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Keith Olbermann is OBSESSED 5/31/11 4:27 PM

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Mar 24 is OBSESSED

Keith Olbermann is obsessed with Bill O’Reilly.

The guy is nuts.

The very low rated Olbermann (his show is one of the lowest rated shows in ALL of cable , whereas O’Reilly has the number 1 show in cable news) constantly talks about O’Reilly on his show…attacks him every chance he gets, and now he’s taken to outright falsehoods. Okay, THAT was a falsehood, he hasn’t JUST taken to this tactic, it’s par for the course for Keith.

In regards to the Ohio Judge (John Connor), who refused to give a child rapist ANY in jail, O’Reilly is calling for the judge to be ousted…as he should. As ANY sensible American should. We can’t have fools on the bench- Ruth Ginsberg is punishment enough, isn’t she? Connor, the judge in question, has been arrested 8 times for DUI and convicted at least twice…one time, according to reports, cocaine was found in his car. He claims he has a disease (see my previous posts on this issue- 1, 2), and that the child rapist had a disease too, so he wouldn’t give him any punishment.

An Ohio newspaper, The Dayton Daily News complained about O’Reilly’s calling for the judge to be booted from the bench. They said that there shouldn’t be a rush to judgement and then went on about O’reilly’s lawsuit from a former producer- a woman who claimed Bill sexually harassed her. You might remember Andrea Mackris- the former Factor producer who claimed Bill made sexually offensive phone calls to her. She demanded big time money, and to save his family and himself further pain, he settled out of court (so we think- the records on the issue are sealed as far as I know.) Mackris claimed she was harassed for over a year…she never told anyone about this supposed harassment tho. She never complained to anybody, never informed anyone of foul play, etc.

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Mackris went to work for another network but came back to . She claimed she told Bill to stop his nonsense and she’d come back. Now, I’ve posted about this before [oddly, this is the only link I can find using a search of my archives]- a woman who is sexually harassed for over a year doesn’t come back and work for the man she claims abused her…it’s absurd to think this would happen. She E-Mailed her at her old job and said she was SO happy to be back at Fox and her life was perfect…she felt like she was home, blah blah blah. She then suddenly wanted money- millions of dollars according to reports at the time, and she sued to get the cash.

She hired a big shot attorney to get her the moolah and made the claims. She offered no public evidence and no one to back her stories up. The evidence against he was massive (the coming back to work for Bill, the E-Mails that surfaced, and more.)

So, the point is clear- no rush to judgement.

Okay, that was fine with O’Reilly’s case, but this is a different matter here. We’re talking about a sitting judge who let a child rapist off the hook! How you compare the two issues, as the Dayton Daily News has, I’ve no idea. Their mention of O’Reilly was ridiculous…as was their mention of Gov Taft and Jim Petro (Ohio’s Atty General.) There was some issue with Taft and a possible ethics violation and some issue with Petro who solicited contributions from lawyers who got state contracts.

The point is- these are completely different issues and you can hardly compare them all. I’ve only knowledge of the issue with O’Reilly, but that doesn’t change the argument- one can rightfully call for the ouster of a loony judge, even if they’ve had troubles themselves- whether their own troubles were legit or not.

O’Reilly wasn’t happy about the commentary from the paper and mentioned it on his TV show. He basically said that the Dayton Daily News was attacking him and the other 2 men for calling for the ouster of the judge. Let’s not kid ourselves, this was clearly an attack- you don’t mention bogus lawsuits and then claim that we shouldn’t rush to judgement, trying to link the cases in some absurd way and then claim you’re NOT making a personal attack. The paper PROVED they were making an attack when they replied to O’Reilly’s reply…

The editor of the paper, Jeff Bruce, said this of O’Reilly:

“They say only two things happen when you wrestle a pig. You get muddy and the pig enjoys it… Here’s what’s really happening: Mr. O’Reilly is upset with the newspaper because in an editorial we referred to his own recent legal history, in which he was accused of . His producer threatened that unless we published an apology, they would resort to their ‘bully pulpit.’ That’s what they’ve done. This isn’t about being soft on child molesters. It’s about Bill O’Reilly getting even.”

Okay…so where are we?

