Olbermann named O'Reilly "Worst Person in the World" for saying he would run Iraq "like Saddam"
Bill O'Reilly won Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" award for stating that if he were president of Iraq, he would "run that country just like Saddam ran it."
On the June 20 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the winner of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" award for O'Reilly's statement -- which Media Matters for America documented -- that if O'Reilly were president of Iraq, he would "run that country just like [former dictator] Saddam [Hussein] ran it." Olbermann responded: "In other words, Bill-O, you depose Saddam at great loss of life, and then three years later, you bring back his methods."
Olbermann has repeatedly labeled O'Reilly the "Worst Person in the World," including on the May 26 edition of Countdown, over O'Reilly's claim -- highlighted by Media Matters -- that "no far-right person in this country is going to get the cover of Time magazine."
From the June 20 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: But the winner -- oh, he's back! Explaining that if he were president of Iraq, he'd simply institute 7 p.m. curfews, put 60,000 troops onto the streets with orders to shoot to kill any violators. "That's me, President O'Reilly, that's how I run that country, just like Saddam ran it. Now, is this the kind of country I want for Iraq? No, but you have to have that for a few months to stabilize the situation." In other words, Bill-O, you depose Saddam at great loss of life, and then three years later, you bring back his methods. Bill O'Reilly, today's -- can we get him that gig for president of Iraq? I'll vote for him. Today's "Worst Person in the World."
The other right-wing media mogul you should worry about
Palin's book and Obama's bow: a media week to forget
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
I can't wait for the proverbial "Is this news?" or "what da hell is KO doing, reading MMfA and all? Can't he get his own material" or my personal favorite "BO was kidding! It was a joke! Cheezus, can't you leftwing tree huggin' dopeheads tell sarcasm when ya'll see it!"
5 4 3 2 1...commence
After all, ratings + O'Reilly = facts. LOL
the obscenity-laced emails.
Exactly what I was thinking. Come on MMFA, Keith Olberman cussed in some emails to some knob who was being a jerk. All O'Reilly was doing was saying he'd kill innocent civilians on the street to restore order. He's not cursing MMFA; he's not saying the f-word as he shoots them right between the eyes. When are you doe-eyed liberals going to learn that family values win elections?
Pathetic MMFA.
This week's cartoon by Tom Tomorrow brilliantly illustrates this defense of O'Reilly's "humor/scarcasm." I'm sorry, but where's the punchline? Slaughter citizens on the street? That's a kneeslapper! Like Ann Coulter saying Murtha is an ideal target for fragging -- gun down a member of Congress?-- what a pithy bon-mot, what a wit! Do conservatives cut out and tape "Family Circle" cartoons to their fridges along to photos of massacred, limbless Iraqi children and laugh at them both? Of course not. This isn't humor. This isn't hyperbole. Conservative's like O'Reilly support totalitarianism and he means what he says -- he's just too cowardly to admit it when challenged.
O'Reilly's father beat him till little Bill got big enough to hit back. Bill learned that being a bully is what gets you power in your circle. Now Bill beats up on anyone he can and his primary solution to problems is violence.
If you understand that you know Bill, though why you'd waste time getting to know him is beyond me. I'm sorry I ever read about him and I am overjoyed I have no cable so I am not tempted to channel surf through Faux News Channel
I know I sound like a broken record but KO is not a progressive, he is a media ratings whore. His ratings are horrible and MSNBC is a train wreck. Its sad that MMFA is promoting this man. I know my critics will now attack me and say I am a Conservative wack job. Just to stop you, I am a proud progressive who despises what the Bushies and Cons have done to America. I dont believe people like KO help get our message out. I guess if we like childish segments like "Worst Person in the World" we are doomed as a progessive cause.
I think we all know BO is a phony and a loud mouth and makes no sense. I dont know anyone who takes him seriously.
--"I think we all know BO is a phony"--
If "we" all knew it, O'Reilly wouldn't be on the air anymore. Fact is, he draws thousands of unenlightened listeners and viewers. These people do not "know" he's a "phony". These people think they're getting "no-spin". They're not--and they need to be told they're not.
