Daily Kos Deletes Negative Post About Olbermann

Photo of Noel Sheppard.

NewsBusters has reported for years how the ultra-left wing website Daily Kos will publish all kinds of hateful articles about conservative politicians and figures without ever deleting or editing them.

On Sunday, it was made infinitely clear to the Kossacks that although attacks on right-leaning figures are encouraged -- even if they've just passed away, such as the recent disgraceful posts about Jesse Helms' death -- you're not allowed to say anything bad about their hero, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

UPDATE at end of post: Kos denies the allegations.

Although frequent DK poster The Baculum King's "Keith Olbermann Stooping to Fox's Level Now??" has been deleted, Google still has the cached version for all to see (h/t NBer Thomas Stewart, vulgarity alert):

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We all know that an important part of Fox News' basic model is the liberal use of the "making shit up" technique, but I, for one, expect better from those who claim to be real journalists. On Thursday, Keith Olbermann let us down.

As usual, Olbermann hyped the upcoming "Worst Person in the World" segment several times throughout the broadcast, including a teaser sandwiched between a discussion of an interview with Obama and the "Pine Tar Scandal" in baseball 25 years ago:

Oh, dear, a dough with a 50 percent bonus in the area of the leggings, and it could be in big trouble because a former Republican presidential hopeful wants to go out and shoot and kill endangered animals in the nation of Chad and then personally serve the meat to starving refugees. Sounds like I‘m making it up, but I ain‘t. Worst Persons is ahead on COUNTDOWN. [...]

But our winner, Representative Duncan Hunter of California, whose office recently notified the U.S. embassy in Chad that the Congressman would be delighted to visit that country and distribute food at a refugee camp. Of course, there was a catch. Mr. Hunter only wanted to distribute the food if he could first hunt the food himself, wildebeasts. He wanted to hunt wildebeasts in the nation of Chad, kill some of them, and then personally give the meat to starving refugees. The Chadian government said, gosh, thanks, but there are two problems: hunting large animals and mammals like wildebeast is illegal in Chad. And, oh, by the way, there aren‘t any wildebeasts in Chad!

Undeterred, Congressman Hunter has now reportedly transferred his interests in helping the refugees to Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, where there are still wildebeasts to be slaughtered—sorry, I mean distributed to refugees. Congressman Duncan "great white" Hunter, today‘s worst person in the world.

Just a couple of minor problems.

First, and most jarring, is that there is probably no mammal on the African continent (other than humans) less "endangered" than the wildebeest, the main attraction of every nature film about the mass migration on the Serengetti ever made, where they annually gather in herds of 400,000 and more. This simple fact could have easily been ascertained by MSNBC's research staff by watching any of those films (which should be enjoyed with the sound off, they too rival Fox for bullshit) or by merely looking at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Threatened and Endangered Species list, where one immediately notes the complete absence of any variety of wildebeest.

Furthermore, while all hunting is closed in Kenya (much to the detriment of that Country's wildlife, but that's a subject for another Diary, perhaps), both Tanzania and South Africa offer perfectly legal hunting opportunities for wildebeest which have no negative impact on the populations in either Country.

Calling Duncan Hunter a dumbass is pretty much always justified, no matter the circumstances, but it's not necessary to distort and lie to do so.

I guess it's okay to applaud the death of conservatives at Daily Kos, but NOT to point out mistakes made by one of the worst "journalists" in American history.

Stay classy, Kos!

*****Update: I received the following e-mail message from Kos moments ago:

What makes you think that editors deleted that post? Jumping to
conclusions, are you?

The author deleted that post. We did not. Sorry to ruin your "gotcha!"

Stay classy.

I responded:

Glad to hear it. Have the author send me an e-mail message to this effect, and I will post an update.

He replied:

The only people I communicate with are my editors, not regular diarists. I know it's hard for you guys to understand this, but I don't even have a way to contact any of them.

But don't sweat it. Feel free to continue posting unsubstantiated charges (or "lies", as others may refer to them). It's the classy thing to do.
I countered:
Then the solution is easy: ask one of your editors to do it. I'm SURE they know how to get in touch with all of your diarists. After all, it is 2008.
Obviously, we here at NewsBusters can get in touch with all of our writers AND members. After all, you need a valid e-mail address to register as a member. The same is true for Daily Kos.

Is the Great Kos so separated from his own website that he doesn't know the policies he created?

*****Update II: More from Kos...

Here's the bottom line -- there are two types of people who can delete a post -- the editors, and the author. You assume it's the editors who did it, though you have no evidence for that assumption, and my word to the contrary. Since you are making the charge, it's your responsibility to substantiate it. Not mine.

You want to keep running unsubstantiated info on your site, feel free. It's your site. But it really does confirm the kind of person you are. i.e. it's not "someone who adheres to the truth".

I don't care if you run a correction or not. It's no skin of my back either way. I was doing you a favor by pointing out that you're running false info thinking it might be something you care about. But since you don't, I won't worry about it either.
My response:
I updated the post hours ago to reflect our correspondence. Without actually hearing from the author, I don't believe there's more I should do. After all, it's your contention he deleted it, but you claim to not be able to get in touch with him -- this despite the requirement at your website for members to present a valid e-mail address when they open a new account.

As such, how do you KNOW he deleted it? Did you check with all your editors to see if any of them did? Furthermore, if he did indeed delete it, I'd been interested in why. After all, there were 153 comments to his post when it was deleted. Maybe he was pressured to take it down either by readers, or even an editor.

Aren't you curious? As the associate editor of NB, I would be if something similar happened here.