Do we believe the editor who found it necessary to attack O’Reilly because he rightfully pointed out that the cases they mentioned had little to do with this issue…and that they’re being soft on molesters with a stance of ‘let’s not rush to judgement,’ or do we believe O’Reilly? I find it hard to believe that a producer would contact the paper and use the term “bully pulpit” and threaten the editor. If something sounds too absurd to be true, it probably is…that’s what we’ll stick with, because it usually works. This sounds too absurd to be

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true.

Now, Olbermann interviewed , the left wing head of Media Matters (these people are OUT THERE to say the least…) and Brock and Olb’ complained that Bill claims to not personally attack people, yet did so on his show (they ran the clips of Bill’s reply and his second mention of it.) O’Reilly never pesonally attacked the editor or anyone else. Worse yet, Olbermann complained about this right after he called O’Reilly, “Mr. big head,” and claimed that O’Reilly had gone after Mackris. Olbermann has no evidence to back that claim up…you might remember, he offered a big cash reward to Mackris to send him the supposed taped phone calls in lieu of continuing with the lawsuit. Olbermann ran a nonstop icon on his show in regards to this, and talked about it day after day after day.

The sad fact is- the guy is obsessed. And surely some of this might have to do with the low ratings his show receives. The guy scored down there with , and that’s just BAD. I like Carlson myself, but let’s face it- the guy can’t get ratings to save his life, as he’s been on 3 or 4 networks in the past 2 years (CNN, PBS, and now MSNBC that I know of…wasn’t he on CNN for a while?)

Olbermann is so far gone that he went on to claim Bill was bordering on harassment. He mentioned O’Reilly’s radio show in which a caller said something about Olbermann and they cut the caller off (Olbermann, being obsessed as he is, basically incites his fans to go after O’Reilly- you think I kid, but Olbermann’s obsession is so deep he’s named O’Reilly the “worst person in the world”- you tell me this guy isn’t bonkers…) and then Bill said something about fox security would contact local officials of callers (such as this one) if they said anything obscene or “untoward” and that they wouldn’t play around like some of the shock jocks out there do. Olbermann said this was a “threat” to the caller- that’s absurd. While O’Reilly might have been a bit overboard on his statement about contacting local officials, he never threatened the caller. You have to remember, we’ve no idea what the caller said because he was cut off… but he might HAVE said something obscene, because there’s an obvious delay in radio in which they can dump such calls. The fact is- this wasn’t a threat.

Then Olbermann went on to claim that O’Reilly threatened the editor of the paper mentioned- the bogus claim from the editor that the producer said they would use their “bully pulpit” if they didn’t run an apology. That’s also NOT a threat, and it’s almost surely a lie as I mentioned earlier.

Olbermann finished off his claim that O’Reilly is bordering on “harassing” because he gave out the E-Mail to the editor of the Dayton paper mentioned. Hello! The guy has a public e mail address, because he’s an EDITOR OF A DAILY PUBLIC NEWSPAPER!!! How on earth is that harassment? You get the feeling that Olbermann’s own obsession is bordering on harassment. Hell- I’d dump callers if they mentioned his name too! This guy is on a neverending campaign to attack O’Reilly, all the while complaining that Bill makes personal attacks (pot, kettle…)

More important than the obsession- The Dayton Daily News is making a bogus argument. 1st in trying to link the issues of Taft, Petro, and O’Reilly to Connor, and 2nd by truly being soft on the judge who clearly has some issues. When a case is fairly cut and dry, you don’t wait and wait and wait until you make a judgement. If a convicted drunk driver sitting on the bench claims that child raping is a disease and deserves no punishment, you boot the judge to the curb. For the sake of other children this guy might decide to abuse, for the sake of their families, for safety’s sake!

Bruce’s comments were immature and not worthy of a newspaper editor…Olbermann’s comments were, as always, childish and boring. Brock- well, what is there to say of Brock? He’s a liar everyday, and I don’t

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see any sign that he’ll suddenly give up that daily job.

Olbermann would do better to stop being a jealous ninny and work on breaking the .05 ratings marker.

Posted by Joshua Taj Bozeman Politics, Television Subscribe to RSS feed 17 Comments on Keith Olbermann is OBSESSED

1. Kevin says: March 24, 2006 at 9:21 am

Kudos, for telling it as it is…..Olbermann wishes he had an 1/2 the size of O’Reilly…..Olbermann spends half his show acting like an ass trying to shot down Bill. And Keith fails every night…Keith’s late and cheap shots remind me of Alan Colmes against Bush…..