As the ONLY tv person who regularly talks about O'Reilly's phoniness, he should be encouraged and thanked. Not everyone is as "knowing" as you are.
Yet you never her KO discuss him or name him "Worse Person in the World"
Imus even today calls Hillary Clinton "Satan" and has done so numerous times. Its offensive and hateful yet You never hear KO name him "Worse Person in the World"
This is calle d "Select Outrage" and KO shows his true colors. He wont touch people who are hateful that are affiliated with MSNBC or were affiliated with MSNBC. Its a ratings ploy and its old and not helpful to our cause.
. . .it hurting our cause. If you get the truth out with a dose of humor, people will watch. O'Reilly's ratings are in a nose dive. Where do you think those viewers are going? Given BO's displays of hatred towards KO, I think that FOX "News" believes viewers are going to MSNBC. They seem concerned.
I'm sorry but Big Bad Bill may have less radio listeners but he also has the TV viewers. And KO has made Savage the Worst Person in the World in the past. O'Reilly and KO have been feuding for sometime so that is why he receives the most awards.
---"not helpful to our cause."---
The person "not helpful to the cause" is O'Reilly, not Olbermann. Even though you obviously, strongly, for whatever reasons dislike Olbermann, he is doing the good work of bringing O'Reilly's lying, smear tactics to light--something no one else in the major media is doing on a regular basis.
Since you are tired of reading Olbermann/O'Reilly items here, here's a suggestion: skip them.
MMFA counters a lot of misinformation that right wing pundits love to spew out to the public, trying to make their opinions seem as fact. KO, just like MMFA, points out rediculous comments such as those stated by Mr. Oreilly, or Sean Hannity, or Rush Limbaugh in order to show that not everything you see on TV or hear on radio is a matter of fact. There are two sides to every story, especially when the story is coming from a right wing pundit. KO and MMFA show the other side of stories that are misconstrued by the right wing media. I could careless what your political offiliation is. To discredit KO for pointing out misinformation or rediculous comments doesn't exactly show your with a progressive mindset. To discredit an opinion by KO is perfectly fine, that's what political debate is about. But many of these pundits spew so much misinformation, there has to be a check and balance. KO and MMFA seem to be doing a fine job. So good of a job that you are willing to frequent this website.
"I dont believe people like KO help get our message out. I guess if we like childish segments like "Worst Person in the world" we are doomed as a progessive cause. " --You may not like it, but if you are a progressive, you better get used to it, because as of right now they are our best hope of getting ANY progressive message out to the public. The progressive cause will never be "doomed". Just as long as people are oppressed in our society, there will always be a progressive movement for change. If conservatives remain in power, there will always be an oppressed group of people begging for progress.
Um, either you are a misinformed progressive or a FOX in sheep's clothing.
I'm sick of hearing that KO's ratings are in the gutter and that MSNBC is going down and that KO hurts the progressive cause blah blah blah. BO's ratings are high but dropping and KO's are climbing fast and he's number 2 in the 25-54 demo.
You can keep an eye on the ratings here:
[link to www.mediabistro.com]
Funny thing about that comment. KO is himself. I remember watching him doing sports and he is who he is. That his ratings are the best on MSNBC should, let me repeat SHOULD say something to the execs that progressive/liberal ideas DO have an audience and should be exploited.
The problem is that too many attempt to do it seriously when they should be making fun of the Neo Cons and all their supporters in ADDITION to the serious. That works wonders.
People can say that getting information from Jon Stewart or KO is NOT news, but think about it. They DON'T make anything up and they DO show the hypocrisy of the rightwing and show them for the fools they are.
If humor works to get the truth across, then more power to them. KO has serious guests on all the time as well. So a cross mixture seems to be working well and even the Abrams idiot they put in charge, IF he was interested in ratings, which means more ad money, would bring in more like KO.
BUT Abrams will bow to his corporate masters and Bushbot supporters who demand that only THEIR worldview and truthiness be fed to the masses. So some may be right when they say KO will be handed his walking papers, just like the last highest rated person, Phil Donohue.
Corporate PIMPS do not like people who tell the truth.
