain and his foreign policy advisor! Is it possible the Senator from Arizona gave the green light to tiny Georgia to make a move against the Mighty Russian Bear? Surely McCain is "bought and paid for" by Tiny Georgia? Lefty Alter has to say "whoa!" Slovenly Hack intones: " The Bush response to the mess is 'Katrinaesque'. Does Keef expect FEMA to be deployed?

Keith is having a bad week. The Edwards scandal is hard to defend, Olbermann does his best, however, including again mentioning how much more money Rush Limbaugh makes than Olby would ever dream to. Also, Olby should memo to Dan Abrams not to do yet another entire hour devoted to John Edwards being a scumbag, immediately after Keef hands the broadcast over to him. That's just plain embarrassing.

MikeH:
It was a despicable (even for him) Limbaugh ATTACK on Elizabeth Edwards......One that seemed to blame HER for Edward's affair, because according to Limbaugh, she wouldn't perform felatio. Even the hard core conservatives are having some trouble defending that one!

JustinH:
I must say that I dislike Limbaugh, but it seems that he was saying that John Edwards likes felatio. And since his wife was sick, Edwards was not man enough to wait until he got better so he had to go out and get some. So KO critisizes Limbaugh for being married a few times. This coming from the same guy who just likes to avoid commitment and get some young thang who can use him to move up her career.

MikeC:
In the Media Matters Minute , Worse was New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. How dare he have heightened security around the newly built World Trade Center (when construction is complete). "Quote [ding!], 'normal'." "Commissioner, Mayor Bloomberg, I-I know you guys intend the best here, but I'm sorry. If you go through with this *draconian* plan, that will mean that the tip of the island of Manhattan, anyway, there, the terrorists will have won." Wow, Keithy really *is* far-left.

Worser was Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Bachmann is "the elected representative you'd least like to be the lawyer for at a sanity hearing." Her district is "evidently populated by the inattentive." Right-wing religious website! The Republicans' protest is a "gimmick." "..so it can drop the price of gas...10 years from now...maybe?" Speaking ill of Nancy Pelosi is blasphemy to Rev. Olbermahn. "I don't know who you mean, Congresswoman. I mean, I would *guess* that you're talking about Jesus." Perish the thought, right, Olb-atheist? (Yes, that was a stretch, but I went with it.) He continued, "But since *you* act like you think *you're* Jesus, I'm just assuming you're referring to somebody else."

Worst was Ed Tinsley, running for Congress in New Mexico. It doesn't matter the reason; let's get to the comeback, where Keith responds to a question Tinsley asked his opponent (whom I pessimistically think he'll probably lose to). "I don't know, Mr. Tinsley. Maybe the same way you can talk about how you could conjure up the image of your own kin getting their throats cut just to score points in a political campaign. To its credit, the crowd *boooooed* so vigorously, the rest of Mr. Tinsley's exploitation of his nephews...could not be *heard*. Ed Tinsley, Republican Congressional Nominee in the 2nd District of New Mexico. Today's...Worst...Person..." Okay, we get it.

#1: Joel McHale, who continued the destruction of his reputation by appearing on "Countdown" and allowing Edward R. Olbermann to appear on "The Soup."

Katy Turic:
Upside-down is how they fly the flag
Olympians and patriots gag
(MS)NBC
Would prefer anarchy
And Obama has them in the bag

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 829th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 13 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• HILLARY CAMPAIGN MEMOS HELD AGAINST McCAIN!
• NIGHTLY McCAIN ATTACK PART DEUX
• OLBY AND THE PERFESSOR
• RATINGS TROUBLE: TIME FOR AN O'REILLY ATTACK EXTRAVAGANZA!

Guests:

• Howard Fineman, Pundit for All Occasions
• Chris Kofinis: Democratic party hack
• Rachel Maddow, failed Err America comedian
• Jonathan Turley, aka The Perfessor

Believe it or not, to Edward R Olbermann, settling a lawsuit is the same thing as paying hush money to a mistress and the fall guy who took the baby bullet for the randy Senator! There's one slight difference: lawsuit settlements are indisputably legal.

Philly:
Chris Kofinis is again shilling for Barry Soetoro. [Don't forget to check out the latest update to The List! --J$] We can set our clocks to the Soetoro tank dweller. Tank Boy says McCain has crossed "a political rubicon" by saying Soetoro is not American enough. Rip-n-Read Olby said Hillary Clinton's refusal to brand Soetoro as un-American was a great accomplishment regardless of any other rotten thing she has done. Nice touch with the knife-turn, Olby. Stay classy.

I will refer to the socialist formerly known as Barack Obama by his adopted name of Barry Soetoro, which just might be his legal name . If this is the case, all of the money for the "O" propaganda is going down the rathole. That would be an interesting development.

ktt:
Why is Olbermann trying to blow smoke up HRC's behind now? He understands he's only sitting in the Obama/Kos/DU section of the Dem party seats. How will he make his way back in the Clintons' good graces because they're not going anywhere and he'll do anything to look like he belongs with the cool kids.

J$:
This is rich. Tonight Rachel Madcow, radio entertainer and failed talk show host, is playing a military historian! 'Nuff said. As for Olby and the Perfessor, we did our usual: set up a clock to see how long it took him to allege a federal crime. Tick tock tick tock: [Ding!] 14 seconds. A new OlbyPlanet record!

MikeC:
O'Reilly Attack #504. Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann continues to feed his Olbsession by linking the Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young hush money to the evil O'Reilly settling his suit with the disgruntled former employee whom I will name and provide [dings] for momentarily. It's an enormous stretch, but hey, this is OlbyPlanet.

The segment began with OlbyFriend Seth MacFarlane voicing the introduction to "Factor Fiction" as Stewie Griffin. I'll spare you the copy (script), but it ends with Stewie...uh...tinkling on our humble correspondent. Classy. Oralmann says "Bill O'Reilly is the gift that keeps on giving, and the bottomless mug of root beer, and for the matter, the bottomless *pit*, too." We could say the same about you, Rip 'n Read. The upper-right graphic reads "The Falafel [ding!] Guy Fatwa" and features the big head on the small body; stuff we're used to by now. Frank Burns of News! [ding!] Sideshow Bob comparison. Delusions of grandeur! "Billo the Clown [ding!] goes after John Edwards and manages only to remind everyone about Andrea Mackris [ding!] while actually making feel sorry for John Edwards." (See? I told you I'd be dinging her name eventually.) "The translation to human is mine." Human? If you want the human translation, watch the video of the segment that is distorted by KeithO the Klown:

Meanwhile, on OlbyPlanet, the Ted Baxter voice rears its ugly head again. First, here is how the Talking Points Memo began last night:

O'REILLY: We had the mistress story last spring, but chose not to air it because of the pain it would bring to Elizabeth Edwards, a brave woman, and her three children. Also, Edwards was out of politics by then. If he had held power, it would have been a different story.

Keithy only read the first sentence and played serious, referring to Bill as essentially being a cold, uncaring, xenophobic bigot (not using those words) following the ow house firer in the Bronx in March '07. He "ignored the grief." "Their immigration status was so much more important to O'Reilly than their heartbreak that he almost got into an on-air fist fight with Geraldo Rivera over the story!"

Aha! Another Olbermann Lie. The "fist fight" was in the wake of a fatal car crash in Virginia Beach in April '07 that killed two teenage girls. The driver that caused the accident was a criminal illegal alien (not a regular one). However, considering that the crash happened only a month after the deadly Bronx fire, I can understand why BOR got as worked up as he did (before he and Geraldo returned to normal in the last minute; it was just heated debate, after all).

Olbermahn went on to read more from T-Points, but stopped short of the clip of Joseph Califano asserting BOR's point about the majority of homeless vets being addicted or mentally ill:

JOSEPH CALIFANO, AUTHOR, "HIGH SOCIETY": Our work and most of the research will show that about 90 percent of the homeless in this country have drug problems or alcohol problems or both. The real tragedy here is most of those veterans have had combat experience that are suffering from drug and alcohol problems and mental health problems, and we are not taking care of them.

O'REILLY: And that is the true story. It has nothing to do with the economy. For calling Edwards on his exploitation, we were subject to stuff like this:

Keith responded: "In Billo [ding!] land, if you are addicted or mentally ill, it doesn't matter if you got that way while you served this country. It's all your fault, and the government should not spend Bill O'Reilly's money on you."

