Olbermann named Coulter “Worst Person,” asking “why she has not been banned” from MSNBC; Boortz awarded third

Written by Brian Levy

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On MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann named Ann Coulter “Worst Person in the World” for suggesting in a column that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a closeted lesbian. During the segment, Olbermann also awarded Neal Boortz third place for falsely stating that most workers on minimum wage are teenagers and for calling adult minimum-wage workers “pathetic” and “worthless.”

On the August 4 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann handed right-wing pundit Ann Coulter his nightly “Worst Person in the World” award for suggesting in her August 2 nationally syndicated column that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is a closeted lesbian. As Media Matters for America noted, Coulter wrote “I'd say that's about even money” on Sen. Clinton "[c]oming out of the closet" in 2008. Olbermann reminded viewers of Coulter's recent similar remarks, calling former Vice President Al Gore a “total fag” and arguing that her theory that former President Bill Clinton “show[s] some level of latent homosexuality” is “not even surprising,” as Media Matters has noted.

Olbermann commented: "[W]hy she has not been banned from this network, I do not know." Media Matters has similarly asked, “What would Coulter have to say for the networks to stop promoting her?” and started a petition urging the media to stop providing Coulter and her ilk a platform to launch their venomous attacks.

Olbermann also honored nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz with third place in the “Worst Person in the World” segment for falsely stating, as Media Matters noted, that most workers on minimum wage are teenagers and for calling adult minimum-wage workers “pathetic” and “worthless.”

From the August 4 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: And that's ahead, but first, time for Countdown's latest list of nominees for “Worst Person in the World.”

The bronze to the poor man's Michael Savage. Neal Boortz, trotted out that stock defense that the economy is doing well because a majority of those making minimum wage are teenagers. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- George W. Bush, president -- says he's a little off on that. Seventy-five percent making minimum wage are adults. Boortz still has an answer for them. Quote, “How incompetent, how ignorant, how worthless is an adult that can't earn more than the minimum wage? You have to be really, really, really be a pretty pathetic human being to not be able to earn more than the human wage,” unquote. So, Boortz, you're making minimum wage?

The silver, the BBC and the producers of its new comedy series Time Trumpet. It includes a sketch called “The Terrorism Awards,” which features [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair being assassinated, a plane being crashed into the houses of Parliament and a Hamas bombing in Tel Aviv. Politicians from both parties there are asking for a cancellation or at least a dialing down of the terrorism “ha has.”

But tonight's winner, Coultergeist! Having already used a homosexual slur to describe Al Gore and to suggest Bill Clinton is gay, why she has not been banned from this network, I do not know. Her new column is question-and-answer format. “Question: Does Hillary Clinton have a good chance in 2008?” Coulter's answer: “Good chance of what? Coming out of the closet? I'd say that's about even money.” So it's slightly lower, then, than the odds that you've never seen another adult naked and you're a 45-year-old virgin with an Adam's apple? Coultergeist, today's “Worst Person in the World.”