2. Kevin says: March 24, 2006 at 9:25 am

David Brock is in dream-land..Another loon on the loose…Keith Olbermann and should do a show together. Talk about 2 men who for years know that have tried to copy their shows after “The Factor” and FAILED!

3. Josh says: March 24, 2006 at 9:44 am

Olbermann is just scary to me. I he has posters of O’Reilly on his ceiling so he can look up and dream of actually getting 1/10th of the audience Bill gets. I really do think it mainly comes down to jealousy- how else do you explain the neverending talk of all things Bill?

Not to mention the completely unfunny and mind boggling (my mind’s boggled at who thought of this idea) to use puppets and the like in those weird skits he does.

Alan Colmes is becoming more loony as the days go by. The clip of him talking to the mother of the slain soldier in Afghanistan and proclaiming the guy at Yale is a positive thing…that this terrorist spokesman is safer in a democracy and how this is a good path to “diversity” (liberals LOVE that word, yet they don’t want real diversity…they never seem to want diversity of THOUGHT which is clearly more important than your skin tone or your education level, your income level, etc.)

4. Todd says: March 24, 2006 at 9:50 am

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LOL. Olbermann is obsessed yet you post novels about Olbermann. Who’s obsessed here buddy boy??

5. Todd says: March 24, 2006 at 10:03 am

You always gloss over O’Reilly’s lies, yet claim Olbermann “lies” are just horrible. O’Reilly was LYING when he said he never makes personal attacks. Olbermann called him out on it and made O’Reilly look like the fool he is. Priceless.

you keep harping on ratings as if they are some sign of quality. Sounds like your argument that the most popular films every year are the best, which we all know they aren’t. Generally, they are crap.

Lots of people watch O’reilly because it’s mindless entertainment, not real or a real source of information. People like confident, strong peronsalities, even if thy are uniformed and arrogant, because they don’t want to think for themselves.

Same reason why people go see a movie like in droves… they want to tune out and “not think.” People can be lazy. Watching O’Reilly is the equivalent of laziness. Heck sometimes I’ll turn him on when I’m in the mood to watch a shouting match, but I would never dream of actually getting any real information from someone who so often misleads and talks down to his audience.

6. Josh says: March 24, 2006 at 11:07 am

I don’t see Bill using personal attacks to defame people as Olbermann claims. Calling someone a pinhead is not a personal attack. So, there was no lie to gloss over.

Movies and sources of news commentary- that’s like comparing apples to swimming pools.

And it’s not obsessed to write a single post about the situation, having to explain the background before setting up the body of the argument. That’s practice. When I post everyday about him, then you can call it an obsession.

7. Todd says: March 24, 2006 at 3:07 pm

“Calling someone a pinhead is not a personal attack.”

Hands down the funniest thing you’ve said yet! keep it up, please.

8. Josh says: March 24, 2006 at 9:12 pm

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No one would be able to say anything in your world, for fear of being labeled someone who is making personal attacks!

Your comments are 99.9% inane, is THAT a personal attack now? It’s an observation.

9. kevin says: March 25, 2006 at 9:12 pm

Todd, “Mindless entertainment”? Ok……..

Todd, or is that you Keith Olbermann?

10. lowdown says: March 25, 2006 at 10:32 pm

“Calling someone a pinhead is not a personal attack.”

- In Josh’s world it’s what passes for reasonable political discourse.

11. jeff-perado says: March 28, 2006 at 10:55 pm

This just goes to show why conservatives always end up being wrong.

Check out the latest ratings for our great man Keith.

Sorry Josh, but when you intentionally distort the story, the truth has a nasty way of coming back to bite you. O Reilly is on the way out (after being around for many years) and Olbermann is on the way in (after only being around for a year).

The fact that you neglected was that Olbermann’s show is very new and is still building its audience, whereas O Reilly’s show is old and is losing its audience. It seems that even Fox News viewers are catching on that his “no spin zone” is in reality pure spin…. Like all his hand-waving over the “war on Christmas” When everyone woke up on Christmas Morn and discovered that no Christmas trees had been stolen, all Churches had their Christmas services, and everyone sang “Joy to the World” in their homes, in their churches, in their cars, and in public, even in shopping malls.

