Olbermann Bashes Timing of Palin's Tucson Remarks Day After Attacking Her Silence on Shootings

January 13th, 2011 11:49 AM

It is crystal clear that whatever Sarah Palin does, she is going to be mercilessly lambasted by America's so-called journalists.

Roughly 24 hours after attacking the former Alaska governor for having not spoken publicly since Saturday's tragic shootings in Tucson, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann criticized Palin for issuing a videotaped statement the morning of that event's memorial (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Ann Coulter):

KEITH OLBERMANN: Is Sarah Palin being unfairly blamed for violence by others? Well, then, she must have a sense of what it was like to be an American-Muslim when she demanded that New Yorkers refudiate the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

More importantly, her crosshairs map, or were they crop circles, has now been criticized by a potential rival for the Republican nomination. And it's quiet, isn't it? It`s too quiet.

Our fourth story: when does the normally, supremely efficient, self- publicizing machine that is Sarah Palin come out from behind the proverbial skirts of her mouthpieces in the media and foreswear the rhetoric of violence? When, or is it if?

That was Olbermann during Tuesday's "Countdown" with the caption on the screen under Palin's picture reading "Silent Sarah":

A little over 24 hours later, during a special airing of "Countdown" after Wednesday's memorial service in Tucson, Olbermann took a different position:

OLBERMANN: Earlier, as Richard suggested, it may have easily been the worst timed political statement ever, the morning of the memorial ceremony. Was it also the worst, most self-damaging statement ever?

So, on Tuesday Palin is wrong for being silent; on Wednesday she's wrong for not being silent.

Don't be confused: this has nothing to do with the timing, for if Palin hadn't have said something Wednesday, Olbermann would have continued to admonish her for not commenting on a tragedy he believes her to be indirectly responsible for.

Sadly, this is not at all surprising, for the same was true of Olbermann's colleagues Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz who also complained about Palin's silence Tuesday only to rip her apart for her video message Wednesday.

What must be learned from this is that when it comes to the folks at MSNBC, no matter what Sarah Palin says or does, she is going to be demonized for it.

Makes you wonder if anyone at MSNBC, NBC, GE, or Comcast is concerned that death threats on the former Alaska governor have risen to unprecedented levels since the media chose to implicate her in Saturday's killings.

Is anyone asking that network's commentators to tone down their rhetoric, or is it only incumbent upon conservatives to do so?

Once again, that is indeed a rhetorical question.