Olbermann named Hume “Worst Person” for omitting pertinent information in his report on Iraqi refugees

Written by Andrew Ironside

Published


During the November 7 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume, who hosts Fox News' Special Report, the “winner” of his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, omitting pertinent information during a November 5 report on the flow of Iraqi refugees. Olbermann stated: “But our winner, Brit Hume of Fox Noise's newscast of record, leading wedge in the newest spin about how great it is in Iraq. 'A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus,' he reported, 'says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed. Once-full flights from Baghdad are now virtually empty, and flights headed the other way have considerably more passengers.' ” Olbermann added, “And from your reporting, I'm guessing the only possible explanation is that Iraq is now all safe and its citizens can return to their homes?”

As Media Matters noted, Hume did not report that Syrian officials recently began requiring people entering Syria from Iraq to obtain a visa first, which has reportedly eliminated the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria almost entirely.

From the November 7 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: But our winner, Brit Hume of Fox Noise's newscast of record, leading wedge in the newest spin about how great it is in Iraq. “A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus,” he reported," says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed. Once-full flights from Baghdad are now virtually empty, and flights headed the other way have considerably more passengers."

Gee, that's great. And from your reporting, I'm guessing the only possible explanation is that Iraq is now all safe and its citizens can return to their homes? It's got nothing to do with the Saudis [sic] switching a month ago from offering universal sanctuary to Iraqis to a strict visa system that admits almost none of them. And I'm also wondering where your little anecdote fits in with the Iraqi Red Crescent report that the number of displaced persons in that country has jumped 16 percent in the last month, and is now 2,300,000?

Nice propaganda effort, Brit, don't forget the mouthwash. Brit Hume of Fixed Noise: today's “Worst Person in the World.”