Countdown

Obviously uncomfortable without someone stroking his over-sized ego, Keith Olbermann has been spending his much-needed vacation chatting with his fans on the social networking website Twitter.

Since joining in April, MSNBC's hottest property has actually sent 3,000 messages to his followers.

That's over 800 "tweets" per month.

But this has greatly increased during his vacation. As Steve Krakauer reported Friday, Olbermann even stayed up till four in the morning doing this one day last week:

While on a much-needed vacation, things for Keith Olbermann have gone from bad to worse.

News is coming out almost daily concerning members of his production staff jumping ship to work for Lawrence O'Donnell's new program.

On top of that, the Daily Caller has published e-mail messages of liberal JournoList members expressing their disgust for the "Countdown" host.

As lefties hating on Olbermann is guaranteed to brighten a conservative's day, let's start there:

Is MSNBC concerned about charges of a lack of racial diversity among its on-air staff? Perhaps the cable network is realizing that its glass house is increasingly at risk of shattering from all the stones it keeps hurling at the allegedly-racist Tea Party movement.

The folks at Inside Cable News noticed a slight change in the header at the MSNBC TV homepage. See if you can spot it in the picture at right. It shouldn't be that hard; the folks at the cable network put Tamron Hall front and center in a bright pink shirt (click here for a larger image of the new header).

Did MSNBC add Hall in an effort to satiate critics who have pointed out the lack of racial diversity on the cable network? Though ICN notes the comical video produced by the Dallas Tea Party, the Congressional Black Caucus has also chided MSNBC for its lily-white staff.

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Olbermann responds with a vulgarity.

At the end of Friday's "Countdown," Keith Olbermann announced what will be considered good news to all the folks at MSNBC that despise him.

"I`m Keith Olbermann, taking a couple of weeks vacation off now. So we`ll see you whatever two weeks from today is."

This came just moments after he told his small number of viewers:

That`s "Countdown" for June 28th -- it`s not June 28th, is it? June 28th? It said June 28th up here. It`s July 16th, isn`t it? My goodness, I thought I was having another seizure. 

Despite it likely not being a surprise to readers that Olbermann doesn't know what day it is, that's certainly a sign one needs some time off (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Dallas Tea Party on Thursday accused MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, and Dylan Ratigan of racism.

Since January 20, 2009, all four of these men have criticized Barack Obama for one reason or another.

As MSNBC has been one of the strongest proponents of the despicable concept that anyone critical of this president must be a racist, DTP's founder Phillip Dennis believes the same should be true for that network's employees.

With this in mind, the DTP has created a marvelous video illustrating the point (video follows with commentary):

According to the Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson, people that work for MSNBC hate Keith Olbermann. 

"I'm not saying every person at MSNBC despises him but I would say he's the most disliked person in the building by a factor of 10," Carlson told Mediaite's Steve Krakauer.

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, the Daily Caller recently purchased KeithOlbermann.com.

With this in mind, Krakauer and company couldn't wait to chat with the former MSNBCer about the purchase and the object of most conservatives' disaffection (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

In recent weeks, Fox News Channel has repeatedly updated viewers on the controversy behind the Obama administration Justice Department’s decision to drop civil action initiated during the Bush administration against New Black Panthers (NBP) members who were caught on video engaging in voter intimidation outside a polling place in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008. Even though DOJ won cases against three defendants by default when the NBP members refused to appear in court, punishment for two members was not pursued at all while the injunction against the third member was reduced to two years during which he can still visit polling stations in nearly all of country as long as it is outside Philadelphia.

But on Monday’s Countdown show, as he erroneously assumed that the FNC stories were based on the issue of criminal prosecution, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann absurdly claimed that FNC’s entire premise for its coverage had been debunked as he picked up on reports by the left-wing American Prospect magazine which recounted the Bush-era Justice Department decision not to pursue criminal charges.

Olbermann referred to FNC’s pursuit of the New Black Panther voter intimidation story as a "continuous fake ‘newsgasm’ over there at Fox, drumming up paranoia among their more racist viewers." The Countdown host proclaimed: "There is, as it proves, one huge flaw in this latest Fox-driven conspiracy. The decision not to prosecute was not made by Obama, nor the Obama administration, nor the Attorney General, Mr. Holder. It was made during the administration of President George W. Bush."

