Olbermann Uses False Information From Daily Kos To Smear Palin

After apparently taking erroneous information from the far-left-leaning website ThinkProgress on Tuesday to falsely accuse Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin of slashing her state's Special Olympics budget, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday called the governor a liar in a rant with potential ties to a Daily Kos posting hours earlier.

During his truly tasteless "Bushed" segment, Olbermann claimed Palin gave Sean Hannity a different answer than she offered Charlie Gibson regarding her initial reaction to being asked to be John McCain's running mate.

This was Olbermann's pathetic accusation (text and video follow, h/t Johnny Dollar):

Number three, culture of lying-gate. We have gotten so used to this that even candidates for national office can utterly contradict themselves in their first two national interviews and nobody is saying boo. Remember Governor last week when Charlie Gibson asked her if she hesitated at all in accepting the VP nomination? She said I didn`t hesitate, no. He pressed her. That`s when she said her spiel about the mission and you can`t blink. So I didn`t blink, and even when he was asked to run as his running mate.

Tonight, in a kind of conversation, a critic of a fawning local sports caster, once perfectly described as a flatulent lap sitting interview, Governor Palin insisted to Sean Hannity that she did not immediately accept the spot on the ticket, that she hesitated and put it to a family vote. the quote, "it was time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway, and they voted unanimously yes. Didn`t bother asking my son, because, you know, he`s going off to be doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn`t be so impacted by at least the campaign period here. So asked the girls what they thought and they were like absolutely, let`s do this, mom."

For god`s sake, governor, you`re coming across as an out of control liar. That`s another 100 bucks I get to donate to the Alaska Special Olympics.

Is that actually what happened? Well, here's the video and transcript of the discussion between Hannity and Palin aired on "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday:

HANNITY: All right. You said when you were asked to be Senator McCain's running mate that you didn't hesitate, you didn't blink.

Tell us about the call when that came.

PALIN: Well, I found out about the actual selection just a couple days before you guys all did. Getting that nod was quite an experience, of course, because I knew that Senator McCain and his team had been doing a heck of a lot of research and vetting of many names.

So, of course, just the utmost honor is what I felt when he actually said, do you want to help me do this, and I said absolutely. Let's get in there and let's reform. Let's shake some things up.

HANNITY: What was your family's reaction? Was that time to huddle and have a hockey team meeting?

PALIN: It was a time of asking the girls to vote on it anyway. And they voted unanimously yes. Didn't bother asking my son because, you know, he is going to be off doing his thing anyway so he wouldn't be so impacted by, at least the campaign period here.

So I asked the girls what they thought and they are like, absolutely, let's do this, mom.

Seems to me that there's no contradiction here at all. When she was asked by Sen. McCain, she said, "absolutely. Let's get in there and let's reform. Let's shake some things up."

That she later discussed it with her family by no means invalidates her claim to Gibson that she didn't hesitate. Yet, Olbermann claimed, "Governor Palin insisted to Sean Hannity that she did not immediately accept the spot on the ticket, that she hesitated." 

That's not what the video OR the transcript indicate. Where might Olbermann have gotten this false idea from?

Well, about two and a half hours before his show aired, the following was posted at Daily Kos:

This is something I can't let pass--not without taking notice. Sarah Palin has just made her most blatant lie yet. It's one that the average television viewer can catch. And most tellingly, it's a lie that exposes not just mendacity, but a compulsion to lie.

In a transparent attempt to shore up her feminist appeal, she's changed her story on how she accepted the offer to run for vice-president.

Which one is it, Sarah? The problem with lying isn't so much putting the lies out there. It's in sticking to them.

The Kossack provided a partial transcript of this answer that was posted at Time's "The Page" blog:

“It was a time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway.  And they voted unanimously, yes. Didn’t bother asking my son because, you know, he’s going to be off doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn’t be so impacted by, at least, the campaign period here.  So ask the girls what they thought and they’re like, absolutely.  Let’s do this, mom.” 

As you can see, this transcript ignored the previous statement by Palin, "So, of course, just the utmost honor is what I felt when he actually said, do you want to help me do this, and I said absolutely."

No mention whatsoever about hesitating. 

With this in mind, since "Countdown" airs before "Hannity & Colmes," it would seem that Olbermann either got this idea from Time's "The Page" blog, or from the Kossack.

Either way, it seems he was reporting on only partial information concerning this interview, and jumped to a false conclusion that Palin had "insisted to Sean Hannity that she did not immediately accept the spot on the ticket, that she hesitated."

Clearly, that's not the case, and should act as another example to MSNBC and NBC News management that Olbermann is totally unqualified as a journalist.

How many more examples are these folks going to need before they realize what a disgrace this man is to their network and this industry?