But let's go back to T-Points:

O'REILLY: What bull. Just so you know, about 10 days ago, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a report saying there are 125,000 chronically homeless in America right now. 10,000 homeless veterans. 10,000. So Edwards was simply lying. In addition, we examined how Edwards himself fit into his "two America" scenario. We showed you his over-the-top $6 million house in North Carolina, located across the street from a mobile home park where everyday folks live. We sent our crews down to talk to some of those folks about Edwards, who often jogs by.

That second paragraph was, of course, ignored by Merkle. Instead: "Actually, Bill is lying or too stupid to have read the entire H.U.D. report. Or both." Bogus stats shown on screen to make Edwards look like the hero and our humble correspondent look like the idiot. Playing serious again: "John Edwards was and is *damned right* about that and Bill O'Reilly is a lying snake oil salesman." We're going that route again? "So, did he pull that 10,000 homeless veterans figure out of his...brains? No. He misread intentionally or otherwise a joint announcement *from* Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs..." Oh, I can't take this anymore! Whatever else Oralmann did in the remaining 2:20 is irrelevant to me.

ktt:
This is rich. While Olbermann is pissing around with some kind of Frank Burns imitation and ranting about number discrepancies, O'Reilly is discussing the need to follow the Edwards campaign money. I am curious where the millions to support the mistress, the child, and the campaign advisor came from also. So which segment has more substance?

If the stories from Kamabites1 are true, KO is in no position to be teasing sex scandals, and I'm betting they are. Word has it he's not exactly a stand up guy in that territory (without phamaceuticals anyway). At least O'Reilly didn't have a website devoted to his commentary before, during, and after a supposed liasion with a fan. One has to wonder if money changed hands to make that site disappear.

Wouldn't it be great if some night he accidently said "Karmabites1" instead of "Andrea Makris". Damn that would be worth sitting thru this torture. I hope he ends the O'Reilly segment with a Shakespeare quote. That would make my night. Wonder if he still wears the blue beads for luck.

Philly:
For this relief, much thanks.

Katy Turic:
Countdown's about Bill and FoxNews
Bashing Bush and Keith's latest ruse
Untruthful reporting
Obama supporting
Phone it in and simply hit snooze

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 828th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

On Countdown Monday night, Edward R Olbermann took aim at George W Bush for improperly holding up an American flag at an Olympics event. Ironically, as Olby was taking his cheap shot, his own news channel was making a hypocrite out of him. Again.

MSNBC is stonewalling all questions. Is this some further pander to blue blog audiences? Is MSNBC disrespecting the American flag? Perhaps Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann will explain it all tonight.

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 12 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: We actually have a leak about tonight's "worst person" segment. Herr Olbermahn is going to branch out and do something original, unprecedented, unique. You guessed it: another O'Reilly attack. Heads up, MikeC. The word is "Man on Fan" Olbermann is going to equate the hush money paid to Reille Hunter and Andrew Young with...(drumroll)...O'Reilly settling his lawsuit! All of this as MSNBC flies the American flag upside-down.

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your insights later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• BUSH CAUSED THE GEORGIAN WAR
• McCAIN SHOULDN'T EVEN SERVE ONE TERM
• FINALLY A GOOD "CELEBRITY" AD: OBAMA'S!
• ANGELINA JOLIE IS THE KEY TO THE ELECTION

Guests:

• Flynt Leverett, leftist foreign policy hack
• Rachel Maddow, Err America comedian
• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller
• Paul F Tompkins, once-funny comic trapped on OlbyPlanet

Not again? Again!! Edward R Olbermann repeats his cretinous, unprofessional conduct, and lifts another story from a blue blog, and because he doesn't check his facts he lies to his audience yet again. What's that old saying about the definition of insanity?

Philly:
Olby and The Mad Cow are America-bashing again. Surprise, surprise. We are to blame for Russia's invasion of Georgia. It's all our fault that KGB loyalists run Russia and and pine for the days of totalitarian glory and brutality. Putie-Tang is pulling a Hitler and annexing those former Soviet satellite countries that suffered so greatly during the Cold War. And we're to blame, America, says Olby and The Mad Cow.

Maybe we'll see an Edwards Puppet Theater: a re-enactment of The Breck Girl's recent 3 a.m. visit with Rielle, Bob McGovern and the baby (what baby?) at the Beverly Hilton. [Or, maybe not. Edwards has a (D) after his name, remember. --J$]

The Factor:
IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT!!!!!! If not for Iraq Vlad the Impaler would have never invaded Georga. If a Democrat were in office they could use the mighty power of peace talks to change the heart and mind of Vlad the Impaler. Remember peace through peace. Ronald Reagan used flower power to blow down the Berlin wall.

ktt:
Every time I switched over he was pointing out others' mistakes. KO really should rethink the Teddy Roosevelt quote about "It's not the critic who counts ...but the man who is actually in the arena." I have no respect for Olbermann because what accomplishments has he brought to pass? What contribution has he made to better society? His silly "NewsHour"? Surely that's a joke. His so-called speaking truth to power? Again, a farce. Who put him in a position to correct or mock others when he is so flawed? I wish I could add some humor tonight but KO disgusts me. Sorry. I'll try to do better next time.

UPDATE from DeeJay:
First we know that KeithO can't find Winona on a map and now he reveals he doesn't know much about history. On tonight's show he told his viewers that President Teddy Roosevelt led the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American war. The charge was actually led by General Leonard Wood, for whom an Army reservation in Missouri has been named (and of which I have less than fond memories). KeithO takes great delight in excoriating O'Reilly on his facts. KeithO should get his own facts straight before he lets his mouth overload his ass.

Note to KeithO: Winona ain't in Wisconsin, like you told folks on your show many moons ago. Be careful of that ass-to-mouth connection. BTW, KeithO, learn the correct pronunciation of the capital of Denmark. The Danes don't like the way you pronounce it (Cop-en-HOG-en), and for good reason which you probably don't know.

The Factor:
Former Philadelphia Flyer and Norris Trophy winner Rachel Maddow puts on her foreign policy expert hat tonight. Someone needs to tell her to shave that 5 o'clock shadow. Olbermann attacks Angelina Jolie because she has not goose stepped behind Obamanation yet. Remember thinking is not allowed on OlbyPlanet. You might get convicted of a thought crime and purged like the sock puppet we can't speak of.

MikeC:
In the Media Matters Minute, Sean Hannity, Stuart Shepherd, and Gregg Jarrett (Blue Blog Source: Think Propaganda). Edward R. Olbermann lifted an anti-Jarrett story from that site and ran with it. Johnny poked many holes in the T-Pro story yesterday at J$P. In Olbermoronn's mind, FNC really doesn't care about the Russia-Georgia conflict, and Bonnie Erbe is an interview hijacking heroine. Did he even bother to check the facts? If so, he'd see that it was covered intensely in the hour or so of "America's Election HQ" leading up to the Erbe interview. Steve Harrigan in Tbilisi (twice), Amy Kellogg in Moscow, Douglas Paal of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in D.C., and Gregg Jarrett and Julie Banderas in New York. But of course, Fat Ass didn't bother to check. Fixed News! [ding!] "This is one of the all-time great non-sequiturs." Keith did a radio DJ-esque voice for Jarrett. The factless Merkle's snarky comeback was: "Do you ever get the sense that if one of these poor schmucks over there at Fox Noise [ding!] lets the conversation stray away *from* the White House Talking Points, you get beaten savagely by Roger Ailes?" Again, an hour of Georgia overlooked by Think Progress and eaten up as fact by Man on Fan. You know why, but I'll repeat it anyway: because KeithO the Klown is a slovenly political hack. Anything that doesn't fit his agenda doesn't get reported in the Hour of Spin. You know, I think that'd make a Dog that Didn't Bark.

Worse was Hannity. I skipped through some of it, but heard Olby quoting what sounded like the lead-in to a "Hannity and Colmes" segment. A lead-in rhetorical question is not an opinion, Olbermoronn. Worst was that Shepherd (or is it Shepard?) guy. I've never heard of him.

