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MSNBC's Olbermann Delivers Anti-Bush Diatribe Pegged to Chertoff Slip (more Bush-bashing)
MRC ^ | 9/7/05

Posted on 09/08/2005 6:28:29 AM PDT by Cableguy


Olbermann's arrogant hypocrisy. On Tuesday's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann misidentified Tom DeLay as the House "Minority" Leader, an error for which he soon conceded that "I'd like to give you a good explanation for it, but there wasn't one. I just kicked it." But the night before, Olbermann had launched a five-minute diatribe which pegged great meaning to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's miscue that "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater." Olbermann thundered: "Well, there's your problem right there. If ever a slip of the tongue defined a government's response to a crisis." Olbermann soon provided ridicule: "Anybody seen the Vice President lately, the man whose message this time last year was 'I will protect you, the other guy might let you die'? I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant. For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week." Olbermann also suggested Bush looked "like a 21st century Marie Antoinette."

During an interview of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerick on the September 6 Countdown, Olbermann queried: "I have to ask you, before we go, a big picture question on the overall emergency response. The House Minority Leader, Mr. DeLay, said today that disaster response is, quote here, 'designed from the ground up,' the implication of that being that whatever the shortcomings of the last week have been, the responsibility began in New Orleans. Do you, with your expertise in this area, agree with that?"

Returning from a subsequent ad break, Olbermann acknowledged his error: "Let me correct and apologize for the verbal typo in the last segment. Tom DeLay is, of course, the House Majority Leader, not the Minority Leader. I'd like to give you a good explanation for it, but there wasn't one. I just kicked it."

He wasn't so forgiving with Chertoff on Monday night. He teased his September 5 program: "And what did the administration know, and when did it know it? The Director of the National Hurricane Center says he warned them -- the head of FEMA, the head of Homeland Security -- that the levees could break. And that head of Homeland Security, did he sum up how well the government handled the crisis with eight words?" Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary, at a press briefing: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater." Olbermann: "'Louisiana is a city.' This is Countdown. Good evening. The Director of the National Hurricane Center has told the newspaper 'The New Orleans Times-Picayune' that FEMA director Michael Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff both listened to electronic briefings before Hurricane Katrina, during which the Hurricane Center warned that the storm could overtop the levees or even breach them. 'It's not,' said Dr. Max Mayfield, 'like this was a surprise.' Secretary Chertoff and President Bush both continue to insist it was."

At about 8:40pm EDT, Olbermann unleashed his vitriol, as checked against the video by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:

Olbermann undermined himself by beginning with the claim that he normally avoids commentary: "This is not typically a newscast of commentary. I can recall only twice previously offering such perspectives. But something that Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff said at his news conference Saturday made this necessary." Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater." Olbermann: "Well, there's your problem right there. If ever a slip of the tongue defined a government's response to a crisis. Forget the history of slashed federal budgets for projects that might have saved the levees. Drop the imagery of the government watching 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' while New Orleans drowned. Ignore the symbol of bureaucrats like Mr. Chertoff using only the future tense in terms of relief that they could have supplied last Monday and Tuesday. We no longer need the President sounding like he's on some sort of five-day tape delay to summarize this debacle. We now have Mr. Chertoff's indelible announcement that Louisiana is a city. "Politician after politician, Republican and Democrat alike, has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the I/me switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were, congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a new supermarket somewhere. And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded. Even television's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural and government-made. But now, at last, it has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana -- the state, not the city. And having given our leaders what we now know is the week or so they need to get their acts together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned should come to an end. No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska. "But, nationally, these are leaders who won reelection last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping this country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq and which regularly defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer when something like that is accomplished. Yet, they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans, even though the government had heard all the chatter from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern, a group called the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Most chillingly of all, this is the 'law-and-order-and-terror government.' It promised protection, or at least amelioration, against all threats -- conventional, radiological or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called 'standing water.' Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, quote, 'We are not satisfied,' unquote, with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which 'we' he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately, the man whose message this time last year was 'I will protect you, the other guy might let you die'? "I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant. For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick 'I'm not satisfied with my government's response,' instead of hiding behind phrases like 'No one could have foreseen.' Had he only remembered Churchill's quote from the 1930s. 'The responsibility of government for the public safety,' Churchill said, 'is absolute and requires no mandate. It is, in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.' In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself. It damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House. "As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found or the last artifact of the levee break dug up. Could be next March. Could be the year 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility somewhere in the 'city' of Louisiana."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: katrina; msnbc; olbermann
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1 posted on 09/08/2005 6:28:30 AM PDT by Cableguy
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To: Cableguy

Since when has Olbie been reluctant to undermine this president?


2 posted on 09/08/2005 6:31:24 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
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To: Cableguy

So, what's new? Everybody understood that MSNBC works for AlQaeda anyway.


