Katie Couric Is Rubber And Keith Olbermann Is Glue

I find it a bit rich that Keith Olbermann would chastise anyone on the subject of "separating the hype from the news" or "the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism." And yet he did just that last night in naming Katie Couric his "Worst Person in the World" for speaking out about the sexism evidenced in some of the media coverage of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Nonsense? Really? It took a while but geez, even Howard Dean has figured it out. To sit there on MSNBC and say that it's nonsense is a bit rich, considering that some of the higher-profile episodes of embarrassing sexist-or-perceived-as-sexist commentary has come from that network (cf. Tucker Carlson's crossed legs, Mike Barnicle's ex-wife at a probate court, David Shuster's big pimpin', Chris Matthews' comment about why, exactly, Clinton had been a success or wondering if a guy would find it hard to debate a woman or even Olbermann himself, musing about a possible way to "convince" Hillary Clinton to exit the race (over a month before it was actually over, by the way). I mean, not only was there a petition protesting sexism at the network, there was an actual real-live protest against MSNBC in Washington. So what's that about "nonsense" there, Keith?

And this is not an exhaustive list! Never mind all the other examples from all sorts of other outlets (see here and here for not-all-inclusive collection). Look, it was fair for Olbermann to defend Lee Cowan — I happen to agree that making that admission in context of recognizing the need for objectivity suggested a self-awareness that many other journalists and commentators have found sadly lacking — but if Olbermann is going to chide Couric for her poor research skills, perhaps he might try a little bit of the Google himself. (We know he's familiar with "Eat the Press," after all.)

Tom Brokaw, maybe you could have a word with him about this, too.

Not Even Close To Exhaustively Related:
Hillary Sexism Watch, Part 83 [Shakespeare's Sister]
Hillary Hate: Making Sexism Acceptable [ETP]
Let The Joyous News Be Spread! [ETP]
And What's Worse Than A Nagging Housewife? [ETP]

Comments

[TripperDay]

Ms. Sklar, there's a video of the segment just one link away from this page, so you should probably stop lying to people.

This is absolutely not about Couric saying sexism was a reason Clinton didn't get the nomination, and Olbermann clearly says so. Couric quoted Lee Cowan out of context and implied he couldn't do his job. Olbermann seems to be a fan of Cowan's work, and took her unwarranted criticism of a fellow NBC employee quite seriously.

So she completely manufactures an issue, takes a shot at another network, and calls an honest reporter a biased commentator, then you've got a problem with someone calling her on it?

We all know that Clinton was a victim of sexism. I understand that you dislike Olbermann for fawning over Obama and criticizing Clinton. If you want to rant about that to get it out of your system, go ahead, but it would be nice if you just admitted you're still bitter instead of wildly misinterpreting any current event as an excuse to bring the issue up again.

Just for the record, remember that this was a Democratic primary. We're the liberals. Any damage to her campaign was mitigated by the ton of sympathy she received and the energizing of her base. The real reason she lost is because she ran her campaign terribly and had such high negatives that most Democrats knew she would provide Republican an incentive to donate and turn out to vote.

[LewisR]

Keith has tried as hard as he can to be our version of Bill O', and he has succeeded. Sad. I used to think that the left was for the good guys, but Keith shows we're no better than the dittoheads. Thank you and now can we get you back on espn?

[RedWolverine]

Couric got the job over Keith. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/080623fa_fact_boyer?currentPage=all

That is why he is mad.

[MooseShady]

Rachel

I would respected your opinion about Keith except you do analyst for Faux Noise. Pitiful

[ClubGitmo]

KO otherwise known as "bathtub boy" is in the tank for Obambi and GE stock will continue to tank as long as this pompous excuse for a human being is allowed air time every night. He is SO couragoeus attacking everyone from his protected perch, but like all the other TV jobs this loser has had, when he is given his walking papers this time, maybe he will do all the planet a favor stay in his bathtub until he just disappers down the drain.... You rock Rach !!

[roberto328]

Sklar and Couric, let's see who is more irrelavant right now.....Hmmmm, that's pretty hard, Way to go Keith, all the opinion polls show WAY more people agree with you than these two failures.

[MorallyChallenged]

To those who defend KO's awarding of worst person to Katie Couric by saying you misunderstand the reason it was given I say too bad. Just as Keith "misunderstood" that HRC cited RFK to raise the spector of assassination the same irrationality can apply here. As someone once said, you reap what you sow.