Tucker Carlson is now the proud owner of a slightly used Keith Olbermann.

With a large-print headline announcing "We own you" and a picture of ol' Keith looking bemused whilst he adjusts he glasses, The Daily Caller promoted their newest acquisition: http://keitholbermann.com/.

It's just the latest shot across the bow in the escalating feud between Olbermann and Carlson, which will one day be featured on a Cracked.com list of the top eight inconsequential personal feuds the media chose to cover instead of events that were actually newsworthy.

Keith Olbermann on Wednesday said the recently adopted resolution by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People condemning alleged racism within the Tea Party "was kind of mild."

Speaking with NAACP President Ben Jealous on MSNBC's "Countdown," Olbermann asked, "Do you think that what you passed was actually kind of moderate?"

With a straight face, Olbermann continued, "Because it struck me that, that one of the points that you emphasized was that the Tea Party is, is not a racist movement, but is merely tolerating racism and bigotry by its, by its members."

Still with a straight face, "I thought that was kind of mild" (video follows with commentary):

Since April 8 of this year, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has called former Governor Sarah Palin an "idiot" 22 times on his Countdown show, usually by uttering the words, "That woman is an idiot." But in August 2004, the MSNBC host claimed to be too "naive and old-fashioned" to call a woman an "idiot," as he attacked conservative commentator Michelle Malkin for misquoting him as having called her an "idiot," when, in reality, he had charged that she had "made a fool out of herself" instead. In fact, Olbermann contended that if he had in reality called Malkin an "idiot," it would have been grounds for him to apologize:

We at Countdown were preparing an apology for my choice of language last night after the writer Michelle Malkin went on Rush Limbaugh's radio entertainment program and wrote in her Web blog that I had called her a, quote, "idiot." It was Ms. Malkin, who on Hardball last night, raised the accusation that John Kerry's Vietnam wounds may have been self-inflicted. It's naive and old-fashioned, but I feel you should reserve those terms like "idiot" exclusively for men. Political differences, fault or innocence are all secondary. There are codes. There's also a problem. I never called her an idiot.

But since April, the words, "That woman is an idiot," referring to Palin, have become a near regular part of the show, as the Countdown host has called the former governor an "idiot" during 20 episodes of his show between April 8 and July 8, including once when he used the label three times in one show as he also called her "idiot woman" and "that idiot."

Keith Olbermann had a terrible day on Tuesday.

In baseball terminology, he went 0 for 3. 

After NewsBusters reported two segments from his low-rated "Countdown" program that either included selectively edited transcripts to mislead viewers or material misrepresentations contradicted by numerous sources, the fact-checking website PolitiFact determined another statement made by MSNBC's hottest property was "False".

So egregious were Olbermann's comments that Politifact almost gave them their lowest rating, "Pants on Fire," which readers should recall from their youth always came after "Liar, liar."

Before we get to PolitiFact's analysis, let's witness Olbermann at his worst (video follows with transcript and LOTS of commentary, h/t Lachlan Markay):

In today's "What Fact Did Keith Olbermann Mangle Now" segment, the host of MSNBC's "Countdown" on Tuesday hysterically mocked Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle for claiming Abraham Lincoln lost "quite a few" elections.

"Just for the record, do you know how many elections Abraham Lincoln lost in his lifetime?" Olbermann arrogantly asked.

"Seven of eight he won," answered MSNBC's hottest property.

Just for the record, Olbermann wasn't even close to being right (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t The Corner):

Keith Olbermann on Wednesday called for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign.

His complaint?

Thomas's wife Virginia runs a political organization called Liberty Central which at this point has not revealed who its donors are. 

"She is a living, breathing, appearance of a conflict of interest," whined Olbermann during Wednesday's "Countdown."

"Either she must reveal the names of her donors and everyone employed by, affiliated with or donating to or donated to by Liberty Central, or Justice Thomas must resign from the Supreme Court" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The lengths Keith Olbermann will go to attack his adversaries knows no bounds.

On Tuesday, he selectively edited and cherry picked from a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript in order to make the talk show personality look racist.

Most disgracefully, the "Countdown" host completely avoided telling his few viewers that Limbaugh was referring to truly disgusting statements the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker made on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.

