John Gibson has a few words regarding the firing of Keith Olbermann. Mr Gibson worked with Oralmann for years and knows him as few others do. We have the audio for your listening pleasure:

Comments are open!

Enjoy the above while awaiting tonight's must-miss edition of The Hour of Spin. And maybe someone would like to take on this:

• TWITTERMANN: I have never even mentioned Gov. Christie on the air. I don't know what you're talking about. Nor do you.

Comments are open!

The infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann couldn't be bothered yesterday to report on Malik Hasan or all of his contacts with jihadists and repeated emails to Al Qaeda. He didn't even bother to do a segment on the Fort Hood memorial. Instead, he devoted over seven minutes to grade-school vulgarities directed at Carrie Prejean. More of that OlbyPlanet news judgment. No doubt he'll have something really special for Veterans Day. You can recap it right here. Comments are still open!

While receiving a deep tissue massage at NBC's "30 Rock Day Spa and Zen Retreat," Chris Matthews' Leg was overheard sleepily musing about Rush Limbaugh's touchiness about being libeled and slandered.

As the masseuse applied an invigorating lavender-sage exfoliant, The Leg recalled with admiration the Dan Rather/Mary Mapes defense of their fabricating damaging stuff about President George W. Bush . . . "Fake but accurate," they'd declared.

"Sure these quotes were purely the product of a fevered, conservative-loathing, wikipedia grafitti artist," The Leg opined. "But that's irrelevant. The quotes were perfectly consistent with the caricature of Rush we have all worked so hard to create over the last 20 years. Therefore, they were 'authentic' in the best, postmodern sense of the word."

"So, the quotes fit the preferred narrative?" the masseuse piped up, hoping for a tip (for a change.)

"Exactly!" The Leg spasmed. "For all the people that matter, the quotes were fake but satisfying."

"Fake but delicious," the masseuse offered as he applied a moisturizing emollient, but the The Leg didn't respond. It had drifted off to sleep.

As cross-posted at Chris Matthews' Leg.

Use this thread to recap tonight's Hour of Spin. Be an Olbermann Watch blogger, without all the muss and fuss. Comments are open!

Watch Oralmann if you dare, and do your recapping of tonight's Hour of Spin right here. Comments are open!

As Barack Obama finally laid claim to the Democratic nomination in his speech the other night, The Leg was vibrating like a tuning fork.

Each soaring, ambiguous platitude took the sensitive appendage to a higher level of harmonic resonance. Each thrilling-though-utterly-undeliverable promise sent electric thrills radiating up the Hardball host's tibia and femur.

As the speech culminated with a level of grandiosity and humble self-importance rarely heard outside a high school valedictory speech. . .

"We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth."

The giggles.

Crossposted at Chris Matthews' Leg

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

Host: Keith Olbermann

Topics/Guests:

• 2008 ELECTION: Richard Wolffe, Newsweek senior White House correspondent and MSNBC political analyst; Eugene Robinson, Washington Post associate editor and columnist and MSNBC political analyst
• RUSH LIMBAUGH CALLS FOR RIOTS: Rachel Maddow, Err America Radio host and MSNBC political analyst

It's Friday and it's the last Rachel Maddow Show Countdown of the Week. The opening spiel: Clinton's trying to sabotage Obama! An unrepairable breach! McCain is old attack! Comedian! [Ding!] Can Rush be prosecuted? (Whaaat?! Has Oralmann completely lost it? Prosecute a comedian?) It's casual Friday at Olbermannn Watch, and not only do we get all this, we also get a wonderful bonus. Keith Olbermoronn served up one of his trademark commentaries, the kind that have made him the rage of all the blue blogs. Yes, tonight Keith delievered another of his Special Apologies.

#5: Clinton's secret plan: sink Obama so even if he gets the nomination, Hillary can run in 2012. James Clyburn (D) blue dress interview (you must visit The List) who says he may not believe it but it's what he's "hearing". Is there any reason to believe this conspiracy theory is true? Remember, this is OlbyPlanet. Evidence? Schmevidence! These are "traitorous acts"! For these wacky speculations Clyburn was Great Thansked!

For more spreading of Clyburn's rumor-mongering, Olby pimped out Robinson. Yeah, two Obamamaniacs engaging in the sort of mutual onanism that passes as "analysis" on a program where no dissent is allowed.

And then we got another Olbermann Special Apology. Was this for Rachel Maddow's lie about Fox News last night? Oh no, it was something far more important. You see, Bear bruised the feelings of one of his Blue Blog Sources: HuffPo. So he let the lie stand but asked HuffPo to forgive him. Fat Ass is really a man of courage, isn't he?

#4: More Dem politics, but what happened to Krazy Keith's nightly recap of the current poll numbers? Why wouldn't he want to mention this? (Somewhere, a dog is not barking.) Richard Wolffe simpered and was Great Thanksed.

After a pair of comedians [Ding!] [Ding!] came #3: Yes, the nightly attack-McCain slot. He's having "memory loss". He didn't travel to Katrina. It was more mutual onanism as Fat Ass brought in a hack from Hillary Clinton's Media Matters! Eliminate the middle man. Send Brock's spin straight into the camera! No need for a detour through Oralmann's teleprompter! It saves energy. Must be part of MSNBC's "green week".

