Observers of the insane clown posse on MSNBC — observers such as Ed Morrissey, for example — noticed the classless comments made by Chris Matthews to Keith Olbermann on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show in connection with the death of Tim Russert. “It may be tricky to say this, and I’ll say it,” Matthews said, introducing his weirdly derogatory remembrance of Russert.
Matthews said that Russert had believed the administration’s assertion that Saddam was trying to get nuclear weapons and that Russert was “an everyman” for believing it. Matthews was giving Russert what was at best a backhanded compliment, essentially portraying the just-deceased Russert as a dupe. Watch the video for yourself here.
On Monday Olbermann promoted my friend Andrew Breitbart as the Worst Person in the World throughout “Countdown.” Breitbart’s photograph was displayed and Andrew was given reason to get excited. In the event, however, Olbermann conferred the honor collectively on FOX News because of an observation Andrew had made in a segment on “FOX and Friends” that morning. The “FOX and Friends” segment with Breitbart talking about Russert can be seen here.
In conferring the honor on FOX News, Olbermann baldly lied about the ground for it. Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World segment can be seen here. With his crazed pomposity, Olbermann intoned: “For God’s sake, do you have to do it the first morning of the first week day after the man has died? Could you not shut the spigot off just for a little while? Could you not wait until after we have the funeral? Of course, you couldn’t. You’re FOX News and you are the worst persons in the world.” He vaguely derided FOX News for the comments that Matthews had in fact made to Olbermann.
In other words, in the clip above, Olbermann falsely imputed Matthews’s offense committed on Countdown and on MSNBC on the evening of Russert’s death this past Friday to Breitbart and FOX News. In the only critical comment Breitbart made on FOX, Breitbart had accurately described Matthews’s offense in his segment discussing Russert on FOX News. The offense for which Olbermann seems to have called out FOX News as the Worst Person in the World was actually committed with Olbermann on MSNBC, and Breitbart had criticized Matthews for it.
Because Breitbart’s observation about Matthews was correct and damning, Olbermann chose not to quote or show it. Olbermann was thus free to misrepresent the gist of Breitbart’s comments for the purposes of conferring his Worst Person in the World honors. In short, MSNBC accused its nemesis at FOX News — not Breitbart, a somewhat less appealing target to Olbermann — for what Breitbart said, and imputed Matthews’s offense committed on MSNBC to Breitbart and FOX.
Pot. Kettle. Black. Or worse.
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