With total disregard for the truth or any sense of journalistic integrity, here's what Olbermann said during his "Worst Person in the World" segment Tuesday (h/t Meredith Jessup):

Name-calling isn't just for 6-year-olds anymore.

Keith Olbermann proved once again that Sarah Palin is the media's favorite conservative to hate, mock and condemn when he called Palin an "idiot" who endorses "stupidity instead of intelligence."

Olbermann named "Sister Sarah" his "Worst Person in the World" on "Countdown" June 28 after Palin mistakenly said Ronald Reagan's alma mater was "California's Eureka College" during a speech at Cal State Stanislaus. Reagan attended Eureka College in his native state of Illinois.

In addition to labeling her speech a "gaffe fest," Olbermann called her mistake "symbolic of her imbecility, her corner-cutting," saying it was one of "perhaps, 100 things that brand her as a phony."

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren says the just-announced new CNN show pitting former New York governor Eliot Spitzer against faux conservative Kathleen Parker is bad news for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Writing at her Greta Wire blog Wednesday, Van Susteren said, "[I]f CNN is to be successful, it will have to draw viewers from Keith Olbermann's viewers."  

She continued, "The total number of cable news viewers seems to be a limited number so they have to grab from Olberman [sic]."

Van Susteren elaborated as to why she doesn't think Spitzer-Parker will take viewers from "The O'Reilly Factor":

The BP oil spill - millions of gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, coastal businesses from Houston to Tampa shuttered, the potential for higher energy costs across the country and untold ecological damage. But according to Mother Jones magazine's David Corn, there is a silver-lining in all of this - that is, if you're a Democrat. 

MSNBC's June 21 "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" deviated from its usual efforts to blame the previous administration for the oil spill and instead gave thanks that the spill led to Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward in a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

"I think it's every single Democrat in America - they're saying, ‘Joe Barton, you go for it,'" Corn said. "You keep that ranking member position. Don't - you know, stick to your guns. I mean, after all, I mean, you made this point, I've written about this, others have made this point - It wasn't a gaffe. Joe Barton said what he believed."

Normally, it would be a "dog-bites-man" story - overtly liberal media figures promoting a liberal, big government policy initiative.  But when the left-leaning Project for Excellence in Journalism notices a trend, and the New York Times deems it worth reporting, something funny is going on.

On June 21, the Times' "Media Decoder" blog suggested that historians studying how ObamaCare passed "might assign a bit of the credit to liberal talk show hosts." The article cited a study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (no right-wing outfit, that) showing that, during the lead-up to health care reform passage, "liberal hosts like Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz" spent nearly twice as much airtime on health care reform as did their conservative counterparts.

Left-wing hosts "spent 44 percent of their airtime talking about health care from June 2009 to March 2010, while conservative hosts spent 26 percent of their airtime on the subject," according to the article. Further, MSNBC gave it 32 percent of its airtime, while Fox gave it 20 percent.

It sure is a sign of the times when one of the most disgraceful and unashamedly liberal personalities in the television news industry wins an award for "excellence in electronic journalism."

Despite the seeming incongruity, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann won an Edward R. Murrow award Wednesday from the Radio Television Digital News Association.

So what did Olbermann win for you ask?

Writing the following tribute to his mother which aired on "Countdown" shortly after her death last year (video follows with commentary):

When the vitriol is too much for Keith Olbermann, something is seriously wrong.

The MSNBC prime time anchor parted ways with the far-left Web site Daily Kos on Wednesday, citing the site's apparent unflinching, see-no-evil attitude towards President Obama, and the omnipresence of wild leftist conspiracy theories there.

"You want Cheerleaders? Hire the Buffalo Jills," Olbermann wrote. "You want diaries with conspiracy theories, go nuts. If you want this site the way it was even a year ago, let me know and I'll be back."

The divorce came after Kossacks relentlessly railed on Olbermann for having the gall to criticize their dear leader for his let-down of a national address on Tuesday. He took to his Twitter account to defend the decision.

Despite widespread criticism of President Barack Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill–including flak from MSNBC's left-wing posse of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman–ABC's Terry Moran and George Stephanopoulos on the June 15 "Nightline" fawned over the president's speech and ignored its obvious shortcomings.