KEEP IT UP KEITH!!! We love ya!
I agree Phil was great and let go because he was the only one at the time opposed to this idiotic war. KO is no Phil. Phil never resorted to childish behavior by attacking his competitors.
point out BO's misinformation, lies, and destructivness, who will?
Somebody with more credibility who doesn't aproach news as if it were a joke. As others pointed out, the problem with KO is not that he is liberal, but rather that he is an idiot.
refreshing, intelligent, and funny. I've always said the right can't recognize real humor. Maybe the right can't recognize intelligence either.
Jon Stewart, Keith Olberman, and Bill Maher are a refreshing change from the typical talking heads. It's interesting that many of the political media personalities on the left are comediennes or they're simply naturally funny like Olberman and Jerry Springer. And John Stewart, Keith Olberman, and Bill Maher are great interviewers. Olberman holds a degree in journalism from Cornell University. You know what else? Other than the errant Franken skit of him beating up a conservative they’re jokes are not about committing violence against someone or blowing stuff up. Although they can do some serious verbal smack downs. I think these guys do a great job of informing their audience and they give great laughs in the process.
is an incredible talent but his obsessiveness with petty pissing matches and his self-destructive behavior will cause his downfall.
If he took the high ground he could double his ratings. But he won't and it will cost him.
what do you mean by high ground?
just have to disagree. Time will tell what his ratings turn into. I don't know everything, after all, I found Maury and Conny to be smart, funny, and entertaining. I think the problem was that they were only on each Saturday then repeated Sunday.
His "obsessiveness with petty pissing matches and his self-destructive behavior will cause his downfall. If he took the high ground he could double his ratings. But he won't and it will cost him."
C'mon now, Leather, 'fess up. You're Ann Coulter's PR guy, right? And she's ignoring your sage advice to her detriment and ultimate doom. Brilliant.
Olbermann's show is an hour long, which means he is on camera for, what, 40 minutes, or so? And he spends maybe two minutes on the Worst Person in the World segment - that's only 5% of his show to cover three awards. And O'Reilly only gets an award about once or twice a week. So, I don't think you can say Olbermann is obsessed with this grudge match. And he certainly enjoys sticking needles in O'Reilly's hot air balloon. If you look at the topics covered on each show, I'll bet Olbermann spends pretty near the same amount of time as O'Reilly on hard news topics - he just doesn't spend as much time yelling at his guests, so his segments seem shorter. You can't deny that O'Reilly always has a segment or two on fluff, as well.
Plato
KO
is an incredible talent but his obsessiveness with petty pissing matches and his self-destructive behavior will cause his downfall.
If he took the high ground he could double his ratings. But he won't and it will cost him.
- leatherhelmet / Wednesday June 21, 2006 05:52:36 PM EST
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, now that you've straightened out KO's career, what's next on your agenda? You going to give Clapton guitar lessons or demonstrate how to guard Shaq in the paint?
???
Don't you get it. The news is a joke. The news is being given to us by people who are more concerned about keeping their access to the inner political circle than exposing the truth.
The worst is at Fox with their Bleach Blonde Bimbettes (not to make fun of all blondes) and their RNC newscasters. KO is a character. That is what he is paid to do. The only way you can have a non-conservative voice right now is to wrap it in at least a little humor.
I'm not saying KO is liberal but he is shining a light on the lies being told by the right and for that I salute him.
KO just pummels the ignorant trash at al bushira and in the white house.
Having said that, I'm sure that's no great thrill. It's like throwing out Grandma trying to steal second. The walker makes it tough to slide away from the tag.
Torching ignorant repo slime just comes easily for him and he produces a good show with the exception of the tomkat crap his producers force him to cover, but nobody gets good ratings on MSNBC. Nobody. He's like a 20 game winner pitching for Kansas City. He could go 27-10 for a team that wins 59 games. Ask Steve Carlton. He did it for the Phillies in '72. He won the Cy Young and they still finished last in an empty ballpark.
Fox just gets good ratings because dead folks don't channel surf.
He's better than any of the trash on fox and he's better than anybody on CNN, too. He just works for a last place outfit that doesn't draw many viewers. Hopefully, they'll get better with Abrams running the show.
