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

Host: Keith "Czechoslovakia" Olbermann

Guests:

• Richard Wolffe, UK exchange student
• Paul Krugman, discredited pseudo-economist
• James Moore, Bush's Brain [Ding!] guy and HuffPo hack

Great Thanks:
In the opening spiel Jimmy Legs mentioned an interview where McCain had a "meltdown." The short clip he then showed didn't show any McCain meltdown, just a smart-ass answer to a question.

J$:
The opening spiel is usually a treasure trove of false advertising. The 'meltdown' that showed McCain's 'temperament'? He barely raised his voice above a whisper! More Olbermann Lies. Fat Ass also s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d the truth in bellowing about 'right-wingers' (with Greta van Susteren, of all people, as an example!) attacking Gwen Ifill. Oralmann ignored the substance of the issue and instead barked about how Ifill's book had been previously reported, it was in the Washington Times, and Amazon had it, so therefore this wasn't news and none of it matters.

On OlbyPlanet, standards shift with the winds. It wasn't that long ago when Olbermoronn was bellowing about Sean Hannity:

OLBERMAHN: Next time somebody tells you Fox is not dedicated to electing Republicans and slamming Democrats, answer with this anecdote. Another Hannity interview of Rudy Giuliani this week, yet another occasion when Hannity and Fox and Roger Ales did not disclose that on August 19th Giuliani held a big ticket fund raiser in Cincinnati and the man introducing him to the high paying guests was Sean Hannity.

But Keith? What was there to disclose? After all, that was reported in all the papers. Yet you thought then it should be disclosed. But the foot's on the other leg now, huh? This display of Olbypocrisy is brought to you by KeithOlbermannIsASlovenlyPoliticalHack.com.

But wait, there's more.

Keithy, who is all Mr You Must Disclose when it comes to Hannity--who is expressly billed as a conservative Republican commentator, and isn't being put forward as an 'impartial' moderator--our Keithy isn't above pulling the wool over the eyes of his own gullible viewers. Three times now he has hosted an 'election analyst'--a guy who like Olby got his 'expertise' in the highly intellectual area of baseball. Nate Silver made his third appearance on OlbyPlanet just last night, for another spell of parlaying his fantasy baseball basement website into a career as an elevated political analyst on The Hour of Spin.

Only last night, just as in all the previous appearances, Edward R Olbermann left out something. The esteemed fantasy baseball expert, Mr Silver, and his website partner are not exactly the impartial election analysts Keithy wants you to think they are. They are both declared supporters of Barack Obama. Using a biased partisan to analyze an election, and not telling the audience that he's a biased partisan? Whoa! That might strike some as not just unethical but even deceptive. All in a day's work at OlbyPlanet.

But wait...it gets better. Mr Silver is not just any old fantasy baseball Obama supporter. He's a fantasy baseball Obama supporter who also blogs at--all together now--Daily Kos! Oralmann's own blog! Where he writes high-toned 'diaries' about "Repugs" and shows his intellectuality by declaring that Hillary Clinton is "an empty pantsuit".

Yep, these are the kind of 'election experts' Oralmann prefers to NBC's own Chuck Todd. Or maybe it's Todd who doesn't like getting the mud of OlbyPlanet all over his reputation.

ktt:
Richard Wolfe is growing as gray as Olbermann. The years of playing KO's yes man are taking their toll as he sells his soul. Usually KO's "interviews" are mutual agreement sessions but he knows nothing about economics so Krugman gets to go his own direction. KO ays McCain would put "cronies" in his cabinet. I am shocked. That has never been done before. It's not as if anyone put a relative in a cabinet before either. Oh, yeah, there was that Kennedy as AG.

Oh, and KO, if you're going to consistently trash McCain and quote him as "berating himself" for a past campaign action, why did you think he was a good choice for Pres, in fact your favorite at one time, coming from your own mouth on the Dan Patrick Show. Sounds like a flip flop to me and you're in no shape to be doing acrobatics.

Merkle923:
Bash McCain CHECK
Bash Palin CHECK
Bash Bush CHECK
Bash FoxNews CHECK
Bash O'Reilly CHECK

Even for a slack-jawed hack like Olbermoronn, dishing out the same pile of crap every night must be tiresome.