The Factor:
Do you ever get the sense that if Olbermann at MSDNC lets the conversation stray away from what is posted at Think Propaganda or The Daily Kook that the storm troopers at those blogs would smash their keyboards through their TV sets?

John-O:
Keith is still desperately trying to convince the world (or lately 503,000 people) that Fox accepts talking points from the White House. I didn't know talking about Edwards' affair was an official TP.

J$:
"Man on Fan" Olbermann referred to Gregg Jarrett as "a Fox Noiser [Ding!] who won't talk about Georgia, only John Edwards". First of all, Jarrett was the co-anchor with Julie Banderas. Because Think Progress didn't mention that, Oralmann had no clue. And while Fat Ass dutifully parroted the Think Propaganda headline (Jarrett "refused" to discuss Georgia), that--like what Olby said--was a lie. As Mike C laid out above, there was plenty of Georgia coverage in the 70 minutes before the interview (that was supposed to be about Edwards). We even did a little video to demonstrate to one and all how badly TP, and now Olbermann, misrepresented the broadcast:

Quite a bit of Georgia coverage there, Keith, considering you claimed they "refused" to cover Georgia. Again, Rip 'n' Read Olbermann lifts a story from a blue blog and doesn't even bother to check. (During that same time period MSNBC had, how much coverage of the Georgia war? NONE!)

Oh, there was also a bit tonight attacking Bush for holding a flag backwards or something like that. Pretty bizarre given that MSNBC's own logo uses a flag flying upside-down!

Katy Turic:
Blue blog rip-n-read bag of gas
With Keith there's no ethics or class
He's a Kos blogger
A camera hogger
He's got the Sunday Times up his ass

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 827th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 11 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, the repeat, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: This is follow-up day. Just as the infamous, deplorable one did day after day of follow-up "investigative" on the Cheney shooting conspiracy, or the anthrax conspiracy, so we should expect follow-up reporting on the unanswered questions in the Edwards affair. Right? Oh, and it's also comedy day. Remember Larry Craig Puppet Theater? We should also expect Olby to turn his mannequins loose on Edwards. Right?

Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss! Comments are open: post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for your comments later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• LE SCANDALE EDWARDS
• McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR
• THE ELECTION'S OVER, BARACK CAN'T LOSE
• O'REILLY ATTACK #503

Guests:

• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller
• Andrea Mitchell, "impartial" "journalist"
• Chris Kofinis, today's Dem politico
• Nate Silver, undiscovered math genius with Kreskin-like powers to see the future

Oy. What a revolting display of bias, hypocrisy, and repellent narcissism. Oh, just to make it clear, we're talking about Olby, not Silky.

Philly:
Betrayal! Private scandal, public lies! Sounds like the Autobiography of Keith Olbermann. Why did Olby start his program with hypotheticals? What if Edwards had gotten the nomination and then the scandal broke? Huh? What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub? The air is especially thin tonight on OlbyPlanet.

Poor Lefty Andrea Mitchell is devastated. She is stumbling over her words. Olby is the poster child for that condition and it appears to be catching. OUCH! Fred Baron said he paid Baby Mama hush money (only it wasn't really hush money, you see). Olby's voice quivers. Another Democratic soap opera. And moonbats wonder why they can't win a presidential election.

Former Edwards lackey Chris Kofinis has been making the rounds on cable news tonight to spew the party line. Olby's using big words. Oooh. Vituperous. And he didn't stumble over it. [Naturally, we have updated The List! --J$]

Olby is particularly orange tonight.

dcMeyer
Let's compare: An unsubstantiated report about McCain and a lobbyist gets "breaking news" and a full hour of coverage in olbyland. Edwards admits to having an affair and doesn't. No wonder OIlbermahn's numbers are dropping below pathetic. It seems people are finally getting sick of his hateful and one sided schtick.

MikeC
In the Media Matters Minute, Worse was another McCain attack. This was over his statement following the Hamdan sentencing. McCain "exaggerated reality...again" over his involvement with al Qaeda. "But that's not what the jury ruled," said Judge Olbermahn, with papers in hand. "It convicted him of supplying resources to al Qaeda. Namely, himself as Bin Laden's driver. But this is getting clearer. John McCain either lies or can't tell the difference between reality and stuff he dreamed or imagined." [Back to the "delusional" meme. --J$]

Worst was Newt Gingrich. How dare he criticize the almighty Obama over his "citizen of the world" line in Berlin. As he did with KSFO's Brian Sussman last week, Krazy Keith played the "Reagan said it, too" irony card to make a conservative critical of Obama look dumb. "And Newt, let me tell ya. If you're gonna throw Ronald Reagan under the bus, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you step outside." Rightward head tilt, puffy lip.

Now, back to the Olbsession. On Wednesday, "Factor" producer Jesse Watters confronted Palm Beach Post editorial page editor Randy Schultz at his home. The video was run in yesterday's Talking Points:

O'REILLY: Down in South Florida, the Sun-Sentinel newspaper covered the Wexler situation professionally, advancing the story, telling its readers the truth. But The Palm Beach Post is quite a different story. That paper has been a far-left concern for years. And after The Factor's expose on Wexler, The Post wrote the congressman had done nothing wrong and then attacked us for reporting the story.

The head hatchet man was editorial page editor Randy Schultz, a committed left-wing zealot. Factor producer Jesse Watters caught up with Schultz yesterday.

JESSE WATTERS, "O'REILLY FACTOR" PRODUCER: We just wanted to know, why are you in the tank for Robert Wexler? No comment? You say rather than tell Bill O'Reilly at FOX News where to get off, Wexler announced he would lease an apartment in his district. That's what he should be doing. And you're attacking O'Reilly for pointing this out and reporting this?

RANDY SCHULTZ, PALM BEACH POST EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: You're on my property. Please get off. You're on my property.

WATTERS: I mean, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is corrupt reporting, sir.

SCHULTZ: Oh, you know what? If I took what you said seriously, I'd worry about it.

Isn't Mr. Schultz something? Coming out of the clip, Mr. Bill's response was:

O'REILLY: Now few people care about The Palm Beach Post or that guy. The Post has lost 10 percent of its readership in the past two years, and now you know why. But here's the bigger picture, the important picture. No longer can Americans trust the media, which was given special constitutional privileges to look out for the folks.

The Palm Beach Post and many other media outlets are in the business of advancing a political cause: liberalism. And there's no balance in this ideological intrusion. Few American newspapers are conservative. So for the first time in American history, the curtain has been pulled back. Media ideology has greatly aided Barack Obama in his quest to be president. And now it's being used as a blunt instrument.

If The Palm Beach Post wants to be a liberal brochure, its parent company the Cox Corporation should simply state that. Don't attack journalists who do honest reporting. The folks in Congressman Wexler's district have a right to know where the man lives and what his tax situation is. We provided that. The Palm Beach Post did not. You decide which enterprise is noble.

After all that information, I can finally tell you how Oralmann responded tonight. Billo the Clown! [ding!] Fat Ass referred to "his [O'Reilly's] neurotic attention to where Congressman Robert Wexler's legal residence is." Schultz "aptly" dismissed him. "Naturally, since Billy is the Joe McCarthy wannabe of our time and thinks his coverage of Wexler's perfectly legal residency is a, quote, (Ted Baxter voice): 'Expose', (normal voice): he sent one of his stalker producers [ding!] to editor Schultz's home." A Jesse Watters attack follows: "In the tape, little Jesse shouted phrases like: (squeaky-voiced teen voice): 'In the tank,' (normal): and, (teen): 'corrupt reporting,' (normal): and, (teen): 'you should be ashamed of yourself,' (normal): at Schultz. And then Billo [ding!] came back on and entoned: Now few people care about The Palm Beach Post or that guy."

Keitho the Klown stopped there, after one sentence, ignoring the rest of the T-Points, and entoned in a calm, patronizing voice, "Oh? Then, why did you send a reporter to Florida? Why did you do a story on him?" Incredulous smirk. By the way, I'm not sure if referring to a producer as "a reporter" is a promotion or an insulting demotion. Assume the latter.

Observer Dan:
KEITHS CREEPIEST MOMENT: Olbermann, the misguided "wannabe Edward R. Murrow" calling Bill O'Reilly the "wannabe Joseph Mcarthy".

