Investor's Business Daily earned runner-up in Olbermann's "Worst Person" for "blatantly untrue, wildly racist" Obama editorial

Summary: Keith Olbermann named "the editorial writers at Investor's Business Daily" the "[r]unners-up" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for "publishing a blatantly untrue, wildly racist editorial today about [Sen.] Barack Obama."

On the January 16 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named "the editorial writers at Investor's Business Daily" the "[r]unners-up" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for "publishing a blatantly untrue, wildly racist editorial today about [Sen.] Barack Obama [D-IL]." The January 16 Investor's Business Daily editorial falsely claimed that the "Black Value System" espoused by Obama's church "encourages blacks to group together and separate from the larger American society by pooling their money, patronizing black-only businesses and backing black leaders," repeated widely debunked smears that Obama is a Muslim, and asked, "Would Obama put African tribal or family interests ahead of U.S. interests?" Olbermann asserted that the editorial looked like "a hurriedly rewritten version of this hate email making the rounds" and noted that "it use[d] the word 'Muslim' nine times."

From the January 16 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: Runners-up, the editorial writers at Investor's Business Daily. Apparently intent on making The Wall Street Journal look like the Weather Underground Review, publishing a blatantly untrue, wildly racist editorial today about Barack Obama that looks like a hurriedly rewritten version of this hate email making the rounds. Claims when he joined the Trinity United Church of Christ, he pledged to uphold the Black Value System, which it says is a system that demands blacks, quote, "group together and separate from the larger American society." Actually, the Black Value System asks church members to "allocate regularly a portion of personal resources for strengthening and supporting black institutions." It also attacked Obama's concern about strife in Kenya, never noting his grandmother still lives there. And, by the way, it uses the word "Muslim" nine times.

—S.S.M.