Stunning Fox News Watch host Bill Hemmer, panelist Jim Pinkerton, picking up on a NewsBusters post with video (“Maher: Matthews and Olbermann 'Were Ready to Have Sex with' Obama”), from just hours before the FNC show aired live at 6:30 PM EDT Saturday from St. Paul, pointed out that MSNBC's Democratic convention coverage was so adulatory that it led to:

Bill Maher, who's no conservative, who hates Bush, to joke that he thinks that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews want to have sex with Obama. That's no slap at Obama, of course. He's innocent.

As the other panelists laughed, Hemmer was incredulous, interjecting “whoa, whoa” before pressing for corroboration: “Bill Maher said that?!” Pinkerton, Cal Thomas and Juan Williams all chimed in with confirmation and then Hemmer, putting his finger to his earpiece, informed viewers: “I'm hearing that we have a sound clip of that. Do we? Alright, roll it. Here's Bill Maher.” Viewers were treated to the video of Maher from his Friday night HBO show:

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.

Audio: MP3 clip from FNC which matches video above (1:15, 450 Kb)

Pinkerton set up the Maher anecdote by suggesting “MSNBC kind of jumped the shark on its coverage when they just went into total love mode where Keith Olbermann, for example, was specifically calling out an AP reporter and trashing him for not writing a sufficiently adulatory story about Obama and that led” to Maher.

Olbermann's slam of AP was one of three other quotes highlighted on Fox News Watch which you can read more about on NewsBusters. For Olbermann on the speech analysis by the AP's Charles Babington, see Noel Sheppard's “Olbermann Slams AP Writer Who Didn't Like Obama's Speech.”

Pinkerton also recited how CNN's John Roberts denounced Sarah Palin as too inexperienced and raised how her duties would leave her newborn son with Down's Syndrome without adequate care, only to be slapped down for sexism by CNN's Dana Bash. See Matthew Balan's “CNN's John Roberts: Palin Might Neglect Her Disabled Infant?”

And Cal Thomas, as an example of the media's infatuation with Obama, pointed to how ABC's George Stephanopoulos gave the Democrats a lot of A's. See my posting, “Nightline Awards Democrats 'Straight A's' for 'Perfect' Third Night.”

Pinkerton and Jane Hall appeared from Washington, DC while the rest of the panelists were at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul for the upcoming Republican convention.

The exchange on the August 30 show, which matches the video above:

JIM PINKERTON: Wednesday and Thursday is when history will record...that MSNBC kind of jumped the shark on its coverage when they just went into total love mode where Keith Olbermann, for example, was specifically calling out an AP reporter and trashing him for not writing a sufficiently adulatory story about Obama and that led, of course, Bill Maher, who's no conservative, who hates Bush, to joke that he thinks that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews want to have sex with Obama. That's no slap at Obama, of course. He's innocent.

[Laughter for panelists]

PINKERTON: No, he said it.

BILL HEMMER (guffawing) Whoa, whoa. Bill Maher said that?!

PINKERTON: He did, he did.

CAL THOMAS: Oh, yeah.

JUAN WILLIAMS: He did.

[Crosstalk]

HEMMER: Hang on a second [puts finger to earpiece], I'm hearing that we have a sound clip of that. Do we? Alright, roll it. Here's Bill Maher.

BILL MAHER, ON HIS HBO SHOW FRIDAY NIGHT: 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.

[Laughter from Hemmer and other panelists]

HEMMER: Hey Jane, I want to talk about the tension that was -- that's so funny by Bill Maher. There was a palpable tension between the Obama campaign and the Clinton campaign...

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center