J$: If it's Friday, it's our weekly assessment of Krazy Keith's masculinity. This week, Monkeymann attacked Fox and other broadcasters 23 times. Olby's source (Hillary Clinton's Media Matters) criticized (MS)NBC 10 times, but Keithy protected his corporate masters with zero criticisms. That makes this week's Olbermann Manhood Quotient: -66 [sissy limp].

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 824th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 8 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need your help to document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: Obviously the Edwards Affair is tonight's big news. Just how will Oralmann handle it? A mystery, since he hasn't touched the story so far. Three elements to focus on. Element One: status. Will Bathtub Boy whip out the "he's a private citizen" alibi? Keithy had no "private citizen" scruples when it came to cackling over the indiscretions of Ted Haggard, or Rush Limbaugh, or Bill Bennett. Some good Olbypocrisy options here.

Element Two: evidence. You will recall the urgent breaking news over John McCain's "involvement" with a "female lobbyist", based on that old standby of the smear merchant: "anonymous sources". The evidence in today's scandal could not be more clear: Edwards has admitted it, or at least some of it. What of the unanswered questions, like why he's still seeing the woman in the dead of night if the affair ended over a year ago? If Mrs E knew about this affair two years ago, hasn't she been lying about it too, and isn't she complicit in her husband's lies? Will Edward R Olbermann show the same investigative zeal he has demonstrated over the "rush to judgment" (seven years!) in the anthrax case? Or the endless, day after day conspiratorial skepticism over Cheney's hunting accident?

Element three: attitude. Will "Man on Fan" Olbermann give this story the same sneering snark-filled treatment others have received? Remember Larry Craig Puppet Theater? Will he treat the Edwards mess in the same way?

Once again you can be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss. Comments are open on what promises to be a night rich in Olbypocrisy! Post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for it to appear later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

Remember those stories in June about how Olbermann was "beating" O'Reilly. TVN and the usual left-wing flacks trumpeted the news, the blue blogs rejoiced, Keith cancelled his vacation plans and the mainstream press ran yet another series of celebratory articles on the incipient rise of Keith Olbermann. But a funny thing happened along the way. Just don't expect to hear much about it from these same sources.

When not getting a boost from media and blog hype for his oh-so-special comments, Keith's ratings have been tanking and last night Keith took a particularly bad drubbing at the hands of his nemesis, Bill O'Reilly. BOR doubled KOs numbers in the demo and more than tripled his number in total viewers.

Read it and weep Keif.

Live ratings (All / 25-54)
O'Reilly ( 2.0 / 0.4)
Olbermann ( 0.6 / 0.2)

Live+same day DVR (all / 25-54)

O'Reilly (2.1 / 0.5)
Olbermann ( 0.6/ 0.2)

Live ratings by household (all / 25-54)

O'Reilly (1,856,000 / 443,000)
Olbermann (490,000 / 196,000)

As noted in the comments, for those scoring at home, Countdown managed to lose half its audience in one night - over 600,000 viewers. The drop is so steep that it bears some explanation from someone.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• OHN McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR
• JOHN McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR PART DEUX
• THE ANTHRAX CONSPIRACY PART TRES
• NIGHTLY O'REILLY ATTACK (#502)

Guests:

• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank-dweller
• Chuck Todd, numbers guy
• Gerald Posner, conspiratorialist Jimmy Olson wannabe
• Neil Katyal, failed attorney for convicted terrorist

Olbypocrisy Alert! It was only seconds into the opening spiel when Keith Olbermoronn stepped into a minefield once again, exposing himself for the slovenly political hack that he is.

Flashback: Bathtub Boy has been whipping out the anthrax investigation for years to flog the Bush administration. What's taking so long? How incompetent can they be? He was still flogging it in 2007 when he bellowed:

The entire investigation is barely still alive at this point.

And just a few weeks ago, unaware of the progress the FBI investigation was making, "Man on Fan" Olbermann addressed, bizarrely, Condi Rice (!) and snarkily complained about the slow pace of the investigation:

And since you mentioned the anthrax, and we got some of it in this office as nearly seven years ago. How is that investigation going?

So what did Fat Ass have to say today? It's a classic of Olbypocrisy:

The anthrax attacks: The Rush to Judgment!

No, we are not making this up. What a tool.

Crush:
My boss today remarked how the 'oh berrmann' show reminded him of a show that was written and researched by 7th graders. Remember to inflate your tires! Remember when Saddam Hussein told poor peasants who couldn't afford toothpaste that they should use their fingers to scrape their teeth.

story#5- Based on nbc news electoral map analysis. Once McCain chooses Romney, wisc/iowa/minn will lean Republican. I cant even believe I'm using an NBC news map based on faulty info, but whatever.

#4 is about the anthrax dude who commited suicide before he spent his remaining years in a federal prison. I know it's every citizen's duty to question the government, but when you have feds and scientists and corporations all getting together to create militarized anthrax to unleash on a very selective few Americans, you gotta stop believing Elvis is alive and stop searching for the man on the grassy knoll.

#3 Keith is afraid that trying terrorists in Gitmo will lead to American soldiers who are captured to be tried in a similar way. Idiot. They would be beheaded or John McCained.

Mike C:
#2: The Media Matters Minute. Worse was You-Know-Who. We'll get to that in a moment.

Worser was Brian Kilmeade. (Why does Keith hate soccer coaches?) Fixed News! [ding!] Enacting Republican Talking Points! How dare he criticize St. Ron Suskind! Blasphemy on OlbyPlanet. Dumb guy voice for Coach Brian. (Holding finger in the air): "Um..." (Reading paper): "June 17, 2004. Mr. Bush [ding!] told a news conference, quote, 'the reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda...because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.' (Looking up again): Brian, never defend the President, even on the stuff that sounds crazy to you. He in history (or is it 'and history?') will always make you look like a dork."

Nikki Tinker. Who cares about that? Skiparoo.

Now, to O'Reilly Attack #502. "The bronze to Billo the Clown [ding!] who's now reduced to congratulating himself about this." Ted Baxter time again. Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann reaches back to Monday for the second night in a row. This time the Reality Check segment. Bill said The Factor audience is smarter than The Colbert Report audience and a poll proves it (in response to a newspaper article that said the opposite). Since we know not to trust Merkle, you know you can trust the poll BOR cited. ... Wait a minute. Keithy pushed fast-forward on his TiVo because he's suddenly quoting a line about being tired of "left-wing media outlets." This means that although it took me two nights to get to this point, my prediction that Fat Ass would attack our humble correspondent for that came true.

Olbermoronn's retort to Mr. Bill--as if he's paying attention--went like this: "First, the Pew Research Study was conducted in February of Two-thousand-and....zeven." I knew he'd be attacked for that aspect, too, because I agree (I feel dirty for agreeing) that the poll was a wee bit old. "But...(feigned surprise with a chuckle): gosh, Billy..." The sophomoric-and-never-junior-or-senior staff laughs on cue. "...you're crowing about this? Your audience is exactly 4% smarter than those watching a Cahhh-medy show? Uh, 'scuse me. (Lurch toward camera): Another comedy show?" Back to serious/is-that-Billo [ding]-for-real face and on to Worser and Worst.

JustinH:
I watched a little bit of the #1 story: "Doesn't McCain know Paris is mocking him?" He just got compared to Yoda!!! Who wouldn't want to be compared to Yoda!? I dream of being compared to Yoda. "Doesn't he realise they're calling him old?" McCain knows he's old. He knows he has white hair. Newsflash: John McCain has a sense of humor! Oh, dear Lord! Then Olbermann with Maria Milito get to talking about if Paris wrote it herself...."whatever." I saw a better review of this advertisement on "Attack of the Show" on G4. Personally, I thought the Paris Ad was awesome and hilarious. And Olbermann is still a D-bag.

The Factor:
Keith "wives should not be attacked" Olbermann suggest that Senator McCain thinks Cindy McCain is a slut. Keith "I asked Porn Star Mary Carey out on a date" Olbermann thinks that the Sturgis biker rally is full of sluts and whores. Keith then lies and says that unlike Obamanation's fabled Germany visit where "200,000" showed up to see Obamanation "only", people only saw McCain at Sturgis because they were waiting for dumb sluts. In fact before Obamanation's Berlin disaster, there was a free rock concert by a popular German band. Oh, and last time I checked, people in Germany can't vote for President of the United States but bikers at Sturgis can despite what Olbermann wishes.

