On the July 12 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” segment for his comments during the July 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor about a gay pride event held at the San Diego Padres' Petco Park the same night as a hat giveaway for children. Olbermann observed, as Media Matters for America documented: "[H]e described the two promotions as, 'almost unbelievable. Thousands of gay adults showed up and commingled with straight families.' " Olbermann responded to O'Reilly's comments, stating: “Commingled? Bad news for you, Bill-O. It ain't a virus. It ain't catching. And, by the way, gays commingle with straight people every day, even at ballparks. Where -- and I hate to ruin your day -- even some of the players are gay.”
Additionally, Olbermann named Culture Campaign president Sandy Rios “runner-up” in the segment for, as Media Matters also documented, “bashing the San Diego Padres for staging a kids hat giveaway at the same game they held gay pride night.” Olbermann then quoted Rios, stating: “When you have people into the ballpark and take their kids, and their kids are watching the halftime activities and watching what's going on, the celebration of this choice, that's when I have a problem, because I don't think this is anything to celebrate.” Olbermann added: "[Y]ou might sound a little less clownish if you got your basic facts right. ... It was a baseball game. No halftimes." Rios' comments also came during the July 10 edition of The O'Reilly Factor.
As Media Matters has documented (here, here, here, and here), Olbermann frequently names O'Reilly in his “Worst Person” segment. Two days earlier, Olbermann named O'Reilly “winner” of “Worst Person” honors for what Olbermann called “the stupid and very possibly libelous claim” that NBC and The New York Times “don't want Iraq to become successful as a nation or to somehow become a wall against terrorism.”
From the July 12 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: Our number one -- our runner-up, rather, Sandy Rios, president of something called the Culture Campaign, bashing the San Diego Padres for staging a kids hat giveaway at the same game they held gay pride night. “When you have people into the ballpark and take their kids, and their kids are watching the halftime activities and watching what's going on, the celebration of this choice, that's when I have a problem, because I don't think this is anything to celebrate.”
You know, you might sound a little less clownish if you got your basic facts right. "[T]heir kids are watching the halftime activities ..." It was a baseball game, no halftimes. That's basketball or football or soccer.
But the winner, Bill O. Miss Rios was speaking on his show, of course, and he described the two promotions as, “almost unbelievable. Thousands of gay adults showed up and commingled with straight families.”
Commingled? Bad news for you, Bill O. It ain't a virus. It ain't catching. And, by the way, gays commingle with straight people every day, even at ballparks. Where -- and I hate to ruin your day -- even some of the players are gay. Bill Orally: today's Worst Person in the World.