Olbermann awarded Hume a Worst Person “bronze” for claiming Al Qaeda was in Iraq “before we got there”


During the September 10 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded Fox News anchor Brit Hume the “bronze” during his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, asking co-panelist Juan Williams on the September 9 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, “Who are we fighting there [in Iraq] now, Juan?” and then answering his own question by claiming: “Al Qaeda in Iraq. They were there before we got there, and they're there now.' ” Olbermann observed: “Yeah, except our government says bin Laden's Al Qaeda wasn't in Iraq before we invaded, and that actual group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, that wasn't founded until after we invaded. They didn't pledge loyalty to bin Laden until October of 2004, and it's not under his control now. Brit just thought it was OK to make all that stuff up.”

From the September 10 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: The bronze to Brit Hume of Fox Noise, host of its newscast of record. He has asked the rhetorical question now about Iraq, “Who are we fighting there now? Al Qaeda in Iraq. They were there before we got there, and they're there now.”

Yeah, except our government says bin Laden's Al Qaeda wasn't in Iraq before we invaded, and that actual group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, that wasn't founded until after we invaded. They didn't pledge loyalty to bin Laden until October of 2004, and it's not under his control now. Brit just thought it was OK to make all that stuff up.