J$:
Dogs That Did Not Bark:
The one canine who will never be heard on OlbyPlanet is the one that makes corrections. You know, like Olbermann's recent lie about Bill O'Reilly, that he went out of his way not to correct. So it is that a few days ago, Herr Olbermahn was once again taking someone else's words and repeating them. And like the O'Reilly lie, it's another case of not even bothering to check the video to see if they're true! To wit:

OLBERMANN: That not only in that McCain ad were there two underdressed blondes mixed with the black guy in the ad, but there are also images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Washington Monument, and the Victory Column in Berlin, as Bob Herbert put it, "phallic symbols"--three phallic symbols, two blondes and Barack Obama.

In this case, Edward R Olbermann was relying on Herbert's word. Who needs to actually look at the video anyhow? One slight problem. As The Daily Howler pointed out, it's not true!

Except that isn't the Leaning Tower of Pisa--and that isn't the Washington Monument. What you see is a structure at the Berlin location where Obama was giving his speech. Karl Rove will pay Bob Herbert good money to discuss phallic symbols in John McCain's ads. (There's a bonus for spotting the Leaning Tower of Pisa when it isn't actually there.)... Olbermann had twelve hours to check his facts--but he still was repeating these world-class blunders. For the record, no one had "noticed" those famous structures because they aren't in the ad.

We said it before, and we'll say it again. What a tool.

Katy Turic:
Olby and his tire(d) rotation
Every night there's no deviation
Bash Fox, Bush, McCain...
Sophomoric, inane
Just like Obama's nomination

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 822nd day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

I'm adding 7 new commenters including old friend KfK who joins us after a well-earned sabbatical from all things Olbermann.

Some folks may have noticed that the Daily Link roundup posts are not appearing on the site. Yahoo!, the folks who own Delicious, launched their 2.0 version a few days ago and broke the feature that we used for the daily link posts. They say they are working on it but until they fix it please monitor the KO Mini Blog in the left rail.

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 6 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, or the repeat. Or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need you to pitch in and document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann. Be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss.

What to watch for tonight: Will we have Part Tres of "The Anthrax Conspiracy", now that the government has made its evidence public? Or will that suddenly drop off the OlbyPlanet radar? What of the Hamdan conviction? Will that fall into the category of a quiescent canine? And with Oralmann seething over the latest revelations from Dana Milbank, will he finally pop his cork and make Dana a "worst person" nominee? Or will he channel his rage into O'Reilly attack #502?

Comments are open! Post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for it to appear later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

Breaking! Dana Milbank tells noted political hack Michael Calderone of Poitico that the genesis of his disenchantment with Keith Olbermann and Countdown was an incident where Milbank dared to make a mildly favorable statement about McCain advisor Charlie Black:

A source familiar with the situation told Politico that Milbank had been unhappy on the show for a couple of months and expressed this sentiment to friends. But it wasn't until directly after an incident last month that Milbank made a move.

During the first week of July, Milbank spoke to executive producer Katy Karp about why he had not been on the show for a couple of weeks. At that point, Milbank was told that there was an issue among staff with something positive he said the previous month about Charlie Black, a McCain senior adviser.

Milbank has told Big Head DC that his deal with CNN has been in the works since July 7th.

Calderone is known for being spoon-fed stories by interested parties seeking to use Politico as an outlet to wage war against their enemies, something Milbank apparently knows quite well. OlbyWatch readers will know that for years, TVNewser's Brian Stelter, know of The New York Times, was Keith's mouthpiece in the blogosphere. So, it will be interesting to see if the Milbank-Olbermann Feud becomes a case of dueling hack blogs.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Robert Cox contributed to this post]

Developing...

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• BUSH IS A CRIMINAL CONSPIRATOR, UNLESS HE ISN'T
• NO CHENEY IS A CRIMINAL CONSPIRATOR, UNLESS HE ISN'T
• JOHN McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR
• JOHN McCAIN ATTACK DU JOUR PART DEUX
• NIGHTLY O'REILLY ATTACK (#501)

Guests:

• Ron Susskind, invoker of anonymous sources
• John "Watergate" Dean, felon and disbarred lawyer
• Howard Fineman, Pundit for All Occasions
• Comedian Rachel Madcow, Err America failure

It's Tuesday: "Anything Can Happen Day" on OlbyPlanet. That means it's time for another round of speculation and one-sided reportage on the eeevil criminal conspiracies of the Bush/Cheney "Third Reich".

Philly:
Oh, a cable exclusive! Herr Olbytard hosts Ron Suskind, conspiracy theorist, to flog his book The Way of the World. He claims that CIA sources say the Bush White House issued a fake letter saying Saddam had ties to al Qaeda. Yawn.

Oh great - Olby and Our Favorite Felon are discussing Suskind's book. Olby cannot claim that any of Suskind's allegations are true, yet he is asking OFF (for short) to confirm that "if" they are true, do they constitute criminality. Why would one bother to speculate about heresay? Oh, this is Olby we're talking about, and as a notorious smear merchant, dealing in innuendo is his forte. Nice that Olby also does not explain what he means by "criminality".

The Factor:
Even Jon Stewart threw cold water on Keith's "racist ad" theory. That's pretty sad when one Olbermann's fellow propaganda providers can't even stomach one of his cockamamie conspiracy theories.

ktt:
KO is quick to note McCain's stumbling over his words at Sturgis but he really should check his own. This excerpt is from a recent Joel Keller interview, his idea of a complete paragraph:

Personally, I could not make it... I was supposed to go to the Clinton Foundation Christmas party last December. I mean, that I was (on the air) criticizing them, was deeply, personally painful to me. I'm sure they will say not as deeply personallly painful to you as it was to us, but I really agonized over it and in many respects, I held fire on it. A lot of the subjects that she did early on in the campaign did not strike me as particularly in concert with the rest of the Democratic feel, so, you know, it wasn't personal - it really wasn't.

Yeah, Shakespeare, you're quite the writer there.

By the way, was there any actual news on this show tonight? NBC should be ashamed to be associated with it. It's just a "he said, he said' of McCain and Obama.

Mike C:
It is reluctantly time for me to recap the #2 story on "Countdown": The Media Matters Minute, despite Friday's O'Reilly attack hitting so far below the belt, it hit me. Naturally, and as I predicted last night, he was the Worst tonight. First, the other two victims.

Worse: "The crack security team at Brisbane Airport." Sad face over random TSA agent. Skip.

Worser: Yet another McCain attack. Gotcha! McCain gets money from oil companies! (So does Obama, but considerably less.) Horrors! Okay, let's get to the Worst.

O'Reilly Attack #501. I predicted this would be over his criticism last night of The New York Times, Newsweek, and MSNBC. I was wrong. Instead, he was attacked for his plan in last night's Talking Points Memo (transcript, video). The plan BOR offered in T-Points sounds like a good plan to me...even though it'll never happen. But since it came from O'Reilly, and because he was critical of Obama's windfall profits tax plan, Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann has to find something wrong with it. (sigh) Okay. Here I go. I'm pushing Play.

Billo the Clown! [ding!] Sheer lunkheadedness! Ted Baxter voice (even funnier the 243rd time!). Parsing of T-Points from a Blue Blog Source. Parsed words on right side of screen, big head/little body on left side. And now, time for me to transcribe the last minute and nine seconds.

OLBERMORONN: Obama's nuts for saying we need to get big oil [ding!] to foot the bill for an energy rebate of about 1,000 bucks per American family, but Billo's [ding!] a genius for saying...we need to get big oil [ding!] to foot the bill for an energy rebate of about 1,000 bucks per American family. And how did the Ex-rons...uh, Exxons and the Chevrons respond?

