Olbermann and HuffPo Editor Square Off on Couric and Anti-Hillary Bias

It seems not everyone in the liberal blogosphere is smitten with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Take for example Huffington Post editor Rachel Sklar who on Thursday called out the insufferably arrogant and pompous "Countdown" host for naming CBS's Katie Couric his "Worst Person in the World" previously reported by NewsBuster Brad Wilmouth:

Olbermann accused Couric of taking out of "context" comments by NBC correspondent Lee Cowan, who, as he covers the Barack Obama campaign, has said he finds it "hard to be objective," as she, not naming him, suggested he "find another line of work." Olbermann, who has attacked Hillary Clinton on several occasions while being softer on Obama, declared Cowan's reporting to be "utterly objective and accurate," and castigated Couric for "her own promulgation of the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of sexism."

Sklar deliciously objected (h/t TVNewser):

I find it a bit rich that Keith Olbermann would chastise anyone on the subject of "separating the hype from the news" or "the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism." And yet he did just that last night in naming Katie Couric his "Worst Person in the World" for speaking out about the sexism evidenced in some of the media coverage of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Nonsense? Really? It took a while but geez, even Howard Dean has figured it out. To sit there on MSNBC and say that it's nonsense is a bit rich, considering that some of the higher-profile episodes of embarrassing sexist-or-perceived-as-sexist commentary has come from that network (cf. Tucker Carlson's crossed legs, Mike Barnicle's ex-wife at a probate court, David Shuster's big pimpin', Chris Matthews' comment about why, exactly, Clinton had been a success or wondering if a guy would find it hard to debate a woman or even Olbermann himself, musing about a possible way to "convince" Hillary Clinton to exit the race (over a month before it was actually over, by the way). I mean, not only was there a petition protesting sexism at the network, there was an actual real-live protest against MSNBC in Washington. So what's that about "nonsense" there, Keith? [...]

[I]f Olbermann is going to chide Couric for her poor research skills, perhaps he might try a little bit of the Google himself.

Olbermann struck back Thursday in the comments section of a Daily Kos blog:

Don't know what to think about Ms. Sklar (40+ / 0-) Actually, I'm mildly alarmed, but not because of the criticism.

She - let me phrase this gently - attended the Countdown 5th Anniversary Party in April, even though she had been denied an invitation and was not accompanying a guest.

As to everything else, everybody has my humble thanks. That was a very tough one to read tonight.

"If you're going through hell - keep going!" -- Winston Churchill

by Keith Olbermann on Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 07:16:04 PM PDT

It seems Olbermann was -- as typical!!! -- playing loose with the facts:

But Sklar tells TVNewser, "Keith is mistaken. I'm sorry he was alarmed, but I was not at the event."

You know, if more people on the ultra-left would recognize -- as Sklar clearly has -- just how often Keith Olbermann makes stuff up in order to promote his agenda, maybe he'd be kicked out of NBC's news division and relegated to covering sports.

Hmmm.