In recapping the address, Moran could not contain his adulation for Obama's ability to assert his presidential authority and inspire the nation:

• "For the first time in the Oval Office, President Obama addressed the nation. A nation anxious and doubtful about his leadership on the environmental catastrophe that's unfolded in the Gulf for 57 days. So, the main goal tonight, show the country he's truly in charge."

• "President Obama, who finished a two-day trip to the Gulf Coast this afternoon, clearly wanted to project power in his handling with the oil spill, and the most direct way to do that is to use the language of war of the commander-in-chief."

• "As the cleanup efforts continue to grapple with the giant spill, residents all along the coast have grown more and more worried, more and more angry and the president spoke to that directly tonight, and he made a promise."

• "At the end, like so many in the Oval Office before him, President Obama asked for prayers."

MSNBC contributor Lawrence O'Donnell will take over at the 10 pm slot, the cable network announced Tuesday. O'Donnell, who guest-hosted "Countdown" while Keith Olbermann was on leave, is a self-described socialist, and will fit in nicely with the rest of MSNBC's prime-time lineup.

The 10 pm slot has up to this time been "Countdown" reruns, so MSNBC viewers will now be treated to a tad different far-left rant than Olbermann's 8 pm far-left rant.

That said, O'Donnell's segment will hardly be a breath of fresh air if his previous antics are any indication. He has a short, if colorful history of liberal outbursts. Let us review some of his greatest hits:

On Friday’s Countdown show, after having decided not to include Helen Thomas as a nominee in his "Worst Person" segment for her anti-Semitic declaration that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany and Poland, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann included Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace in his "Worst Person" segment for suggesting that it would be "poetic justice" if Fox News were to be given her seat in the White House briefing room.

Olbermann went on to claim that FNC personalities are guilty of making comments that are similarly racist as compared to Thomas’s attack on Israeli Jews: "Wallace thus implying that a far right entity that occasionally says indefensible and even racist things should replace a far left entity that occasionally said indefensible and even racist things."

On Wednesday’s Countdown show, Olbermann had similarly found a reason to include as a nominee in his "Worst Person" segment the rabbi who exposed Thomas’s anti-Semitism, even though Thomas herself was never featured in the segment.

The man that surprisingly won Tuesday's Democrat primary for senator in South Carolina was interviewed by Keith Olbermann Thursday, and a more hapless candidate might never before have appeared on the national stage.

Despite Alvin Greene's stumbling, seemingly unaware persona, the "Countdown" host never seriously grilled him about anything concerning how he could possibly have won this primary without holding any campaign functions, distributing any campaign signs or literature, or creating a website.

As you watch this tremendously uncomfortable interview, imagine how Greene would have been treated by Olbermann if he was a Republican (video follows with commentary, h/t Right Scoop):

On Wednesday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann included Rabbi David Nesenoff – famous for exposing Helen Thomas’s anti-Semitic beliefs in a video of her posted on his Web site – for inclusion in his "Worst Person in the World" segment because Rabbi Nesenoff’s site also includes a video which the MSNBC host viewed as being racist toward Mexicans.

As he explained who Nesenoff is, Olbermann also misstated the severity of Thomas’s declaration that Israeli Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine," as many in the pro-Palestinian movement consider all of Israel to be part of "Palestine." But Olbermann suggested that she was only referring to Israeli Jews who live in settlements in the Palestinian territories: "Runner up, Rabbi David Nesenoff. He is the man who precipitated the end of Helen Thomas’s career, got the video of her saying Israelis in settlements in Palestine should go home to Poland and Germany and the U.S. It was sad. It was narrow minded. I can`t defend it. On the other hand, Rabbi Nesenoff doesn`t exactly have clean hands."

Notably, the Countdown host had passed on featuring Helen Thomas in his "Worst Person" segment for her anti-Semitic remarks, explaining on Monday that he was thinking of "reluctantly" including her in that night’s "Worst Person" list but chose not to because she had resigned from her position at Hearst. Olbermann, on Monday, introducing the "Worst Person" segment: "But first, with a thank you to Helen Thomas for doing the right thing and bowing out before I had to reluctantly put her out this list, get out your pitchforks and torches, time for tonight`s 'Worst Persons in the World.'"

