The lengths Keith Olbermann will go to attack his adversaries knows no bounds.
On Tuesday, he selectively edited and cherry picked from a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript in order to make the talk show personality look racist.
Most disgracefully, the "Countdown" host completely avoided telling his few viewers that Limbaugh was referring to truly disgusting statements the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker made on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
With total disregard for the truth or any sense of journalistic integrity, here's what Olbermann said during his "Worst Person in the World" segment Tuesday (h/t Meredith Jessup):
KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Speaking of which, there‘s tonight's hands down winner, Boss Limbaugh. These quotes speak for themselves and for a diseased and failing mind. "If Obama weren't black, he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu or he‘d be teaching Saul Alinsky Constitutional law or lecturing on it in Chicago," said the college dropout, Rush Limbaugh. "He wouldn't have been voted president if he weren‘t black. Somebody asked me over the-oh, I need to remember. Somebody asked me over the weekend, why does somebody earn a lot of money, have a lot of money. I said it‘s because he's black."
This the guy who once said the media was conspiring to make Donovan McNabb of the Eagles to be a better quarterback than he actually was because he was black. "It," Limbaugh said, "was Oprah," said the guy who doesn‘t have half Oprah Winfrey's talent, or income. "No, it can't be," he continued. "Yes, it is. There's a lot of guilt out there. To show we're not racist, we‘ll make this person wealthy and big and famous and so forth."
Stop the tape.
Actually, that's NOT what Limbaugh said. Here's the real version from RushLimbaugh.com:
RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST: Cynthia Tucker, ABC's This Week, Sunday, roundtable, they discussed Michael Steele. And, by the way, this woman is the editorial director of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, and she has been for a long, long time. "Cynthia you once called Michael Steele an affirmative action hire gone bad." By the way, she can say this because she's African-American. Here's what she said.
CYNTHIA TUCKER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Michael Steele is a self-aggrandizing gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black. Of course the irony is that he never would have been voted in as chairman of the Republican Party were he not black.
LIMBAUGH: Same with Obama.
TUCKER: It is very ironic since the Republican --
LIMBAUGH: Stop the tape a second. That's exactly the same thing you could say about Obama. He wouldn't have been voted president if he weren't black. Somebody asked me over the weekend why does somebody earn a lot of money have a lot of money, because she's black. It was Oprah. No, it can't be. Yes, it is. There's a lot of guilt out there, show we're not racists, we'll make this person wealthy and big and famous and so forth. The Chicago Sun-Times today has this story, it's amazing, "How did we get conned, how did we get fooled? My God we've elected an empty suit. We elected somebody who had no experience, no idea what he was doing, the empty suit cost $5,000." I thought my God, they finally woke up, they're talking about Obama, but no, they're talking about Blago. They're asking themselves in Chicago how they got conned by Blagojevich! And you read this, and I will share it with you as the program unfolds, it could be written about Obama. So Cynthia Tucker says, yeah, he wouldn't be hired by the GOP if he weren't black.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Washington awaits my fatwa on Michael Steele. Washington is paralyzed today until I issue my findings on this. The first thing I have to say about this: Cynthia Tucker said Steele would only have the gig if he was black. If Obama weren't black he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu or he'd be teaching Saul Alinsky constitutional law or lecturing on it in Chicago, and if somebody's "entitled to a couple of gaffes," why do we still have Senator Bite Me running around as Vice President Bite Me, who is a walking gaffe every time he opens his mouth and he's not even black! So what's the Democrats' excuse for having Joe Bite Me around as vice president?
As such, Limbaugh was commenting about what Tucker said on "This Week" two days earlier. For those that missed it, here it is:
JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Cynthia, you once called, let me underline "You" once called Michael Steele an affirmative action hire gone bad. What's your take on this?
CYNTHIA TUCKER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Well, Michael Steele is a self-aggrandizing, gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black. Of course, the irony is that he never would have been voted in as Chairman of the Republican Party were he not black. Let's remember how the Party wound up with Michael Steele. In November 2008, the Party was devastated that the Democrats had elected the nation's first black president while the Republican Party was stuck with being seen as largely the party of aging white people, with good reason. A party that was hostile to people of color, especially blacks and Latinos. So the Party needed a new face, preferably a face of color, and they didn't have very many officials to choose from. So, they came up with Michael Steele. And it is very ironic since the Republicans have been so critical of affirmative action, to watch them stuck with their affirmative action hire that they dare not get rid of because that would generate even more controversy.
Not surprisingly, Olbermann NEVER told his audience this:
OLBERMANN: There it is. See, the United States is tilted in favor of black people. That‘s the premise. We have made it so easy that human beings inferior to the great Rush Limbaugh, the fired by ESPN one month into his dream job, Rush Limbaugh-inferior creatures like Obama and Oprah Winfrey have been made wealthy and big and famous and so forth. They have not earned it. They aren‘t actually talented. They haven‘t actually done the job. Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama and presumably every other black person in this country has not succeed despite the fact that they‘re black, when this country is still filled with racists like this homunculus Limbaugh. They‘ve succeeded because they‘re black, and only because they‘re black.
Well, you heard it. It‘s naked, ugly racism. It‘s the distillation of Rush Limbaugh‘s view of our country. The only other thing I can say is, Oprah, please, crush this schmuck, huh?
Rush Limbaugh, overt racist, today‘s worst person in the world.
Also not surprisingly, the shills at Huffington Post on Wednesday reported Olbermann's claim word for word without checking to see if he had accurately quoted the target of his disaffection.
Maybe the fact-check-loving Arianna should get her staff to fact-check Olbermann's screeds before they parrot them - or would that be too much like journalism for Ms. Huffington?
As for Olbermann, the idea that MSNBC tolerates this kind of misreporting should be offensive to Americans on both sides of the aisle.
Sadly, it seems unlikely to stop, doesn't it?