12. Josh says: March 28, 2006 at 11:44 pm

1. You claimed I distorted the story but never mentioned anything I did to do so. I didn’t disort a thing.

2. Keith’s show started in 2003- that’s 3 years it’s been on, not one. He’s had plenty of time to get an audience. http://thebluesite.com/2006/03/24/keith-olbermann-is-obsessed/ Page 8 of 16 Keith Olbermann is OBSESSED 5/31/11 4:27 PM

3. It is a fact that, regarding primetime cable news shows, Olbermann’s show is usually near the very bottom. He beats others (like Grace, mentioned in the link), but that’s because she also has very low ratings and is near the bottom. When you check ratings data actually available to the public- youll see olbermann showing under a 1.0 most of the time.

13. jeff-perado says: March 29, 2006 at 10:55 pm

Wow I did not realize it had been three whole years “Countdown” had been on. But it still changes nothing, Keith was coming over from ESPN and had to build a whole new audience from scratch, and on a network that itself was building an audience.

The simple fact remains that Keith is moving up in the ratings and O’ Reilly is moving down the ratings.

Another comparison, “Countdown” has grown faster than did at comparable periods in the show.

Again I will say this, his show is new, it building up, and now he is bating other shows, the fact that his numbers are still low means nothing, the fact his audience is growing and O’ Reilly’s is shrinking is the fact. So you are still distorting.

(addressing your point 1) As for distortion, you are correct, I was speaking in general terms, because I thought it patently obvious that you were distorting the O’ reilly obsession. Because Keith likes to use O” Reilly in no way constitutes “obsession”. It would be obsession if keith continually camped out at Fox news studios and his home. That is one concrete example. For others, please see my comments to your posts from last fall.

14. kevin says: April 3, 2006 at 11:47 am

Keith olbermann is a joke. It’s bad when Bill O’Reilly gets more viewers on his 4am re-play then olbermann’s 8pm show.

Please explain how Bill show “The Factor” is getting old? Bill has the #1 show in Cable news..Bill is on the way out? Bill has said he will retire at 60. So in 4 years Bill will be out…The only thing Olbermann is heading for is a new job.

15. kevin says: April 3, 2006 at 11:52 am

Category: Ratings Thursday, Mar 30 The Scoreboard: Wednesday, March 29 25-54 demographic: http://thebluesite.com/2006/03/24/keith-olbermann-is-obsessed/ Page 9 of 16 Keith Olbermann is OBSESSED 5/31/11 4:27 PM

Total day: FNC: 229 | CNN: 160 | MSNBC: 80 | HLN: 78 | CNBC: 54

Prime: FNC: 445 | CNN: 278 | MSNBC: 154 | HLN: 169 | CNBC: 60

5p: 6p: 7p: 8p: 9p: 10p: 11p:

FNC Gibson: Hume: Shep: O’Reilly: H&C: Greta: O’Reilly: 167 237 302 568 357 411 363

CNN Blitzer: Dobbs: Blitzer: Zahn: King: Cooper: Cooper: 139 196 237 186 346 303 326

MSNBC Hardball: Abrams: Hardball: Countdown: Cosby: Scarborough: Situation: 78 96 174 229 102 131 62

HLN Roberts/Choi: Showbiz: Grace: Prime: Grace: Showbiz: 75 41 71 150 98 258 76

Total viewers:

Total day: FNC: 855 | CNN: 500 | MSNBC: 232 | HLN: 223 | CNBC: 186

Prime: FNC: 1,767 | CNN: 927 | MSNBC: 380 | HLN: 571 | CNBC: 117

5p: 6p: 7p: 8p: 9p: 10p: 11p:

FNC Gibson: Hume: Shep: O’Reilly: H&C: Greta: O’Reilly: 925 1,175 1,235 2,327 1,398 1,575 1,279

CNN Blitzer: Dobbs: Blitzer: Zahn: King: Cooper: Cooper: 522 849 813 730 1,210 841 656

MSNBC Hardball: Abrams: Hardball: Countdown: Cosby: Scarborough: Situation: 335 254 409 488 335 318 184

HLN Roberts/Choi: Showbiz: Grace: Prime: Grace: Showbiz: 186 108 163 760 363 589 146

OK, Where is Olbermann??? At the bottom…..

16. kevin says: April 3, 2006 at 11:54 am

Q1 ’06: The Program Ranker Fox News had the top six programs on cable news in Q1 2006. Bill O’Reilly was #1, H&C was #2, Shep was #3, Brit was #4, Greta was #5, and Gibson was #6. CNN’s was #7 with 997,000 viewers for the month. The rest of FNC’s lineup followed.

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