For the record and public amusement, we have the video of Keith Olbermann's October 7 grandstanding on the need for national legislation to restrain a "national cable-news outlet" for donating to federal candidates. Two of his questions to Congressman Jim Clyburn now look even stranger in the light of Olbermann's donations.
OLBERMANN: What is the Democratic strategy, the political strategy, for dealing with a media outlet that has now put its money where everybody has known its mouth has always been?...
Congressman Clyburn, is there a legislative response to the idea that there is a national cable news outlet that goes beyond having a point of view and actually starts to shill for partisan causes and actually starts to donate to partisan groups of one party? (Video after the jump.)
Olbermann also gave the runner-up "Worser" spot in his "Worst Person in the World" feature on October 15 to Democratic pollster and Fox analyst Doug Schoen for failing to disclose his ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
Doug Schoen of Fixed News. Paired with one of the news actresses over there to analyze the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its bid to buy the foreign -- the elections for foreign businesses and governments. Never once did Schoen or Fox PAC reveal that last month the U.S. Chamber released a poll it had commissioned about health care reform and small businesses. U.S. Chamber of commerce described the survey as a poll, quote, by Frank Luntz and Doug Schoen. And unless the two of them did it as a hobby, the U.S. Chamber paid Doug Schoen. And Fox had him to discuss the Chamber`s nefarious fund raising, and never mentioned that they paid him. Instead, they described Schoen as a, quote, "Democratic pollster."
That's sort of like describing Olbermann as a quote, "anchorman." Olbermann never disclosed his contributions to the three Democrats on the air in the closing days of the campaign, so he's just as "Worser" as Schoen.
Also on October 15, Olbermann complained the rest of the media wasn't paying enough attention: "Fox has now built up this effective strategy here. Oh, it`s just attacks of ratings. Is that Olbermann guy again, it's those Media Matters guys. Is the result of this, the media complacency over what Murdoch and FOX do and say, or do people just genuinely not care?"
Then he turned to where the corporate money is going: "Where the secret money is going, to try to get the impenetrably thick elected." Some might suggest that "impenetrably thick" describes offering the maximum donations to three Democrats against NBC policy and expecting it not to be reported, or to be disciplined.
