Keith Olbermann Backlash Fueled By Declaration Of Katie Couric As "Worst Person In The World"

Keith Olbermann's declaration of Katie Couric as "Worst Person in the World" on Wednesday night's "Countdown" has been met by many in the media blogosphere with sharp criticism.

Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar writes:

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.

Radar pronounced him "intolerable" and asked, "Has Keith Olbermann always been this aneurysm-inducing, or is he feeling extra bombastic after his narrow 'victory' over a vacationing Bill O'Reilly?"

Jossip writes:

How did we go from naming Rupert Murdoch the "Worst Person in the World" to adding America's sweetheart Katie Couric to that list? Ah, right: Because Keith Olbermann's popular segment is as much a place to criticize world leaders guilty of human rights violations as it is for him to defend his own. And thanks to Couric aiming some "anonymous" critical comments at the NBC family, there she is, Keith's No. 1 target.

The response to Olbermann's Couric declaration is just the latest in a growing backlash against the "Countdown" host.

This past weekend, Howard Rosenberg asked in the Los Angeles Times, "Is Olbermann's snide act on MSNBC the future of TV news?" Rosenberg went on to summarize "Countdown" as follows:

The leer, the smug histrionics, the relentless needling, the shameless self-puffery, the accusatory rants excoriating Bushies and other Republicans as well as cable competitor Fox and its temperamental bully, Bill O'Reilly.

Many have questioned the appropriateness of Olbermann — and his primary-night partner Chris Matthews — anchoring election night coverage while espousing strong opinions of his own. During coverage of the Montana and South Dakota primaries, Tom Brokaw chided Olbermann on air for alleging that Hillary Clinton was "trying to shoe-horn her way into" the night of McCain's and Obama's speeches. Brokaw would later claim that the press drumbeat for Clinton's exit from the race — of which Olbermann was a major part — was "inappropriate," and it was "commentary disguised as reporting."

The current wave of the backlash against Olbermann was sparked by Time television critic James Poniewozik, who wrote last month (after Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Hillary Clinton's RFK remarks) that Olbermann "sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he used to be a corrective to."

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Comments

[cinemabon]

Keith is the ONLY journalist on television challenging the Republican point of view. Like Tim Russert and Chris Mathews, he is a national treasure. Think about the people charging him positions... are they Republican in nature? Katie Couric should never have left The Today Show. She is out of her league. It's one thing to be a show host. It's something else to be a reporter. Where are her journalism credentials? I'm sick of the pretty, talking-head, blonde-haired females we've seen on CNN and other outlets, with their silly opinions thrown in on every news story. Let's return to fair-minded reporters telling the news, male or female. Leave Keith alone. He deserves praise, not ridicule.

[bfraser55]

God sounds like I could have written this. I agree it's about time someone takes on the Republican media machine which seems to have expanded beyond FOX noise to CNN and even infected some on MSNBC>

[Flick08]

Katie Couric is whiny and annoying but Worst Person in the World? Not so much.

[PrinceHal]

The fact that HuffPo is exacerbating this "Keith backlash" story and dragging it out with this homemade piece by one Danny Shea (apparently of the Huff staff), is neither more nor less than shameful.

[onetiredcowboy]

Katie Couric is boring, period.

Keith Olbermann, on the other hand, is brilliant, and witty. I hate it when he takes a night off, the exception being when Rachel Maddow fills in for him. If you want irritating, watch Chris Matthews or Tucker Carson.

[eastutican]

To all those who paint Keith as over the top: who in the media has the guts to call out Cheney, Bush, Rove and the rest of the warmongers ?? Is it his anger that puts you off ?? Or the facts that he recites night after night ??

To equate Keith and OReilly is to fundamentally misunderstand the difference between principled commentary and using racist and sexist tropes to play to Wallace-Reagan Democrats. It is no accident that FOX broadcast news about the 'terrorist fist bump', the Tennessee 'Democrat' who wont vote for Obama because of his terrorist connections and the other crap they hose you down with each day AND that FOX is home to OReilly. Keith spends so much time on FOX because it requires such reporting. Keith is angry about Bush, Cheney, Robe and the warmongers because that is decent. You want calm, 'neutral' reporting of Couric, you may as well watch OReilly, Hannity and the rest of the FOX gang.

[roselaw]

Olbermann was out there calling the Bush regime for what it was--a group of the liars and a national disaster, when the rest of the media were still afraid of their shadows. He deserves a lot of credit.

