Hypocritical Olbermann Defends Racial Makeup of MSNBC But Accused FNC of Racism

February 23rd, 2010 11:08 PM

On Tuesday’s Countdown show, host Keith Olbermann renewed his demand for Tea Party activists to answer his question of "where are the people of color" at their events, as the MSNBC anchor responded to a video invitation by the Dallas Tea Party chapter to come to one of their events, a video in which the Tea Party activists also pointed out Olbermann’s MSNBC glass house that features a low number of minority anchors on the news network.

As Olbermann defended the racial makeup of his network by contending that the news network also employs contributors and correspondents who are minorities, it is noteworthy that last November, Olbermann suggested that FNC discriminates against non-white employees, despite the presence of FNC personalities like Geraldo Rivera and Julie Banderas, who host their own shows; and a number of other contributors and correspondents on FNC who are minorities. Olbermann, addressing his attack to the anchors of Fox and Friends last November: "Since we’re asking questions, I have one for Carlson, Johnson, and Kilmeade. You guys ever wonder if you all succeeded inside a company like Fox mostly because you’re not Muslim or black or Asian or Hispanic?"

Returning to Tuesday's show, Olbermann admonished the video creators for including a photographic lineup that only included white MSNBC anchors, as he alluded to Tamron Hall, who regularly anchors two hours during the daytime, as being an example of a minority anchor. But he did not mention that the Tea Party chapter used the image displayed on MSNBC’s Web site whose list of anchors at the top of the site who receive top billing are all white.

And the MSNBC host again ignored scientific polling which suggests about five percent of Tea Party activists nationwide are minorities, as Olbermann relied only on anecdotal photographic accounts, and ended his response to the Dallas Tea Party by again asking "where are the people of color?" Olbermann:

So the Dallas Tea Party has one representative of diversity on its steering committee, and there appears to be six minority people besides her speaking or shown in its own video. And a diarist at Daily Kos examined photos of the Dallas Tea Parties and identified three others. This, mind you, is out of the hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands the Dallas group claims to represent, so, once again, this time directed to the Dallas group: Where are the people of color? And, instead of worrying about inviting me, shouldn't you be inviting them?

Below is a complete transcript of the "Quick Comment" segment from the Tuesday, February 23, Countdown show on MSNBC, as read by Olbermann:

First, tonight’s "Quick Comment," and an invitation to Tea. In response to my "Comment" last week noting the near total segregation of Tea Party events, the Dallas, Texas, group has invited me to their shindig on Saturday. I appreciate their invitation, but with my dad still in intensive care all this time, I’ve only been able to leave New York one night in the last six months.

We should have been able to leave it at that. But, unfortunately, the Dallas Tea Party group also put out a video, which, as one gullible Web site, Mediaite, put it, "highlights the remarkable lack of diversity on MSNBC’s lineup. Judge not, lest ye be judged."

As to people of color, while the Dallas Tea Party video shows pictures of only the white anchors here, the narrator claims, "We see a whole lot more at our events than we see on MSNBC. In fact, we have more diversity on our three-person steering committee than your entire TV network lineup."

And while I’m not exactly in charge of this, and I’m not going to drag people into this by name when they were not the ones attacked, that will probably be a surprise to one of our regular daytime news anchors and one of our night time newscasters, and the two part-time newscasters, and the dozen minority anchors and the reporters who often join us from the broadcast NBC network, and the seven salaried contributors to MSNBC, to say nothing of the regular guests.

So the Dallas Tea Party has one representative of diversity on its steering committee, and there appears to be six minority people besides her speaking or shown in its own video. And a diarist at Daily Kos examined photos of the Dallas Tea Parties and identified three others. This, mind you, is out of the hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands the Dallas group claims to represent, so, once again, this time directed to the Dallas group: Where are the people of color? And, instead of worrying about inviting me, shouldn’t you be inviting them?