Olbermann awarded Donohue "Worst Person" runner-up for defending remarks on Hollywood's "secular Jews who hate Christianity"

On the February 12 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded Catholic League president Bill Donohue the "runner-up" prize in his show's daily "Worst Person in the World" segment for attempting to defend his comments that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular."

As Media Matters for America has noted, while discussing the controversy surrounding two bloggers hired by former Sen. John Edwards' (D-NC) presidential campaign on the February 9 edition of CNBC's Kudlow & Company, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Peter Beinart confronted Donohue for calling the bloggers "anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots" and pointed to Donohue's 2004 statement about Hollywood's "secular Jews." Donohue defended his remarks and attempted to deflect Beinart's criticism, in part, by stating: "I'm not going to put up with it. I'm not the issue here."

In bestowing upon Donohue the "runner-up" prize, Olbermann commented: "Yes, you are ['the issue here'], pal. Vulgar, trash-talking bigotry can transcend race, religion, creed or color."

From the February 12 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: Our runner-up, speaking of garbage, William Donohue, the creator of the nicely named but nonetheless notorious Catholic League, on CNBC to repeat his insistence that two bloggers working for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards were, in his opinion, anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots. Another guest pointed out that three years ago, Mr. Donohue himself had said, quote, "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular." Mr. Donohue responded, "I'm not going to put up with it. It's not the issue here" -- or "I'm not the issue here." Yes, you are, pal. Vulgar, trash-talking bigotry can transcend race, religion, creed, or color.