No one has ever accused Keith Olbermann of having one iota of class, and what he publicly did Tuesday evening to someone he once worked with should finally explain to anyone that actually still admires this pompous buffoon exactly why!

During his "Worst Persons in the World" segment, the "Countdown" host absolutely tore apart CNN's Campbell Brown.

Adding insult to injury, Olbermann did this public evisceration on the 30th anniversary of the day the cable news network went on the air.

Readers are advised to have a bucket nearby, for whatever you might think of Brown, this pathetic and inexcusable display by MSNBC's leading anchor is sure to make you nauseous (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

Since February 2006, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has used the signoff of his Countdown show almost nightly to mock President Bush by recounting the number of days have passed since the former President stood on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. The speech, which President Bush delivered while a sign with the words "Mission Accomplished" could be seen in the background, has been referred to by Olbermann and other war critics as Bush’s "declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished.’" The signoff mocking Bush had continued even after the former President left office.

But as of this week, the MSNBC host has finally dropped his former signoff and instead recounts the number of days since the beginning of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The last time Olbermann signed off attacking President Bush was on Thursday, May 20: "That’s Countdown, for this, the 2,576 th day since the previous President declared "Mission Accomplished" I Iraq. I’m Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck."

On Friday, Olbermann did not use the sign off because each Friday he ends the show by reading a short story from James Thurber, and deviates from his regular signoff, but on Monday, he had a new signoff referring to the oil spill, which he kept up through Thursday of this week:

It's turned into something of a week for TV hosts, if not to bite, then at least to nibble hard on the hands that feed them . . .

First, as noted here, on Friday Joe Scarborough passed along the comment of an unnamed conservative biggie who wondered "what the hell [Rand Paul] was doing on MSNBC?", where during an interview with Rachel Maddow he caused controversy with his comments on the Civil Rights Act.

Today, it was Howard Kurtz's turn.  In the wake of Campbell Brown's withdrawal from CNN, in which she cited her show's poor ratings, Kurtz, host of Reliable Sources also on CNN wondered whether the network's business strategy of offering news in contrast to the opinion-oriented programming on Fox News and MSNBC is "viable."   For good measure, Kurtz also managed to suggest that Brown, Connie Chung and Paula Zahn—all of whose CNN shows failed—weren't strong enough personalities to attract an audience during the 8 PM hour, up against the likes of O'Reilly and Olbermann. Ouch!

On Friday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann used his "Worst Person" segment to slam Oklahoma’s Republican Senator James Inhofe as a "homophobe" who is "making a jackass out of himself" in opposing an end to the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy on gays in the military.

Referring to people who oppose allowing those who are openly gay to serve in the military, Olbermann suggested such a way of thinking is the result of the sort of "bad parents and toxic environments" that create "terrorists and sadists and bigots." Olbermann:

Apart from the question of why Inhofe assumes our military heroes are as bigoted as he is, Inhofe also has his categories all wrong. You have women, men and, yes, a third group to deal with. The third group is the group that can't love or care or just tolerate. That's the group brought up by bad parents and toxic environments, the group with the terrorists and the sadists and bigots in it, and the James Inhofes. Senator Inhofe, homophobe, today's "Worst Person in the World."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the "Worst Person" segment from the Friday, May 14, Countdown show on MSNBC:

In a Friday article for Yahoo! News, reporter John Cook revealed FBI documents that detail allegations that former CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite offered CBS News resources to transport fierce Vietnam critic and Democratic Maine Senator Edmund Muskie to a Florida anti-war rally in November of 1969. (h/t TVNewser)

According to Cook, the FBI files describe how "Cronkite encouraged students at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., to invite Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie to address a protest they were planning....Cronkite told the group's leader that Muskie would be nearby for a fundraiser on the day of the protest, and said that 'CBS would rent [a] helicopter to take Muskie to and from site of rally.'"

While noting Cronkite's public condemnation of the war on air just nine months earlier, Cook rightfully observed: "such tight collaboration between a news organization and the anti-war movement — particularly the offer of CBS News resources to help ferry a sitting senator and future presidential candidate around in opposition to the war — was highly unusual and would presumably have been explosive if known widely at the time." Cook also noted: "It's unclear whether Muskie ever actually attended the event."