While Clinton's rationalizations for staying in the race were transparently dishonest and cynical, I think Olbermann went too far in his critique of her JFK comments, and our little sweety Couric probably only should have received a bronze--

But it is a valid point that Clinton supporters place far too much emphasis on mysogeny as the reason for her failure. Clinton had everything going for her--name recognition, money, endorsements, AIPAC, the Democratic machine, a Media concensus that her win was inevitable. She lost despite these enormous advantages, because she was just out-organized and defeated by a remarkable young politician, who had his own prejudices to overcome. They were both good candidates, but again, Clinton didn't run a great campaign, and Bill really hurt her--as much, I would submit, as gender prejudice.

Olbermann needs a vacation to recapture some balance, and get over the passions generated by the primary, but he remains one of the few courageous voices on prime time television.

[AlexanderH]

What Backlash?

People love him and his ratings are skyrocketing?

This article is still lame.

[DesertZ]

Keith, You're turning into O'Reilly. Time to have the meds changed!

[jpcline004]

couldn't have said it better, so I won't

[Faithtoo]

Good, because you're both wrong.

He had a right to point out the Kouric like Clinton's supporters keep blaming her loss on sexism and they are all wrong.

Keith isn't the one who needs the meds changed, I submit that it would be O'Reilly, Clinton and all of her "foaming at the mouth" supporters.

[TripperDay]

She quoted Lee Cowan out of context and and implied he was commentator instead of reporter. Through ignorance or malice, she manufactured an issue that didn't exist. The bad news for Couric: Olbermann likes Lee Cowan and his work, and he called her on it.

[jonjon66]

Keith Oberman is the very best the Democrats could hope for a beautiful ,articulate counter to the always bias,never "fair & balanced" Faux News Network, while CNN acts cowardly, always bending over backwards to say "we're not liberal". Watching CNN is starting to actually get repulsive, boring , simply repeating talking points and offering almost no independent, fresh analysis.

MSNBC, thank you

RIP Tim Russert!

[PATina]

While I agree w/ his stance about Katie Couric in that instance... I don't like Olbermann at all. He's just the left side of Bill O'Reilly and that's not a compliment in any way, shape or form. MSNBC could do much better.

[madashellvoter]

I have to disagree, O'Reilly has NEVER used facts to back up his stories!

[thromulese]

I pretty much stopped watching Olbermann when he started to pound on Hillary daily while cheering everything Obama. Hillary could do nothing right while Obama could do/say no wrong. I got tired of it even though I plan to vote for Obama, I still hated the lopsided reporting (if you can call it that).

Keith is what he lampoons, just another member of the MSM.

By the way, I don’t like Couric much either, she is just another empty-headed MSM tool.

[glake]

If any of you whining wankers listened to (as opposed to just 'watched') Olbermann's June 12 'Special Comment' about Senator McCain's statement that "...it's not too important when America's forces come home from Iraq..." then you'd know what an objective, qualified, journalist he really is, and how capably he presents fact-based information. He also displays compassion and respect for Senator McCain in his comments.

If any of you dunderheads still retain the capacity to learn, here is the url for that Special Comment, "McCain should know better":

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25126582/

As for Ms. Couric, like a friend of mine used to say, powder and paint can't make a TV hostess what she aint/

[sophistwatch]

KO took aim at Couric because she tried to shift legitimate criticisms of HRC by using sexism as a defense. What I find offensive about this is the fact the HRC used sniper fire, racism, RFK assassination references and she quoted Karl Rove as her source for continuing to stay in the race when she could not win. I don't think she deserves a free pass on this stuff.

HRC did and said things during the primaries that are inexcusable. Katie Couric's decision to become her apologist for these outrageous comments warranted KO's ranking of her as a WPITW.

HRC lost the nomination because of what Mark Penn did not understand about California, Bill's gaffes, a poorly managed campaign and a host of other issued which contributed to pushing votes away from her to Obama. This nomination was hers to lose.

Why does sexism have to be an excuse for her campaign's mistakes?

[damselfly1600]

The perpetuation of the notion that Couric is "America's sweeetheart" is nonsense. She has been rude and disrespectful and in some cases actually hateful, to many people she has interviewed whose views she doesn't agree with. She has reaped what she has sown. Oh and by the way... Being Olbermann's worst person has only served to get her more publicity than she deserves.