3 posted on 09/08/2005 6:32:05 AM PDT by muawiyah (/ hey coach do I gotta' put in that "/sarcasm " thing again?)
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To: Cableguy

Olberman must have pictures with someone high up at MSNBC naked with poultry to keep his job.


4 posted on 09/08/2005 6:32:06 AM PDT by pikachu (Don't MAKE ME get my flying monkies out!)
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To: Cableguy

Does anybody watch this guy at all? He must have some sort of ratings, he's the only one who's actually kept their job at MSNBC.


5 posted on 09/08/2005 6:35:34 AM PDT by rhombus
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To: Cableguy
Interesting, but really, does anyone even watch Olbermann?? (cue the chirping crickets)
6 posted on 09/08/2005 6:36:50 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Cableguy
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann misidentified Tom DeLay as the House "Minority" Leader...

Not so sure he was wrong there. The GOP still behaves like the Minority Party, always rolling over for Dem demands and howls, always wanting to appear non-partisan and conciliatory. I've said it before; These are the largest Minority Parties in the Congress and Senate in the History of the U.S.

7 posted on 09/08/2005 6:37:40 AM PDT by theDentist (The Dems have put all their eggs in one basket-case: Howard "Belltower" Dean.)
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To: Cableguy
Olberman is an ass.

Much like that other ass, Imus the Anus.

Just not as big of a drunk...yet.

8 posted on 09/08/2005 6:40:52 AM PDT by OldSmaj (Hey Islam...I flushed a koran today and I let my dog pp on it first. Come get me, moon bats!)
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To: atomicpossum

Worthless on sports
Worthless on news
Worthless opinions


9 posted on 09/08/2005 6:41:21 AM PDT by steve8714 ("Smoke me a kipper, Listy!")
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Who cares about Olbermann

He averages like 200-300 thousand viewers, probably all RATS


10 posted on 09/08/2005 6:43:24 AM PDT by KavMan
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To: atomicpossum

The entire NBC/MSNBC people are totally out of control and out of line. I would love to see them take a hit for their irresponsible reporting.


11 posted on 09/08/2005 6:43:38 AM PDT by freeperfromnj
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To: Cableguy
Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater."

I'll forgive Chertoff, because my bet is that he hasn't had a lot of sleep lately.

I'll forgive Olbermann's "minority" gaffe, because he's just a ^#$%*hole who I don't expect any better from.

12 posted on 09/08/2005 6:45:39 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Cableguy

Olberman is a vicious, hate-filled liberal. But is there any other kind, really?


13 posted on 09/08/2005 6:46:20 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator (This space outsourced to India)
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To: pikachu
Olberman must have pictures with someone high up at MSNBC naked with poultry to keep his job.

The tone of any organization is set from the top. The writers and broadcast "journalists" only have to please their bosses.

Look at Dan Rather. Through a continuing decline in viewership CBS stuck with him. After he destroyed any semblance of objectivity by appearing at a Democrat fund raiser put on by his daughter, they stuck with him. It finally took outright fraud in an attempt to throw a presidential election did they reluctantly move him aside. I think they are still paying him.

How about Jason Blair at the New York Times? His only sin was getting caught.

All of these network and news corporations get their direction from the top. They, the bosses and the surrogates, get their egos reinforced at the tony cocktail parties around town where they all ooh and ah and assure each other how wonderful they all are.

If we only knew how much policy is determined at ego building cocktail parties we would be scared to death, especially when we learned that the women at the parties were the prime movers.

14 posted on 09/08/2005 6:46:48 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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To: rhombus
I don't watch him, and I have no idea about his ratings...heck, I couldn't even get through the written version of his idiotic commentary above, so I can't imagine how bad it was live.
15 posted on 09/08/2005 6:48:33 AM PDT by FairfaxVA (SELECT * FROM liberals WHERE clue > 0. Zero rows returned!)
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To: rhombus

The freak's ratings are in the toilet along with his head. Never could keep a job with ESPN.


16 posted on 09/08/2005 6:48:44 AM PDT by dc-zoo
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: Cableguy

If Olber-goober's mouth is moving, he's bashing the president. He doesn't know how to say anything else.


18 posted on 09/08/2005 6:49:24 AM PDT by mhking (The world needs a wake up call gentlemen...we're gonna phone it in.)
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To: Cableguy
Do any of these liberal idiots wonder if the trillons spent on failed welfare programs could have been used to HIRE unemployed to build better levy's instead of paying them to sit on their a$$?

They want more governmet but scream when government fails. The irony escapes them.

Liberalism IS a mental illness.

19 posted on 09/08/2005 6:49:56 AM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help...)
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To: Cableguy

20 posted on 09/08/2005 6:51:24 AM PDT by Kokojmudd (Outsource Federal Judiciary and US Senate to India, NOW!)
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