As he named the distinction of "Worst Person" to Couric, Olbermann started by quoting Couric's recent comments attacking what she viewed as "unfair, hostile coverage" of Clinton. Olbermann: "And our winner, Katie Couric. Speaking at a Washington luncheon in her honor, the CBS anchor saying, ‘However you feel about politics,' or her politics, rather, ‘I feel that Senator Clinton received some of the most unfair hostile coverage I`ve ever seen.' She added that sexism ‘contributed in part to the Senator's defeat.'"
After calling those comments "a little Kool-Aid-ish," he went on to recount that Clinton had, without naming Cowan, criticized his remarks about his own ability to be objective about covering Obama as she suggested Cowan "find another line of work." Olbermann: "Couric referred to one, quote, ‘prominent member of the commentariat' who had said he found it hard to be objective when it came to Obama. ‘That's your job,' she says. Then she suggested he ‘find another line of work.'"
Olbermann went on to defend Cowan, who "as Ms. Couric would have found out had she bothered to examine the context of his remark, was speaking with refreshing honesty, acknowledging that the environment of that campaign and the ferocity of the candidate`s supporters in the primaries challenged a reporter to be especially professional and vigilant in separating the hype from the news."
The MSNBC host then went on to give his endorsement to Cowan's coverage of the Obama campaign: "I probably saw literally 90 percent of Lee Cowan`s reporting in this campaign, and it was utterly objective and accurate."
Olbermann concluded by accusing Clinton of bias of her own: "It is sad that Ms. Couric could not have emulated him and separated the hype from the news in her own promulgation of the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism. And as to her advice that a reporter like Lee Cowan, who was her colleague at CBS for nearly a year, should find another line of work, it is sadly obvious that in leaving NBC and the Today Show, Ms. Couric already has. Katie Couric, today's ‘Worst Person in the World.'"
Below is a transcript of Olbermann's comments from the end of the "Worst Person in the World" segment from Wednesday's Countdown on MSNBC:
And our winner, Katie Couric. Speaking at a Washington luncheon in her honor, the CBS anchor saying, "However you feel about politics," or her politics, rather, "I feel that Senator Clinton received some of the most unfair hostile coverage I`ve ever seen." She added that sexism "contributed in part to the Senator's defeat."
A little Kool-Aid-ish, but her opinion and she`s entitled to it. What followed she was not entitled to. Couric referred to one, quote, "prominent member of the commentariat" who had said he found it hard to be objective when it came to Obama. "That's your job," she says. Then she suggested he "find another line of work."
She didn't name him, maybe because she didn't bother to look it up. But the supposed member of the "commentariat" who said that was not, in fact, a commentator. It was NBC News correspondent Lee Cowan, who covered the Obama campaign throughout the primaries, and who, as Ms. Couric would have found out had she bothered to examine the context of his remark, was speaking with refreshing honesty, acknowledging that the environment of that campaign and the ferocity of the candidate`s supporters in the primaries challenged a reporter to be especially professional and vigilant in separating the hype from the news.
I probably saw literally 90 percent of Lee Cowan`s reporting in this campaign, and it was utterly objective and accurate. It is sad that Ms. Couric could not have emulated him and separated the hype from the news in her own promulgation of the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism. And as to her advice that a reporter like Lee Cowan, who was her colleague at CBS for nearly a year, should find another line of work, it is sadly obvious that in leaving NBC and the Today Show, Ms. Couric already has. Katie Couric, today's "Worst Person in the World."