I agree that KO is the best hope for us progressives in the media right now. True, the fact that MSNBC doesn't get nearly the ratings of CNN or even Satan's News Channel kind of hurts. It's also true that Abrams is no idiot and will use KO's success as a guide to improving the network.
However, I'm going to have to take issue with comparing KO to a 20-game winner for the Royals. First off, when was the last time the Royals even HAD a 20-game winner? It certainly won't be this season because the pitching sucks - the pitchers with the most wins right now are Elmer Dessens and Mark Redman, both offseason acquisitions who each have 4 wins (out of a major league worst 21).
If you want to compare KO to a good pitcher on a lousy ballclub, why not compare him to a guy he once named "Worst Person": Livan Hernandez of Washington (5-8 this season for a 32-42 team).
If you remember it was BO who set up a campaign to get Olbermann fired. He may have a personal vendetta against BO, but the vendetta is mutual.
I forgot that BO encouraged his viewers to write MSNBC to "Bring back Phil Donahue." How transparent that was.
backfired. Fox started getting e-mail petitions to fire BO, the e-mailers were saying it was out of concern for Bill's mental health.
Keith usually brings a little humor to the newscast. Most of the time he pokes fun at these right wing blowhards. It is his humor (oddball, worst person in the world) that livens up the newscast. Maybe KO is a ratings whore but then again who on television is not. Funny does not equal childish. If you would like to see KO not be funny, when talking about BO, go back to his reference to WWII and Malmady. Why must everything in the news be serious?
BINGO ! However, when BO is childish, it is almost always funny.
You are so right!
That Malmedy comment BO made really tooted KO's whistle. He spent significant time correcting BO's little "Oops" in which BO never even apologized for. Sure he admitted a mistake, but made it seem like it was the first, last, and only he has or ever will make. If the New York times made the same mistake, you know it would have been a fire storm, to the point that they would have run a retraction, not just a correction. This is why KO does what KO does.
The Fact that Fox News is trying to Slam MSNBC, particularly Countdown, shows that they are worried a bit. I hope that MSNBC has the Balls to stand up to them.
I think he ever becomes president of Iraq I'd like to see him conduct video presentations of Falafel preparation.
Then we would elect a Democratic president, have 8 years of peace and prosperity, (even though the Repugs would try to have him impeached). Then, Jeb might become President, overthrough the peacful Iraq, and dig BO out of a spider hole, and give him a fair trial for crimes against humanity.
You see this is childish. Your reference to falafal was quite frankly not needed. I think BO would agree that your punishment should be to wash your mouth out with a loofah.
;)
Why is it that KO seems to be the only person on cable willing to expose the nightly insanity dished out by Silly Bill? Nobody else, except for a couple of radio shows and MMFA, are willing to stick it to BO. I'm pretty happy that somebody on TV is willing to go up against one of the most obtuse television "news" personalities in the galaxy. Oh and, can anyone say with any certainty that they really know when this ass-clown is making a joke?
Let Keith keep doing what he is doing.
What's wrong with a strictly enforced curfew for a few months? I know a curfew would make things a bit easier/safer for our troops. In light of what happened to Privates Menchaca and Tucker shouldn't we take a more aggressive position when it comes to controlling what is obviously a hostile environment?
Nothing is wrong with curfews. It was the "I'd run the country like Saddam" crack. Hey, nothing's wrong with getting the trains to run on time but you'd hardly say "I'd run Italy like Mussolini."
Popular Demand?
More like they have nothing else left to run.
- leatherhelmet / Wednesday June 21, 2006 05:47:31 PM EST - Reply to this comment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, they could run tucker, tweety or congressman joe, leather boy. Why do you think that is? Surely, all conservatives have great ratings, don't they?
Bor continues to get good ratings because dead people don't channel surf and since they were ignorant morons when they were alive, nobody misses them.
Fox slime talking about taking the high road. Yeah, and Shaq's gonna ride a Triple Crown Winner next year.
Then can we just take him out already, like Saddam.
He's already in a Fox hole. A black hole of information.