Keith Olbermann Apologizes to Daily Kos Readers

On Tuesday, in a report concerning MSNBC's Keith Olbermann publishing his first article at the liberal website Daily Kos, NewsBusters pointed out that the "Countdown" host certainly "knows exactly who his audience is, and exactly what they want."

This observation was demonstrably confirmed by Olbermann himself on Friday when in his second posting at DKos, he actually apologized to readers for having Lawrence O'Donnell on as a guest the night before.

I kid you not.

To set this up, as NewsBusters reported last Friday, O'Donnell had written an article at the Huffington Post harshly critical of Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards.

This didn't sit well with the Kos Kidz, nor, according to Olbermann, did O'Donnell's appearance on "Countdown" Thursday evening (emphasis added, h/t NB reader Thomas Stewart and Inside Cable News):

Forgive the fairly minor focus here but I spot at least three diaries on his appearance on Countdown last night to discuss Obama, Reagan, and Edwards.

Those of you complaining about it are right.

[...]

I don't read every blog, nor everything written by my guests. I often don't know until an hour beforehand who will be a guest on a given show (if it matters to you, these scheduling nightmares tend to come in waves for some reason, and last night was a Nor'easter). Also, to announce, on-air, each guest's preferences, prejudices, shillings and shiv jobs, would reduce the rest of the show to "Good Evening. Call Me Ishmael. My Boat Sank. The End. Good Night." And Lawrence O'Donnell's insight is almost always perceptive, relevant, and enlightened.

But even with these caveats, the point about this appearance, especially in the wake of such a freshly-written piece, is well-taken and I'm very sorry.

Can you believe this nonsense? Olbermann has a devout Democrat and well-established liberal commentator on his show, and all because the Kos Kidz aren't happy with something said guest recently wrote, the host is apologizing?

This coming from a man who last month told Bill Moyers, "W]hat I've done on the air in the last 4 1/2 years, and particularly in the last year and a half since the special comments began, is really journalism?"

Is it really journalism, Keith, to have to apologize to readers of a liberal blog for having a guest on your program that they suddenly don't like?

The good folks at MSNBC should be very proud of their two key anchors, for in the course of 24 hours, one apologized to a Democrat presidential candidate for being too hard on her while another said he was sorry to a liberal website for having on his program a guest that is currently on the network's payroll as a political analyst.

Liberal media bias? What liberal media bias?

*****Update: For real entertainment, readers shouldn't miss the comments section of Olbermann's DKos post. Here's one of my favorites that gives one a clue as to how these Kos Kidz think:

I said this in Mr. Olbermann's diary (190+ / 0-)

earlier this week, and I'll say it again: Thank you, Mr. Olbermann, for bringing credibility to network news.

by Rick Winrod on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 11:22:14 AM PST