On Tuesday, Keith Olbermann moved ever closer to journalism’s abyss.
In his “Worst Person in the World” segment, Olbermann gave the gold medal to Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid for his coverage of Sen. Joe Biden’s potentially racist comments concerning Barack Obama (video available here)
The following is Olbermann’s nonsensical screed:
But the winner, Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, who in a piece posted today, this afternoon, writes, the coverage of presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden's racist remarks about Sen. Barack Obama demonstrates a blatant media double standard. If a Republican had condescendingly referred to a black person as clean, bright and articulate, he or she would have been branded as a racist and banished from public life.
Same day as Biden's comments came out, President Bush said about Senator Obama, “He's an attractive guy. He's articulate.” So Mr. Kincaid, you're saying the president should be branded as a racist and banished from public life? Yikes! Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, it's a brand name, not a description, today's Worst Person in the World.
This analogy between the comments made by Biden and those offered by President Bush demonstrated either an unimaginable addle-mindedness on Olbermann’s part, or a Clintonesque disingenuity level.
After all, the President didn’t say that Sen. Obama was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate.” He just said the senator was articulate.
If Olbermann can’t see the difference, whether due to intellect or honesty, he should not be hosting a cable news program. Furthermore, if Dan Abrams doesn’t understand this, he’s not qualified to be MSNBC’s general manager.
