Olbermann awarded O'Reilly "Worst Person" gold for blaming Bronx fire deaths on the "pro-amnesty, open-border crowd"

On the March 12 edition MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly "the gold" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment because, as Media Matters for America documented, "He has now blamed last week's house fire in New York City, which killed 9 children and the mother of four of them, on, quote, 'so called compassion,' unquote, because his show could not confirm the victims were not illegal aliens." Olbermann continued: "He described sympathy and compassion for the dead, kids burned alive, as a, quote, 'new tactic by the pro-amnesty, open-border crowd, using children to demand sanctuary for illegal aliens.' " Olbermann also stated that O'Reilly had previously "blam[ed]" a "kidnapped teenager in Missouri" -- presumably a reference to Shawn Hornbeck -- "for his own sexual abuse." As Media Matters documented, O'Reilly claimed that Hornbeck "liked ... his circumstances" and had "a lot more fun" than usual.

Additionally, Olbermann named CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck the "runner-up" in the segment for saying to members of Congress who support a Democratic plan to set a date for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq: "If your bill goes through, I hope you can't go to bed any single night without images of body bags of our American soldiers coming off those planes ... because you will be just as responsible for their deaths as anyone who has ever strapped a bomb to their chest" -- as Media Matters also noted.

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

OLBERMANN: Our runner-up, having found that his pose of moderation does not work, Glenn Beck of CNN back to radical extremism, opposing Democratic calls for a timed withdrawal from Iraq. He says, quote, "if your bill goes through, I hope you can't get to bed any single night without the images of body bags of our American soldiers coming off those planes ... because you will be just as responsible for their deaths as anyone who has ever strapped a bomb to their chest." "How do you sleep at night? How do you do it?"

Assuming you are right, and you're not, could those Democrats maybe get some sleeping tips from you and the other toadies who parroted the administration and got us into this horse-crap war in the first place? I mean, by your logic, Mr. Beck, aren't you just as responsible for the first 3,190 American dead in Iraq?

But the gold tonight: who else? The intolerant and intolerable Bill O'Reilly. Blaming a kidnapped teenager in Missouri for his own sexual abuse was not sufficient. He has now blamed last week's house fire in New York City, which killed nine children and the mother of four of them, on, quote, "so-called compassion," unquote, because his show could not confirm the victims were not illegal aliens.

He described sympathy and compassion for the dead, kids burned alive, as a, quote, "new tactic by the pro-amnesty, open-border crowd, using children to demand sanctuary for illegal aliens." He actually said that. Any issue can be freely discussed, should be discussed. The issue of amnesty or borders or tactics is for the moment, in the Bronx, with the funerals only today, irrelevant. Prioritizing it is indefensible. It is inhuman. Bill O'Reilly has left the human race, the "Worst Person in the World."

—A.I.