Back to Baxter and parsing, and I mean really parsing. He skipped two sentences to go right to "Not...much...enthusiasm...so far." Let's put it in context by going to the transcript:

O'REILLY: Now, we contacted the five big oil corporations, and to say the response to my idea was lukewarm is to be kind. Exxon and Chevron pointed out they pay a huge amount of taxes to the government, which is true. But what about directly helping those in need? Not much enthusiasm so far. If just one of the oil companies would establish such a charitable fund, the goodwill that corporation would receive would more than make up for the money spent, as millions of Americans would buy that company's oil over the others. So we encourage the oil companies to directly help out their fellow Americans who are struggling. No one--no one--in this country should be cold this winter, but it is going to happen.

Back on OlbyPlanet we go.

OLBERMORONN: Imagine Billo's [ding!] surprise. He has told us previously... [He didn't tell you anything, Olbermoronn. You just got quotes of what he said from a Blue Blog and took them to air.--MC] ...he has people at all the big oil [ding!] companies. That when he asked Americans to use less gas, they came through big time for him. He probably thought that in the board room at ExxonMobil, they were saying...[panicky voice, featuring hand gestures and pounding on desk, straight out of the Howard Beale playbook]: 'What are we gonna do?! What are we gonna do?! Bill O'Reilly just asked us to give up 2% of our profits! I can't breathe! I can't breathe! We can't let Bill down! We need to donate $150 million or he won't like us anymore! Stan! Stan, how much you got on ya?! Stan!"

And you know the sophomoric staff laughed at every Bealish move. "Bill 'The loofah [ding!] has left the tracks' O'Reilly, today's Worst...Person... 'Stan! Stan!' ...in the World!"

Can "Stan" pay me for these recaps? This is essentially volunteer work.

The Factor:
So let me get this straight? O'Reilly is Worst Person for suggesting that the Oil companies voluntarily donate needy families but Obamanation is a genius because he thinks he can use the government to force oil companies to hand over their profits and the oil companies won't raise prices? It is time for Olbermann to invest in a history book and look up the late 1970's. Windfall profit tax means more foreign oil at higher prices. Great Thanks.

dcmeyer:
One dog that didn't bark in olbyland:

Big donors are the key to Obama's record haul

But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries.

Behind those large donations is a phalanx of more than 500 Obama "bundlers," fund-raisers who have each collected contributions totaling $50,000 or more. Many of the bundlers come from industries with critical interests in Washington. Nearly three dozen of the bundlers have raised more than $500,000, including more than a half-dozen who have passed the $1 million mark and one or two who have exceeded $2 million, according to interviews with fund-raisers.

Katy Turic:
It's the same dumb routine every night
Parade of loons and nobody right
There's felon John Dean
Maddow's frequently seen
Because Keith is afraid of a fight

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 821st day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 5 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, or the repeat. Or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need you to pitch in and document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: Controversy continues to swirl around Keith Oralmann's handling of L'Affaire Milbank. Now it's clear that Milbank said no thanks to OlbyPlanet because he wants to hold all sides accountable. But Edward R Olbermann saw Milbank's departure as an opportunity to puff himself up to his Kossack buddies. Only everyone sees through this transparent attempt at self-aggrandizement, and the only question now is just whom Herr Olbermann will take out his wrath on tonight. Milbank? Neocons? Or the old reliable standby, Fixed News [Ding!] and O'Reilly?

Once again you can be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss. Comments are open! Post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for it to appear later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Milbank is now disputing Olbermann's account, saying that his deal with CNN has been in the works and had nothing to do with Keith's ire over the Obama "symbol" story. See links/updates at the bottom of this post.

Any remaining doubts that might have existed among viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann that Keith, the show, and his network, are in the tank for Barack Obama have been erased with Olbermann's declaration that Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank will no longer appear on MSNBC. To unspin the spin, Olbermann fired Milbank after four years of head-nodding to Keith's every utterance for having the temerity to not agree with Keith as to whether Milbanks "symbol" story was accurate.

In a post yesterday, Daily Kos blogger Keith Olbermann said that Milbank's decision to leave MSNBC for another network "saved [Olbermann] an increasingly difficult decision". Milbank is going to CNN.

Olbermann writes:

Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, who notified us today that after four years appearing with us, he had accepted another television offer.

This saved your crack Countdown staff an increasingly difficult decision.

For nearly a week we'd been waiting for him to offer a correction or an explanation for his column from last week in which he apparently reported an Obama quote without a full context turned the meaning of the quote inside-out.

Then he called criticisms of his column "whines" even though the dispute was over whether Obama said the self-deprecating: "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign -- that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions" -- or only the part about "I have just become a symbol..."

We had decided not to have Dana on this news-hour again until this was cleared up, and, sadly after some very happy years, he's apparently chosen to make that cloud permanent.

Good luck, Dana.

OTHER: Politico Newsbusters.

America is starting to get a good look at what "free speech" will look like under the far-left junta which will take power if Barack Obama is elected, giving Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid supreme power in the United States with control over both houses of Congress and the White House.

Reporters are fired for failing to "correct" stories that paint favored candidates in a bad light. [Olbermann fires Milbank]

Wikipedia editors actively censor entries of corruption and possible criminal behavior.[Wikipedia blocks edits for John Edwards entry over sex scandal]

Far-left blogs ban bloggers who dare to question liberal orthodoxy [Kos terminates long-time blogger who asks questions about John Edwards sex scandal]

Even maxed-out Obama supporters are thrown to the wolves. [HuffPo attacks HuffPo contributor for publishing Obama's "bitter" comments]

Ralph Peters says it very well in his recent NY Post Op-Ed:

The extreme left loves to pretend it stands for freedom. It never has and never will. From the Reign of Terror in Paris onward, its core agenda has been the tyranny of egomaniacal intellectuals. The hard left hates an open debate - especially these days, when it's out of new ideas.

My first thought on hearing about the Milbank "symbol" story was "he's done" at Countdown so I can hardly say I am surprised. What does surprise me is the unprofessional manner in which Keith announced Milbank's departure: a blog post on Daily Kos? A transparent attempt by Keith to "break up" with Milbank before Milbank "broke up" with Keith. Does it get more juvenile? I particularly love the idea that Keith states that it was Milbank's refusal to "correct" or "explain" his article that led to his firing. Earth to Keith - he did not make his report on your show! If Milbank is to be accountable to anyone it would be his editors at the Washington Post who published his piece - and they are standing by his reporting (what does this say about all the other WaPo reporters who appear on MSNBC?). As we all know, Keith has such high journalistic standards that he cannot even tolerate having a guest who wrote a piece for another media outlet that Keith believes requires a correction.

Of course, as long-time OlbyWatch readers know, the sole criteria that determines air time is a guests willingness to smile and nod their head while Keith asks a rambling "question" in which Keith asserts opinion after opinion and then closes by asking the guest if they agree with him.

A New TV Drinking Game?

This gives me an idea. Here's a suggestion for those far-left loons who hang on Keith's every word. How about a new drinking game for college students where every time a guest says "that's right, Keith" you chug a beer. Every time a guest says "exactly, Keith" you do a shot. If a guest disagrees with Keith you to run to the bathroom, throw up, and start over again.

Finally, let's give credit where credit is due. Hats off to Milbank for refusing to kow tow to Olbermann's narcissism.

UPDATE: Stay Classy Keith!

Unable to leave it alone, Olbermann has to disparage Milbank, claiming he is now making less money, and disparaging former MSNBC and NBC employees who leave to go work at CNN.

__________________________________

Dan Rather is forced out. Dana Milbank takes a bigger and better offer. Milbanks narrative lives on, Rather's truth is buried. Thus is the tale of how poor sourcing works in American politics.

by whereisboblafollette on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 03:16:57 PM PDT

Who said "bigger and better"? All I said was "another" tv offer.

I'll leave it for him to announce it, but if it's what I'm told it is, it ain't better.

by Keith Olbermann on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 03:23:37 PM PDT

__________________________________

Oh lookie who's on CNN right now...Mr. Millbank is just now making an appearance on "Election Central". Credited as "CNN Contributor".

by Sleepwalkr on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 05:25:27 PM PDT

Yup, CNN. That always works out well for people who used to be on MSNBC and NBC.

by Keith Olbermann on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 05:27:51 PM PDT

__________________________________

UPDATE: Milbank calls Keith a liar

Keith responds, calls Milbank a big liar

Milbank ups the ante, calls Keith a "liar, liar", says Keith's pants are on fire.