MikeC:
The Media Matters Minute featured O'Reilly Attack #514. Worse was Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). I don't feel like recapping this. Worser was Brian Wilson. This, either.

Worst was O'Reilly Attack #514. Blue Blog Source: Media Matters, Duh.

As I watched last night's Body Language Segment, I knew something Mr. Bill said would be taken out of context:

O'REILLY: You know who used to do that--who practiced for hours before making a speech? And I'm not making any comparison here. So, don't...you crazy left-wing websites out there, not a comparison. Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler practiced for hours...
REIMAN: Well, he was a non-verbal...yeah.
O'REILLY: ...all of his gestures and everything else when he out there. So, if you practice your gestures, and then you get out there and you screw them up...(laughing)...you should just be natural, right?

So, the alarm bells went off in Commissioner Brock's office. He quickly flashed the Bathman symbol, and Bathtub Boy rushed in to lap up everything his blue blog master wrote. The result?

"But our winner, Billo the Clown [Ding!] on with his unqualified cartoon of a quote [Ding!], Body Language expert of his, the one who has the degree in General Studies from Pace University, and who likes to dabble in hypnosis on the side..." Yes, a Tonya Reiman attack, too. Clown! [Ding!] The Ted Baxter voice was used and, get this, a soft-spoken lispy voice was used for our Body Language doyenne. "So, Billo [Ding!] then makes a jump to a conclusion so great, it would set an Olympic record." After another Baxter dramatization that sounded nothing like the actual thing he was quoting, Herr Olbermann uttered two quick sentences followed by a rapidly-spoken sentence that had several commas, chronicling all of O'Reilly's Nazi comparisons (or at least chronicling whatever his blue blog masters chronicled for him). "This is at least the eighth time in the last four years that he has not made a comparsion to Hitler or the Nazis. He said Al Franken and Michael Moore were like Goebbels in 2004...yada yada yada...and then he described similarities between Arianna Huffington and Huffington Post to..." A quick glance down to the gotcha paper to reprise Ted Baxter, and..."'Hitler and his cuthroats.' Now, it's Pelosi. But of course, those were not comparisons. So, what I will not do...I will not compare Billo [Ding!] to that part of the anatomy, that as the old joke goes...everybody's got one. Billo the Clown [Ding!]...today's...Worst...Person..." Yes, yes, we all know how it goes.

John-O:
This was a comparison of *body language*, not of deeds or personalities. O'Reilly was careful to stipulate that before he made his observation. But Olby didn't care. He read off a bunch of instances where Bill used Nazi-related references in the past and quipped "but of course those were not comparisons". I checked back on all contexts mentioned by Keith, and would venture to say that most of them were not comparisons, and, if confronted about it, O'Reilly would probably stand by most of his references.

Oralmann's source, Media Matters, also falsely suggested that this was a smear:

As Media Matters for America has documented, O'Reilly frequently attacks those with whom he disagrees -- such as the Daily Kos and Huffington Post -- by comparing them to the Nazis.

Did O'Reilly attack Nancy Pelosi? And did he do it because he disagreed with her? If so, about what? And how does it tie in to Adolf Hitler's hand gestures???

J$:
This is a great time to bring you an OlbyWatch flashback from Keith "I hate Nazi references except when I make them" Olbermann:

Katy Turic:
It's the same tired shtick every night
Kountdown is like Daily Kos Lite
Olby's news source
Where he's blogger de force
During Kountdown he posts to that site

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 879th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted". Great thanks to our OlbyWatch recappers who did such an assiduously good job tonight with a thoroughly thankless task!

11 Comments

By JerryF on October 2, 2008 9:33 AM

Apparently we all missed the part in Olbyass's Bio where his Mother is credited with teaching him that he's above everyone and is therefore not subject to the same laws of fairness and consistency as everyone else.
Actually, I think he does this ON PURPOSE to get our goat . . . what do you think?

By Cecelia on October 2, 2008 10:19 AM

Great recaps! I wish I had the grit it takes to watch Countdown right now, but I'm afraid I'd have to simultaneously surgically remove one of my organs in order to survive the tedium.