And his quick reply:
I don't keep contact information. I have no need for it. And editors do not delete posts without my permission. It's reserved only for the most extreme or illegal behavior and happens maybe 2-3 times a year. I'd rather preserve evidence of someone's idiocy than delete and pretend no one ever says anything stupid on the site. Sure, it's easy material for people like you and Bill O'Reilly, but I think it's better for the site long-term, if for no other reason than to keep better tabs on our trolls.

The author's motivations aren't much of my concern. With 600+ diaries per day, stuff comes and goes all the time. There are lots of reasons people add and delete material.
My response:
Well, I've posted all of our e-mail correspondence as updates -- which I believe is the classy thing to do. :-)

Anyway, if you'd like to actually discuss our relative class in person, as well as our political differences, let me know. I live in the East Bay, and am a Cal alum. So, if you ever want to get a beer and just talk like two Americans concerned about the future of our nation RATHER than foes on opposite sides of the blogosphere, let me know. I'll even buy the first round. :-)

*****Update III: A Kossack responds with a new post this morning. Slight vulgarity warning. Why is it these people can't write anything without including some profanity?

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.


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How true is this line:

an important part of Fox News' basic model is the liberal use of the "making shit up" technique ...

Doh!   ;-)

Doh!

an important part of Fox News' basic model is the liberal use of the "making shit up" technique ...

Funny how that lie is oft repeated by those who NEVER watch Fox News Channel.

D

Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.

How ironic

On a continent that has the largest herds of feed animals by orders of magnitude, we have 'refugee camps' where people are starving.

Meanwhile over at the Kos insane assylum, they argue about which species is 'endangered' and proclaim any attempt at fixing the situation to be stupid and self-serving. Oh and don't forget the requisite jab at FoxNews for having the gall to compete with and utterlly devestate MSNBC

 

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

check out the updates above

check out the updates above from KOS - hilarious...

only admins can delete entire posts on NB - when users post on NB we can't subsequently delete the fact that we posted - we can only delete the text...

this functionality would protect KOS in the future against NB threads like this - or actually just eliminate the weasel-out option they sent noel up above:)

consequently we will probably not see that functionality added to the KOS site will we:)?

Douche

I was looking at HuffPo and reading their post about Olbermann doing "comedy" on The Soup on E!  Was pleased to read the majority are negative, saying he's more about himself than "the cause".  See, they want Edward R. Murrow, and not reality: Krusty the Clown.

that's hilarious

Have you taken the time to read the posts below the article on Kos? Half the posters keep insisting the wildebeest really is endangered and one said the author was nitpicking Olbermann facetiously.

Those people hate Republicans so much they really don't care if lies get spread in the meantime.

NS

"After all, it is 2008."

Haha! Nice one :)

Go get'em! Keep us updated on that pleasant email exchange :p 

 

* * * SOCKS THE CAT '08 * * *
For REAL Change

But, wait...

I thought Koz was the king of all modern Internet activism?... and he DOESN'T know how to contact his own sycophantic followers? He has no idea how to find an email address of his own people?

I nominate Koz for the worst prevaricator of the web award.

 Markos:"Yoo muzt

 Markos:

"Yoo muzt dreenk thee Koolayde........or else ! "

 

Keith Olbermann is a sycophantic self important pompous gas bag and Kos is the dingleberry that hangs from his a$$.........or is it the other way around, or both.

The LOL part for me here, is the moonbats over at Kos cant' decide if Keith is a journalist or pundit, reports the news or makes stuff up,.......EVEN THOUGH HE POSTS  (prostitutes himself) THERE REGULARLY ! ROFL !!

What a bunch of losers. (sheep) 

 

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "

                   - Ben Kenobi on  Liberals, and the MSM.

                               " The Cake is a lie."   

Noel

Noel,

Did I read that correctly? Kos is trying to lecture you on being "classy" ? That is like Punky Brewster lecturing George Forman on Pro Boxing.

Exactly Free, Kos is the

Exactly Free, Kos is the same guy who said "screw them" when American security contractors were burned and then hung from a bridge in Iraq and then made fun of McCains teeth that were broken off at the gumline in "The Hanoi Hilton" and he has the gaul to even mention thwe word "classy".

Noel has more class in one of his eyelashes than that pint-sized, pimple-faced wannabe dictator of an online banana republic, posseses in his whole body. 

 "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "

                   - Ben Kenobi on  Liberals, and the MSM.

                               " The Cake is a lie."   

Noel, you should have your nail-gun bronzed...

...nay, make that gold-plated, as you have just nailed Markos Moulitsas' dishonest behind squarely to the wall, and right in his own back yard at that!

Nice shooting.  :-)

They consider Keith Olbermann a journalist?  LMAO!

The truth is insensitive. - Neal Boortz

wait....

So the owner of a popular site is allowing people to post their own articles helter-skelter without even bothering to get simple contact information? And he *knows for sure* that the article was pulled down by the original author but doesn't know the reason why?

*frowns in skepticism*

Either Markos us lying or he's the stupidest website admin on earth.

That story simply makes no sense. It's on the same plane as "the dog ate my homework" with a shrug when pressed for details.

Since you are not an admin at DKos you don't have the resources to "prove" the story beyond what you observe and the powers of logic. When you observe this kind of thing it's not a logical stretch to surmise it was banned for its content - in fact it's the initial gut reaction. Thus Markos needs to either let you investigate or offer an explanation that makes logical sense.

"A random blogger pulled his own article for unknown reasons and I have no way of asking him" doesn't count as a logical reason.

  "Either Markos us

 

"Either Markos us lying or he's the stupidest website admin on earth."

Actually, its probably both.

I find it very hard to believe this guy has no admin. and editing control over his own website, unless he just lets the clowns run the circus over there, like they do in his precious Democrat House and Senate.

 

 "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "

                   - Ben Kenobi on  Liberals, and the MSM.

                               " The Cake is a lie."