MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Tuesday night targeted "comedian" Rush Limbaugh as his “Worst Person in the World” for “suggesting that civilian deaths in Lebanon are necessary to stop terror.” Employing a mockingly braggadocios voice to try to impersonate Limbaugh, Olbermann read a sentence from Limbaugh and then asserted that Limbaugh had echoed “something another commentator said nine years ago,” namely Osama bin Laden. Olbermann read the bin Laden quote, without any mocking impersonation, and then concluded the August 1 Countdown segment: “Rush Limbaugh, following the logic and ethics of Osama bin Laden, today's Worst Person in the World!" (Transcript follows)
Video clip (34 seconds): Real (1 MB) or Windows Media (1.2 MB), plus MP3 audio (200 KB)
Olbermann's announcement of the winner in the daily segment in which he lists three candidates:
“Our winner tonight: Comedian Rush Limbaugh. Suggesting that civilian deaths in Lebanon are necessary to stop terror. [mockingly impersonating a braggadocios voice:] 'Until those civilians start paying the price for propping up these kind of regimes, it's not going to end folks.' That would be a little less alarming if it didn't echo something another commentator said nine years ago. 'The American people, they are not exonerated from responsibility because they chose this government and voted for it, despite their knowledge of its crimes.' That was said by Osama bin Laden. Rush Limbaugh, following the logic and ethics of Osama bin Laden, today's Worst Person in the World!”
Surprisingly, there's nothing on the Media Matters Web site -- Olbermann's usual source for attacks on conservative media figures -- about this analysis by Limbaugh, so I don't know where Olbermann got his Limbaugh quote.
Limbaugh beat out the runner-up, a Rochester, New York man who had asked his employer for a paid leave of absence to take care of his three-year-old son suffering from cancer, though the son was perfectly healthy, a scam he had pulled with a previous employer.