I'm especially impressed with the Bathman Signal, MikeC!

What sort of costume does Bathman wear? Maybe a towel gapping around his womanly hips and a rolled one slung over his shoulder? Perhaps a shower cap on his head and in one hand a back scrubber and in the other his faithful side-kick-- a yellow rubber duckie named "Rachel"?

By kb on October 2, 2008 11:00 AM

We need a new graphic with olbermann in a German Brownshirt uniform doing the news at his news desk with the MSNBC logo!

By Great Thanks on October 2, 2008 11:14 AM

"Using a biased partisan to analyze an election, and not telling the audience that he's a biased partisan?"

While that is true, I find it more curious that when he has somebody like Kofinis on, he talks about the latest McCain and/or Palin news, and then for analysis, introduces Kofinis as "...now let's bring in Democratic Strategist Chris Kofinis" to talk about the GOP.

I can't imagine even his most fervent GOP-hating viewers don't see a conflict there. And with spinoff Maddow coming on right after him and actually having more balls than Olbermann to have guests with opposing views on, it should be even more apparent.

By John-O on October 2, 2008 4:45 PM

I feel like we need more commenters now that this site attracts thousands of hits a day. More registered commenters = more recappers, and I'm sure there are people who come in here every day just dying to throw in their two cents. Besides, recapping for one person is a lot of freakin' work! It's not easy either- I tried doing an entire show once, and my recap sucked (lacked detail and references)so I scrapped the whole thing.

Either Johnny $ has a really good memory, or he has meticulously organized Olby files at the ready...

By Mike C. on October 2, 2008 5:01 PM

I just realized I meant "Bathman SIGNAL," not "symbol."

By dfunk55 on October 2, 2008 6:02 PM

seriously, thank you so much to all the recappers. i can't do it. i really can't...i've tried to watch him, and just get too angry/disgusted. i can't stand this guy. i tune in for bits and pieces to see hoping i catch the moment he explodes or flamethrowers his career.

oh and yeah, great call on the bathman signal haha

By ramjet on October 2, 2008 6:44 PM

A little pre-debate LoBlo KO prep. Having penned a rough draft of his response to the yet unfolded debate, MSCommentatorOlbermanNBC commits to memory as much as time and tide permits of his off-the-cuff post debate analysis and scourge.

Crystall Ball Alert!!!

"Not once or twice, not three or four times, but through out tonight's debate, the Republican nominee for Vice President showed us again, as we have witnessed now for over a month, the extent..., it really can't be called "the extent", more like..., showed us all the shortness and narrowness and shallowness of her grasp of serious issues in a serious time that need serious solutions from serious people. Seriously."

"Tonight, thanks to Senator Biden, the Republcan Empress and her shiney new clothes were revealed as thread bare as an illusion, all smoke and make-up mirrors, leaving the Mayor of Wasilla exposed by the harsh reality of the morning light, in full view of her supporters, who quite probably feeling a little hung over, are seeing clearly for the first time, a very sobering sight."

"Could it possibly have gone any worse for the Governor from Alaska? Well, yes, it could have. When asked to explain her prepostorous support for xyz, instead of giving the baffling answer she babbled tonight, she could have said abc, the babbling answer that baffled us two weeks ago."

"For years, the Republicans have hammered the American public with the mantra, "Responsibility! Accountability! We must have personal responsibility, personal accountability!" Will the American people, will Republicans, finally for once, demand accountability from the one person who is solely responsible for putting Mrs. Palin on the Republican ticket? I would venture to say the answer to that question will be clear on November 4th."-Keith

cc: Rach

note to self: find a way to work 'North to Alaska' into next CD.

By Mike C. on October 2, 2008 10:16 PM

In tonight's Reality Check, BOR noted what we noted in last night's recap: his hand gesture comparison was twisted into a deeds and personalities comparison by Media Matters and KeithO the Klown rean with the smear. Of course, O'Reilly did not name Keith nor MSNBC by name; they were lumped into "NBC News."

By Mike C. on October 2, 2008 10:17 PM

I mean "did not *refer* to."

By Mike C. on October 3, 2008 6:32 PM

Also, I misspelled "ran."

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