First, to be fair to Keith Olbermann, I personally doubt the MSNBC anchor harbors prejudicial sentiments towards Mexican-Americans, but really, can you imagine the ire, or very least wide-open speculation if say Don Imus had said this?:
New York Senator Clinton, an adopted Giants fan watched the game in Minnesota and told the Associated Press, quote, "Super Bowl, Super Tuesday, we've got one down, let's get the other." This as her husband watched the game in New Mexico with the former governor, or with the governor and former presidential Bill Richardson, possibly asking Richardson for an endorsement and then, "would you please pass the guacamole?"
Video from Feb. 4 "Countdown" (22 secs): Windows (1.25 MB), plus MP3 audio (149 kB).
Richardson is Hispanic and grew up in Mexico City, where his father was a banker. Olbermann made a similarly stereotypical culinary reference back in September:
On Tuesday's "Countdown," Olbermann awarded O'Reilly both the "worser" and "worst" person in the world awards to his higher-rated competition at the Fox News Channel. O'Reilly, Olbermann thundered, is a 59-year old "passive-aggressive racist" for his recent remarks about his visit to a soul food restaurant.
Yet 16 days earlier, Olbermann narrated over a highlight reel of the September 9 Buffalo Bills/Denver Bronco game with an odd word-play involving a black wide receiver's first name:
With the Denver drive having stalled, Roscoe Parrish on the punt return. Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles at its finest. He could go the entire distance and does and it's seven-zip Bills.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
Clintons are fans of whoever is winning
February 5, 2008 - 15:15 ET by Lame CherryIt is more telling that Olberman equates all things in food.
He has an oral fixation.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
Olby hates anything
February 5, 2008 - 16:40 ET by TeeDeeOlby hates anything connected with Republicans and conservatives. I believe I heard that guacamole endorsed Hillary so he didn't mean anything by this. Nothing to see here, folks, move along...
"It isn't that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so" - Ronald Reagan
Maguacguac
February 5, 2008 - 15:19 ET by BarkerThe assive-progressive Olbermann should be fired!
Yeah, that's right.............FIRED, I say.
Grow up
February 5, 2008 - 15:23 ET by the curatorIsn't it more likely Olbermann was asking Richardson to "pass the guacomole," NOT because Richardson is Mexican-American, but because they're in NEW MEXICO???
Seriously, if they were in Philly and Olbermann had said, "Pass the cheesesteak," would you be writing this article? Grow up.
I guess you missed the part
February 5, 2008 - 15:45 ET by WhoIsJohnGaltI guess you missed the part where he opened by stating: "First, to be fair to Keith Olbermann, I personally doubt the MSNBC anchor harbors prejudicial sentiments towards Mexican-Americans, but really, can you imagine the ire, or very least wide-open speculation if say Don Imus had said this?:"
And that was the point...that such innocuous statements, when uttered by anyone on the right are automatically evidence of latent or outright racism, but when they come from a person left of center in the political spectrum, they are what they are: just an off-handed remark.
Trent Lott: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," ----RACIST BASTARD!!!!
Hillary Clinton: Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis." ---What? What possible racist connotation could there be here?
Liberals CANNOT be racist-not possible. Not even conceivable.
You are absolutely correct
February 5, 2008 - 15:31 ET by c5thenIf Rush or Hannity or Coulter had made this statement they, the liberal mob, would be calling for their head on a platter and them to be fired and banned from any broadcast work for life. Olberman says these types of things enough for me to say with complete confidence that he is at least insensitive to these remarks and may in-fact me bigoted. That doesn't bother me nearly as much as the pass that the liberal pundits get from the liberal media and the liberal activists when they slip-up and let their prejudice show.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
I laugh every time
February 5, 2008 - 15:37 ET by the curatorEvery time I hear people refer to the 'liberal media,' I laugh.
If the media was so 'liberal,' then why did they crucify Clinton over the Lewinski Scandal? Where was the 'liberal' media to protect their favorite president?
Look, Olbermann was making a regional joke, not unlike my Philly-Cheesesteak reference.
And to infer that Hannity or Rush would have been raked over the coals for saying something similar is stupid. They say worse every day and nothing ever happens.
tc.... ROFLMAO! We've
February 5, 2008 - 15:43 ET by bigtimertc....