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• OBAMA'S ENERGY & McCAIN'S SAGGING (!) POLLS
• THE McCAIN CAMPAIGN HAS TO BE RACIST!
• THE ANTHRAX KONSPIRACY!!

Guests:

• Eugene "Geno" Robinson, Obama tank dweller
• Gerald Posner, Bush-hating Jimmy Olson wannabe
• Jonathan "Lefty" Alter, partisan parrot
• Jim VandeHei, auditioning for the Milbank seat

You'd be forgiven if you thought this was a rerun from last Friday. But it wasn't. It was just more flogging of the same OlbyPlanet crap.

Quads:
Chicken and Waffle's Olbermann led with the race card in the #5 story on the Countdown. Leave it to the Democrats and their media minions to accuse McCain of playing the race card, by proactively playing the race card themselves. Did you know that the McCain ad with Obama, Spears and Hilton is actually symbolic of a black slave man sleeping with the white slave master's wife? Did you know that the monuments/structures shown in the background represents a man's penis? And drumroll please....Did you know that the McCain campaign was actually calling Obama an "Uppitty N" ?? This was all deduced by Olbermann, and Lefty Alter. That's right, we have a whole Rosetta Stone of information gleaned from a 30 second ad. We have phallic symbols, white woman and black slave images all deciphered by Citizen Keith.

What's next Keith - "I bury Paul? -- "If there's a bustle in your hedge row don't be alarmed now?" - Or perhaps we need to hear "Dark Side of the Moon" played in synchronization with the "Wizard of Oz"? All Chicken and Waffles Olbermann did tonight was remind us of an extremely ugly racial epithet and continue his campaign of smear.

Prior to this idiotic exchange was a statement by Olby that the McCain idea of a Gas tax has already been proven to be a failed idea. Amazing, that on Olby planet, Goebell's Wing Man can declare an idea proof positive dead before it is ever even put into play. It just goes to show you that Olbermann is really Groucho Marx in disguise as he gleefully sings every night about John McCain, "Whatever it is, I'm against it."

J$:
A preposterous interview with a local reporter who didn't get to ride on McCain's bus. Why? He insisted it was because he was (drumroll!) black! Couldn't have been any other reason. Well, that fits. Everyone has known for years that John McCain won't allow black people on his bus, not even in the back. Makes perfect sense to Keithy, which tells you all you need to know.

Philly:
Olby has thrown Milbank (and his day-glo duds) under the bus. Now Lefty Alter is in his place. I'm sure Milbank will be much better off wherever he is than on the much-discredited Hour of Spin. Good luck to you, Milbank. Consider this a badge of honor.

Barack Millhouse Obama tank dweller Gene Robinson claims poor working-class white Appalachian residents love The Obamessiah. He also claims that Democrats are generically way ahead of the GOP in the race. Say what? More proof that the air is thin on Olbyplanet. Olby keeps harping on the tire gauge gag that the GOP has started (and is using to their advantage). This must be a sore point for moonbats because they keep harping on it. Keep hitting, GOP.

Olby names Dana Milbank as a Best Person in the World - and promptly slimes him by repeating the Daily Kos blog post about tossing him under the bus. Kowardly Keith is a loser. Just when you think Olby can't lower the bar any more... Stay classy, Olby.

Media Critic:
Olbermann didn't fire him, his contract with MSNBC ran out and CNN hired him.

J$:
But before his contract ran out, Edward R Olbermann did not allow Milbank on the program. In deference to his corporate masters, Fat Ass waited until Milbank was no longer working for A-Mess-NBC, which meant that (just like Imus) Oralmann could then unload on him.

ktt:
Is that why KO 'courageously' publicly criticized Milbank after DM was out the door? He certainly wouldn't do it to his face. Yes, timing is everything.

The Factor:
Dana Milbank has been purged. He is not longer a useful idiot. He committed a thought crime. Get a shovel and a warm coat Dana. It is cold in Siberia. Typical Keith, he doesn't have the stones to debate Milbank on his article on air, so he has one of his flunkies kick Milbank off the show and then throws him under the bus from the safety of his echo chamber. We can only pray that Milbank has the good sense to drag all of Keith skeletons out of the closet. This is a good lesson for the rest of Keith's stooges, veer from the Kos party line and you will be purged. Can you imagine if O'Reilly tossed someone from his show because he didn't like and article they wrote? It would be the #1 story on The Hour of Spin for an entire week.

Scott:
And at 8:27, KO had to check in on the Kossacks to make sure he was getting their approval, before continuing with the second half of the show. What a joke this guy is. Dana Milbank just doubled his credibility by fleeing that spin-fest.

J$:
When he checked in at Kosville, do you suppose he saw this?

Mr. Olbermann: I decided after Mr. Milbank's last Countdown appearance, the column in question and...most notable your failure to make note of the specific issues in his column...that maybe you are part of the problem. As a journalist and pundit, I felt you breached your a clear responsiblity to your audience to address Dana's column directly and in a more more timely manner. Telling me how you felt now but NOT telling me then appears to be self serving. Your ratings will contiue to take a hit until you bring more credibilty to you 'Worst Person's' segment and...are able to call out people from your own network, the DNC or even the Obama effort. In an effort to regain our sanity, we have suspended watching your program and your all 'political news' shows.

Quads:
The Jimmy Olson of the Anthrax investigations was next up to discuss the suicide of the suspect who would eventually be indicted in the ongoing Grand Jury testimony. Because the facts don't matter on Olby planet, it is assumed by GWM (Goebell's Wing Man) that the White House would strong arm the FBI into pinning weapons grade Anthrax on Osama Bin Laden. It does not matter that emotions were running high days after 9/11/01-- the Bush administration was determined to pound that square peg into the round hole and pin it on OBL. Of course, none of this gibberish mattered since the facts were the facts and it was concluded that it was not the work of Al Queda (even though every major network leaped to the same thought the White House might have).

According to Jim and GWM, the investigation is far from over. Hey, there could be 10 guys other than the main suspect who were handling this particular brand of anthrax. [Jimmy isn't even believing that Ivins is the guy! --J$]

Mike C:
#2: The Media Matters Minute. Worse: "An unnamed Israeli couple." Sad faces imposed over man and woman. Worser: some House Republican. Worst: Limbannity, which is my amalgamation for "comedian [ding!]" Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I watched about five seconds of the segment, otherwise skipping through it. Based on BOR's criticisms tonight of the NYT, Newsweek, and MSNBC, expect a Worse, Worser, or Worst nod tomorrow night. God help us.

ktt:
The Edwards story was definitely a dog that did not bark. I saw the last few minutes and he managed to get in a word or two about his being on the "football show" - isn't that the first time that Jim Vandehei has been on since he joined Politico. I thought he was banished.

Katy Turic:
John Edwards and his bastard love child
Is a fact but the story's been filed
NBC wouldn't dare
But McCain's "affair"
Was "Breaking News"... Olbermann-styled

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 820th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 4 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, or the repeat. Or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need you to pitch in and document the shameless "journalism" of Krazy Legs Olbermann.

What to watch for tonight: Since the Kossacks have been demanding it, Keith kapitulated and has kicked Dana Milbank off The Hour of Spin. In true OlbyPlanet fashion, now that Dana is out the door, Oralmann has given him a good swift kick behind his back. Bathtub Boy didn't utter one word on air while this controversy swirled, but now Olby can be a Big Man and attack him after he's gone. Because he didn't have the stones to do it to his face. How much more deplorable--and cowardly--can Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann get?

Now is your chance to be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss. Comments are open! Post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for it to appear later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.

In the new Weekly Standard, Steve Hayes has an excellent profile of "Airplane!" director David Zucker, whose new movie "An American Carol" is a farce of Michael Moore's Hollywood.

It's a great read, but this moment particularly stands out:

Robert Davi, who plays the lead terrorist in the Zucker film, joins us as the discussion turns from policy to the cable pundit shows. Davi is one of those actors with an instantly recognizable face-he was the villain in the Bond film Licence to Kill-but whose name is unknown to most of the country.

"I can't stand Keith Olbermann," says Davi. "Jesus Christ, I want to slap that guy."

At 1:07 in this video, you'll get an idea of what that just might look like.

