On MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann, citing comments recently documented by Media Matters for America, branded Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the March 30 runner-up and winner of that day's “Worst person in the World” award.

Olbermann named O'Reilly the runner-up for declaring, on the March 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, that the “American press” is “the most damaging institution in the country today because it's so blatantly partisan and dishonest intellectually.” Olbermann commented, “If that's true, Bill O, the American media is now partisan and intellectually dishonest, your work here is done. We've accomplished what you've set out to do.” Olbermann then declared O'Reilly “tonight's winner” for his March 27 Radio Factor comment that the archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, favors immigration because “he knows he'll get those people in church when he doesn't have anybody in church anymore.” Olbermann then stated, “Uh oh, Bill, that's a Catholic biggie right there you're talking about. You may be going to hell. Of course, one could argue you are already in your own private one.”

As Media Matters has previously noted, Mahony has said that he opposes a recently passed House immigration bill because it could threaten the Catholic Church's ability to “provid[e] humanitarian assistance to those in need,” and that "[t]he church is not in a position of negotiating the spiritual and the corporal works of mercy." He has also stated that “we are called to attend the last, littlest, lowest and least in society and in the Church.”

From the March 30 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: First, time for contenders for today's three nominees for Worst person in the World. The bronze tonight to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. As he left church last Sunday, he reportedly made an obscene hand gesture to a reporter. But the justice denied there was any gesture, that would be, in English, the justice denied there would be any gesture, until that is, this photo of the incident shot by a freelance photographer showed up today in the Boston Herald. That's either a gesture or he's checking his shave. Now Justice Scalia, quote, “has no comment.”

Tonight's runner-up? Bill O'Reilly. He's declared the American press the, quote, “the most damaging institution in the country today because it's so blatantly partisan and dishonest intellectually.” If that's true, Bill O, the American media is now partisan and intellectually dishonest, your work here is done. We've accomplished what you've set out to do.

But tonight's winner, a double Bill, claiming that the archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, favors immigration because, quote, he “knows he'll get those people in church when he doesn't have anybody in church anymore,” unquote. Uh oh, Bill, that's a Catholic biggie right there you're talking about. You may be going to hell. Of course, one could argue you are already in your own private one. Bill O'Reilly, today's Worst person in the World!