ROFLMAO!
We've got another comedian here with you!
BT, They come. They try.
February 5, 2008 - 15:47 ET by Chris NormanBT,
They come. They try. They fail. They go. Next!
bt & Chris,
February 5, 2008 - 15:50 ET by R D HelmActually, we could use some new trolls around here.
The current herd has gotten so appallingly ordinary.
None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. -J.W. von Goethe
Those proud Phillyians....
February 5, 2008 - 15:54 ET by RJ...for just one example of tc's humor, saying (with a straight face, I assume) that philly cheesesteak has an ethnic connotation equal to that of guacamole is definitely funny.
...on the other hand, those Phillyians are a proud race and might not see the humor. :^)
To say that Rush and others
February 5, 2008 - 15:57 ET by PommeTo say that Rush and others wouldn't be crucified is also funny. They get crucified for "perceived" bigotry let alone what they'd get if they let slip Olbermann's type of plain-as-day bile.
I guess you missed the
February 5, 2008 - 16:03 ET by WhoIsJohnGaltI guess you missed the Newsbusters item a couple of months back that detailed a study by, was it Harvard? The study found that the MSM was very much liberally biased.
Someone provide a link?
curator
February 5, 2008 - 18:02 ET by dronetekTell me something. Why is it that the media ONLY focuses on the Monika thing, when his foriegn policy was a complete diaster? As far as the MSM is concerned, his indiscretions start and end with Monika.
Olbermann is a liberal
February 5, 2008 - 15:59 ET by motherbeltOlbermann is a liberal icon....he could probably make watermelon jokes about Obama and get away with it...because they "know" he's "down fo'the struggle!" (Oh, dear, is that racist to say that???)
(Oh, dear, is that racist to say that???)
February 5, 2008 - 23:15 ET by timzankNot if you're a liberal!!!
If there was anything worth
February 5, 2008 - 23:19 ET by balboaIf there was anything worth getting worked up over, then people would.
Yeah Ken,You're
February 5, 2008 - 16:08 ET by LeonYeah Ken,
You're right.
It's definitely racist to ask someone to pass a food that is common at superbowl parties, in New Mexico specifically, and America in general.
I thought libs had a lock on the whiny PC, coddle our children, defend the sensibilities of everyone designation.
Apparently not.
PS You might want to choose a different Martyr than Imus considering his staunch, well-documented history of open racism in the office and on the air, before citing his punishment for the nappy headed hoes comment as some sort of attack on liberals.
Leon, you might...just
February 5, 2008 - 17:23 ET by motherbeltLeon, you might...just might have a point. (But, as my mother used to say, if you comb your hair right, it won't be noticeable). LOL
Just kidding.
Maybe some of us are a little over-sensitive...but you have to admit...Olbermann loves to pass judgment on everyone else, and what's that argument the liberals like to use?
Oh yeah...Hypocrisy!!
So if he's going to shoot off his mouth, he needs to be, like Caesar's wife: above reproach.
One of my new favorite
February 5, 2008 - 16:59 ET by balboaOne of my new favorite features on this site: "Can You Imagine the Vice-Versa?"
Sooo much fun.
This item shouldn't make
February 5, 2008 - 17:43 ET by JerThis item shouldn't make the NeswBusters cut on the slowest news day of the year, much less on Super Tuesday of a presidential campaign.
Olbermann was primarily poking fun at Clinton's well-documented and often-parodied gustatory inclinations, and using "guacamole" as the food item in the quip--at a Super Bowl party with the Mexican-American Richardson--is by no means racially or ethnically inappropriate...and wouldn't be regardless of who might make the comment.
Jer
Oh for chrissakes!
February 5, 2008 - 18:05 ET by ChriswelLKeep reaching like that you might tear some ligaments
my friend.
Now Olbermann has plenty of things in his personality for folks to rip him a new one over.
But the Chicken and Waffles bit, first of all he was talking about a player named Roscoe Parrish and just like Chris Berman on ESPN he worked in a pseudo pop culture
referance to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. An actual restaurant!
Guacamole is a staple of sports viewing parties especially football.
C'mon folks let's not go all John Gibson on this.
KO already has a full platter of twerpitude as is. No need to manufacture more.
-cs™