Tumulty responds to Olbermann's "worst person" bronze and Media Matters

On the April 12 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded Time magazine national political correspondent Karen Tumulty the "bronze" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, suggesting in a posting on Time's weblog Swampland "that Senator [Hillary Rodham] Clinton's [D-NY] condemnation of Don Imus and support for the Rutgers women's basketball team there on her website was curiously placed," as Olbermann put it. Continuing, he said: "Quoting Tumulty, 'Hmmm, and right next to that respect for Rutgers, "Send a Message" link on her website, is a big red one that says "CONTRIBUTE." Sisterhood is powerful.' " Olbermann added: "Except that the big red contribute button is always in the same spot on that web page and most other presidential candidates have identical big red contribute buttons on their sites too."

As blogger Atrios (Media Matters senior fellow Duncan Black) has noted, Tumulty has since responded to Olbermann, Media Matters, and others' criticism of her blog post in an update on Swampland, titled "The Worst Person in the World: Me, I'm Told." She stated that her previous post "had stirred up some dust from the folks at Media Matters" and caused Olbermann to cite her post, but added: "Of course I know that "CONTRIBUTE" button is a permanent fixture on Clinton's website. Every campaign (and, for that matter, every charitable organization) that maintains a website seems to have one. And that was sort of my point. More and more, we all go to campaign websites to get information about the candidates." Tumulty did not note in her original post that Clinton's "CONTRIBUTE" button was "a permanent fixture" on her campaign's website nor that other campaigns also have such permanent buttons on their websites.

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

OLBERMANN: On a thin day, even a good person can win the bronze. Karen Tumulty of Time magazine, posting on the magazine's political blog, noting that Senator Clinton's condemnation of Don Imus and support for Rutgers and the women's basketball team there on her website was curiously placed. Quoting Tumulty, "Hmmm, and right next to that respect for Rutgers, "Send a Message" link on her website, is a big red one that says "CONTRIBUTE." Sisterhood is powerful," unquote. Expect that the big red contribute button is always in the same spot on that web page and most other presidential candidates have identical big red contribute buttons on their sites too.

—A.I.