[Veeve]

Yes Rachel, we hear you. The grapes are very, very sour. :-(

[GrammyinPA]

Loved your column Rachel.

Keith O. just doesn't like to be critized, does he??

[anaxamander]

I disagree with the sexism stuff, but I agree that Kieth O. clearly preferred Obama and it showed. I was deeply saddened that I could no longer read and agree with Paul Krugman, who had clearly chosen Hillary and it showed.

[JackW]

Saddened with Krugman, but I am sure you kept watching Olderman who was doing the same thing, only on the other side!

[liberalnfree]

Krugman's critiques of Obama were 100% policy-based, He never attacked Obama the way Olbermann attacked Clinton, fantasizing about a male Democratic leader beating her up to get her to drop out of the race. The equivalent would have been Krugman calling for a lynching of Obama. That would have been a disgusting racist comment, just as Olberman's was a disgusting sexist comment.

[anaxamander]

My first instinct is to vent my frustration at you, but let me try a more academic approach. As a Gen X woman, I wonder why it was primarily Boomer womwn who suported Hillary so loyally and who are angry about sexism now. But black people of all ages supported Obama and notice the racist remarks he has to deal with. I think the answwer is twofold: 1) younger women benefit from the work that second-wave feminists did, and we don't feel at all held back by our gender but younger black people still face racism every day; 2) there are real differences between men and women, so it is more politically correct to say so than to claim racial diferences that aren't real.

The media are unfair to everyone. "Terrorist fist jab" and "Baby momma" are recent excamples, but the whole Jeremiah Wright thing was crap also. A big difference between Obama and Hillary is that he never got behind any of the unfair attacks on her. McCain's white preacher friend comments never made the splash that Wright did. And Hillary's association with the very scary Family weirdos never became an issue at all. Zealots are only scary if their B-L-A-C-K. Ask John Edwards if he thinks Hillary got more crap for her appearance than he did. She didn't get called the Breck Girl.

[liberalnfree]

The fact that John Edwards was another victim of sexist comments simply proves the point that the media tolerates sexism to a shocking degree. And by the way, this is not a contest between sexism and racism. Opponents of sexism have every right to denounce it whereever they find it, as do opponents of racism. If younger women benefit from the work of older feminists, you would think they would join the fight against sexism-- not necessarily by supporting Senator Clinton, but by denouncing sexism! Instead we get "the media are unfair to everyone." This apparently gives a pass to systematic biases against women in the media. But hey, Barack Obama was attacked for having a pastor who said "God Damn America," so none of the heavily documented sexism on MSNBC counts.

[plooger]

Did Sklar even bother to watch the brief "Worst Person" bit that Olbermann did on Couric? He did call Couric's claims that sexism derailed Clinton's campaign "a bit kool aid-ish" but also said that she had the right to her opinion.

However, Olbermann didn't make Couric "Worst Person" for the sexism comments. He explicitly called Couric out for her misrepresenting the statements of NBC reporter Lee Cowen, and declaring that Cowen should seek other employment.

Sklar's making HuffPost look bad.

[GarthR]

I am glad someone writing about Olbermann's comments actually saw them. He was simply defending a colleague, not suggesting that Clinton & Couric's paranoia were completely without substance.

[JackW]

And Olderman doesn't make MSNBC look bad?

[Veeve]

No JackW, KO is literally making MSNBC look good; and his ratings and multi-year, big money contract are 'a bit' of a testament to that.

[Buckywunder]

Hmmm. There's a story that KO is on the Clintons enemies list earlier this week and then lo and behold, Rachel Sklar -- admitted HRC supporter -- publishes a piece critical of KO.

I think no matter how you cut it, it looks a little suspicious to me...

[InofTouch]

So Keith should not get any media criticism what so ever because he a blogsphere favourte...then your clouding your judgement.

[Nicky6571]

Yet again, another talking head who doesn't know how to listen.

Ms. Sklar PLEASE re-review the "worst persons" segment. You obviously missed the point.

[InofTouch]

I laugh that people are defending the man but not the comments because really would Olbermann take really take on his own network and ask about Pentagon military analyst program...He just like Bill O'Reilly except he happen to swing on the left.

let get off this for a second...people are bias against Couric...always have and always will...she could go on air and do a Cronkite and people will still put fault on her for too late or for whatever reason there is. If anything most of the comments about Couric if warnted at best are sexist.