(cross posted at Extreme Mortman)

"COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN" (8:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. ET)

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Topics:

• THE ANTHRAX CONSPIRACY
• MEANINGLESS DRILLING, EXCEPT WHEN IT ISN'T MEANINGLESS
• WALMART IS EVIL
• RUPERT MURDOCH TOO

Guests:

• Richard Wolffe, UK exchange student
• Gerald Posner, Bush-hating investigative reporter
• Chris Hayes, tool of the far-left Nation magazine
• David Willman, LA Times reporter uncomfortable on OlbyPlanet

OLBY NEWS ALERT!

Herr Olbermahn reached another milestone tonight! We'll skip the opening spiel; it was routine. All the good stuff happened afterward.

Great Thanks:
I just watched the first segment on the Anthrax killer offing himself, and I have to say WOW! For the most part, that was an even-handed accounting of the story. From the LA Times guy (who looked like he was loathe to be there) and then Pozner, I kept expecting Jimmy Legs to tie it to Bush, and except for the same-old "they scared us into war" whine at the very it, I was surprised.

J$:
It was fair for a while, but nothing can be fair for more than a minute or two on OlbyPlanet. Notice, for example, Oralmann's repetitive use of the phrase "presumed suicide", and the peculiar way he kept saying "presumed". Later he let his theory come out of the closet: the anthrax attacks were used to promote a war in Iraq (by McCain only, according to Olby's video evidence). Posner was happy to jump in on the "Bush lied, people died" bandwagon, and another Krazy Keith Konscpiracy starts to form: the killer was working for the government, maybe Cheney or even Halliburton! The attacks were necessary to juice up the war frenzy, and McCain was in on it as well. When the FBI started to close in (in true B-movie fashion) he had to be silenced. KO didn't allocute this, but a long-time OlbyWatcher can see it between the lines. Especially when you see how carefully Oralmann tried to shift the introduction of Iraq off on Pozner. Keithy clearly discussed the Iraq "connection", Pozner followed up on it, then Olbermoronn blithely told Pozner he wanted to talk more about the Iraq point "you brought up". As subtle as a Mack truck.

Flashback: it was just a few weeks ago when Merkle was making snarky comments about the anthrax case, addressing Condi Rice (hypothetically of course, she would never be allowed to appear on The Hour of Spin):

And since you mentioned the anthrax, and we got some of it in this office as nearly seven years ago. How is that investigation going?

As has been made clear, at the time "journalist" Olbermann was cracking wise at Secretary Rice (newsflash Keith: the SoD is not in charge of criminal investigations), in fact the FBI had focused in on their prime suspect and was quite far along in building their case. Um what's that? Would you repeat that please? Oh no, of course not. There's no way Oralmann would ever express an apology to Secretary Rice for attacking her when it was Krazy Keith himself who was in the wrong.

EMBARRASSING OLBERMANN MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: He's reading another one of his pre-scripted teases, and since it mentions McCain and drilling, the Kossacks require that he slant it with a McCain attack. So Edward R Olbermann refers to John McCain's call for "more meaningless drilling". Just seconds later, breaking news: Barack Obama has agreed to more drilling. Oops! All of a sudden, that drilling stopped being "meaningless" and that angle disappeared. The drilling got de-meaninglessized before your very eyes. Katy must have been ROFL.

Mike C:
In the Media Matters Minute, Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann achieved a landmark milestone that many of his baseball heroes have reached in home runs. Yes, the 500th sleazy, unprofessional Olbermann attack on Bill O'Reilly. The Olbsession was fed in the Worse category. O'Reilly, the host of the #1 cable news show for seven years and counting, was yet again in Olbermahn's crosshairs. "#3: Billo the Clown [ding!]" Loofah! [ding!] Keithy's mad that Mr. Bill touted the successful ratings numbers for "The Factor" and FNC (MSNBC came in 30th among all cable channels) in last night's Reality Check segment. The infamous hysterical Ted Baxter voice was used quoting a Blue Blog transcript of said segment. To the family and friends of the late Ted Knight, I'm very sorry you have to put up with this time after time. Ted was an icon, an American TV icon as BOR might put it, and he doesn't deserve to have his likeness besmirched by this cretin. Anyway, when Edward R. Olbermann had completed his hyperbolic reading, which featured a likely intentional mispronunciation of Kasich (Kas-itch), he said the following: "I got your reality check right here, Goober." Another TV icon besmirched. (George Lindsey was the guest for the American TV Icon segment on March 7.) Laughing from the eternally sophomoric staff. "In July, 'Countdown' was the #3 rated show in all of cable news, adults 25 to 54 behind Billo [ding!] and Hannity." Poor Alan Colmes. He doesn't exist to KeithO the Klown. "We were the #2 rated show in all of cable news, adults 18 to 49." Evil glee begins to set in. "Aaaaaand we were the #1 rated show in all of cable news, adults 18 to 34, and Billo [ding!] was third." Second was "MSNBC Investigates." Nothing like cherry-picking your ratings, eh, Fat Ass? The final blow was: "And since (leftward body/head tilt) *I* was off for two weeks in July, I want to thank Rachel Maddow for KICKING THE ASSES (staff laughs) of Laura Ingraham, John Kas-itch, and E.D. Hill. But don't worry, Bill. You're still dominating that important demographic: 65 to dead." Deep comedic inhalation, puffy face, and more staff laughs.

At this point, I have no energy to recap the rest in detail. Michele Bachmann was Worser, and Limbaugh, Bush 41, and Bush 43 were all Worst because they praised Roger Ailes. I've had it with Keith Oralmann. I can't take this crap anymore. I think I'm going to unfortunately retire from recapping of any kind. I cannot wait for the day that this monster is taken off the air! You are an awful human being and I have no damn idea how the hell you live with yourself! Do us a favor and go back to sports and stay there! Yes, John Gibson, you have my permission to read this on your show. I am Mike Chimeri (shimAIRe) and I despise Bathtub Boy.

J$:
Something else worth noting is how little respect Oralmann has for the people who watch his show. Just like the time he bellowed in the opening spiel that the Pentagon cancelled Obama's troop visit (truckling to the Kos lackies) knowing that a few minutes later he would report that Obama cancelled the visit himself. Keith thinks the audience won't notice, or if they do they won't care. And he may be right. He pulled that again tonight, advertising O'Reilly attack #500 as all about O'Reilly's "shrinking ratings", bellowing that Mr Bill was "wrong" again. Of course the actual spot said nothing whatsoever about O'Reilly's ratings shrinking, going down, getting smaller, or anything like that. And bait-and-switch Olbermann never offered any evidence that O'Reilly was "wrong". Three guesses why he didn't. But once again, Olby got the lie out there, planted the thought, and the credulous lemmings who watched tonight probably all got up en masse, ran up the basement stairs and yelled, "Mom, stop watching O'Reilly. His ratings are shrinking, you know!"

If it's Friday, it's our weekly assessment of Krazy Keith's masculinity. This week, Monkeymann attacked Fox and other broadcasters 24 times. Olby's source (Hillary Clinton's Media Matters) criticized (MS)NBC 8 times, but Keithy protected his corporate masters with zero criticisms. That makes this week's Olbermann Manhood Quotient: -64 [pansy limp].

Katy Turic:
Keith claims Barack's ten points ahead
Further proof that Olby's brain dead
All polls indicate
McCain's tied the slate
Better check where that train hit Keith's head

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 817th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who contributed!

This is the recappers' comment thread for Countdown, August 1 2008.

Welcome to You Write the Recap 2.0. This is a special thread for you to post your comments on the night's Hour of Spin. Note everything salient: smears, distortions, bias, lies, non-barking dogs...the works. Watch the first showing, or the repeat. Or view the videos at the Countdown website.

We'll go through the comments, organize them, and they will form the nucleus of our official OlbyWatch Recap. That will be posted separately, later tonight, for maximum visibility and impact. We'll credit all the commenters for their contributions, and may toss a few opinions of our own into the mix. We need you to pitch in and document the shameless "journalism" of the infamous, deplorable Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann.

Here is your chance to be an Olbermann Watch blogger without all the muss and fuss. Comments are open! Post your analysis of tonight's Hour of Spin here, and watch for it to appear later tonight in the official OlbyWatch Recap.