#2: Plug for #1: #1: Attack on Limbaugh based on the dubious claim that he's "calling for riots" in Denver (Blue Blog Source: Crooks & Liars). Maddow was the ideal guest for this, given that it's been, what, all of 24 hours since she she last lied about something on The Hour of Spin. You will forgive us if we just couldn't take looking at her two-faced mug as she railed against Limbaugh, but like "Man on Fan" Olbermann having never said one word about the vile rancor of her pal Randi Rhoades. There was a bonus attack in the Media Matters Minute, Herr Olbermann attacked Bill Hemmer of Fox "Noise" [Ding!] (Blue Blog Source: Think Progress).

If it's Friday, it's our weekly assessment of Krazy Keith's masculinity. During this four-day week, Monkeymann attacked Fox and other broadcasters 24 times. Olby's source (Hillary Clinton's Media Matters) criticized (MS)NBC 16 times, but Keithy protected his corporate masters with zero criticisms. That makes this week's Olbermann Manhood Quotient: -80 [sissy limp].

And that's The Hour of Spin for this, the 718th day since the declaration that "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted".

Hat-tip to Richard Adams.

Keith Olbermann is now a Daily Kos blogger. I guess Huffington Post wouldn't have him. But one wonders why he wasn't allowed to publish this little love letter to his liberal fans on his own MSNBC website?

Read it and laugh as I did fellow Olbywatchers as you observe the delicious and deep irony of it all.

Yeah, it's me. Hi. Sure has taken me long enough. But, as you may know, I am the shy, retiring type: Hesitant to state an opinion in public and horrified to pass judgment or seem a scold. And, yes, if I'm going to step out from the cool, comforting environs of the shadows, I'd rather spring forward to pimp the book or the newscast.

Of course he had to work in a show/book plug there didn't he?

But, having now read a (mercifully few) claims here that I'm a) attacking Clinton, b) burying Edwards, and c) clobbering Obama, I feel the need to mention that I truly don't have a preference. I am tilting in no direction, sending out no subliminal message, and thwarting no truth.

Sorry but you party with the Clintons and personally thank the Clinton family including a personal shout-out to Hill's mom in your new book and you really expect people to believe you don't have a favorite? Yeah, uhm, sure. The loons are dumb but they aren't entirely stupid.

To report the NBC New Hampshire projection after the polls close there, is not to try to marginalize John Edwards. To run the entire Bill Clinton "fairy tale" sound bite complete with its Iraq vote context, is not to try to thwart Barack Obama. And to report that Dennis Kucinich has put a down payment on a New Hampshire recount is not to claim Hillary Clinton stole a primary. I appreciate the fervor of each candidate's supporters and I think I have some empathy based on my standing in the Frustrated-By-The-Obviousness-Of-Politics League. But can anybody reading messages into tea leaves in my newscast, when there isn't even a teacup, please resume regular breathing patterns? To see in each of my reports an enemy or a spokesman sounds microscopically like---and I swallow hard and prepare for the prospect of some Kossacks to approach what passes for my castle with torches and pitchforks as I write this: Bill O'Reilly.

Yep, obligatory O'Reilly reference. But you see Keith, O'Reilly is smart enough to label himself as a commentator and his spiel as Opinions. You've chosen instead to term your little program as a "News" show and yourself as a news anchor. But now the very natives you once courted so, and still are attempting to suck up to, are beginning to turn on you. Tough breaks kid, see this is what happens when you decide to be the "liberal mouthpiece" you are. You can't please everyone during election time. And if you think that this is bad now, can you imagine what it would be like if a Democratic candidate is elected and you have to report something negative about them? Oh right. You can. You after all, famously quit your last job at MSNBC because you didn't want to report details of the Monica mess.

Update [J$]: Just so everyone is clear what the "not politically biased journalist" has signed up to do, here is the purpose of the DailyKos website, straight from their FAQ:

This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable.

Hmmm. While MediaBistro outlet TVNewser can't stop showing the love for Olbermann, their corporate cousin, FishBowl NY isn't on the MSM KO Bandwagon. It seems that they have detected, how shall we say, a certain pattern with Mr. Olbermann and Countdown in regards to women.

There's some furor building over a graphic [above] shown on Tuesday's Countdown With Keith Olbermann — guest-hosted by Alison Stewart — which referred to embattled Louisiana Senator David Vitter's wife as a "ho" for her choice of leopard-print at her husband's press conference acknowledging his involvement in the DC Madam scandal.

They even link to a Daily Kos diary in which a writer calls Countdown's latest stunt a lowpoint in that show's history.
While there are the usual KO apologists and the "So what it's a Republican woman" posters, there are a few who were also unhappy with the characterization of Mrs. Vitter as a "ho":

Her husband chose this. I can not stomach what is being said about her.

And

I think it was extremely wrong to call attention to her-in light that she was the one cheated on with a hooker, by an unapologetic cheating husband standing right beside her.That was just catty of Countdown to do to Wendy Vitter.

But enough of the DailyKos crowd, back to FishBowl NY:

Considering its "Nappy 'Hos" history, MSNBC should've learned a lesson or two about off-handed, misogynistic remarks. Still, no one should be surprised — Olbermann and Countdown have done this kind of thing before. One example, as we reported way back in October, involved a pre-penitentiary Paris Hilton. At that time, it wasn't the "A Slut and Battery" that drew our attention — it was what he said: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 yes, that is what he meant.

Wow, someone detecting a pattern about Olbermann's double-standard towards women? Imagine that.