Keith Olbermann Names Katie Couric "Worst Person In The World"

On Wednesday night's "Coundtown," Keith Olbermann blasted Couric for her comments on the sexist coverage of Hillary Clinton and her remark that NBC News' Lee Cowan should "find another line of work" if he couldn't remain objective about Barack Obama.

Olbermann called Couric's allegations of sexism "a bit Kool Aid-ish," charged Couric with misunderstanding Cowan's comment, and praised Cowan's objective reporting and his ability to separate the hype from the news.

"It is sad that Ms. Couric could not have emulated [Cowan] and separated the hype from the news in her own promulgation of the nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism."

Related: Rachel Sklar reacts: "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." [ETP]

Comments

[DCtrain]

Poor Katie, she's a hasbeen tard.. making unfounded statements for publiscity

[DCtrain]

She needs a telepromter for Christmas so that she can minimize stupid statments

[carlosb00]

In the begining of the campaign, i felt that she was a respectable and honorable character. ( although i wasnt quite convinced of her condesending retoric ) but as the campaign rolled on, everybody started to see the kind of tactics she used ( less than respectable and honorable ). If the Media went on a witch hunt, is because they saw the kind of person she really is. I dont think there was mayor sexism involved. I never heard anybody imply that she could not do the Job, because she is a GIRL! All the sexism bull is just an excuse to tolerate her actions. Nobody ever doubted that she was capable for the Job. They just implied that she was another untrustworthy politician.

[eden4barack08]

It sure took them a while, didn't it? Too busy making millions cashing in on fame maybe?

The rest of the women have been living with sexism daily, and 'dealing' with it, and succeeding!

Catie and Hillary must've been living a sheltered life if they're just now 'discovering' it exists. Must be nice!

[suzyku]

He's CORRECT!!! Katie Couris is simply NOT credible, she's useless and wrong again!

[nonofyabusiness]

Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aaronssongs]

Oh, please...Keith Olbermann is "dead on", 99. 9 % of the time. I'm sure Katie Couric, undoubtedly, is a Hillary supporter, and felt burned that some pundits and analysts chose to hold her to some standard, as Hillary made outrageous allegations against Barack Obama, at times , and even sided with and praised John McCain, to illustrate a point.
I'm upset at the overall coverage by the media of politics in general, especially that of the White House and its' machinations. As Scott McClellan's book alludes, the media "softballed" the administration on its' escalation to war with Iraq....and hardly ever held it to any accountability, and as such is complicit in the falsehoods fed, unhindered, to the American populace....
Who was the media afraid of? Bush? The Right Wing? or backlash from the public?
Or perhaps, "the truth'.

[writeaway]

Olbermann wasn't dead on, he was dead wrong. If he couldn't see the sexism in remarks by
Matthews and himself, he needs to go back to sports. Maybe someone needs to define what sexism is for him.

[eden4barack08]

The Point is not disputing the existence of sexism, we all know it's almost as rampant as racism, undeniably!
But attributing Hillary's primary loss to sexism, THAT'S DEAD WRONG!

[qwr]

Olbermann was defending ONE particular reporter, and accusing Couric of casually targeting said reporter, whom O characterized as "objective." Do you know something different?

[seattlealex]

It is quite unfortunate that people are riding Olbermann's back on this. I'm going to guess that it may very well be that he is not the regular MSM kind of guy. Nor does he fit into the mold of slanting a bit to the right to get his word out.

Couric basically set herself up for the shot when she called the unnamed reporter a member of the "commentariat." That smells a bit of trying to push her personal feelings into the political realm.

Was Clinton hit with sexism? Tweety I'm sure did. But then Tweety is very good at pushing sexism to the edge of the cliff.

But by Olbermann and many other reporter's stating that Clinton's holding on to her place in the race (though she could not in any way, shape or form win) was damaging to the party was far from sexism. Afterall, if one remembers, Olbermann was a Clinton supporter at the beginning of the race.

Olbermann has never claimed to be an unbiased reporter. You can see it every night. He hates Bush, and will even slam a Democrat or two when they deserve it. I guess that would make Olbermann a member of the "commentariat." (Which sounds strangely McCarthy-esque.)

I would charge that racism was the larger of the two actors in this race. And if you notice, the sexism charge wasn't mentioned until Clinton was falling behind - and only after all other excuses didn't pan out.

[Heru1]

I'm sick of all this reverse sexism.

[godsbreath64]

As this originally aired, I thought I must have been mistaken. I didn't agree with Keith. After seeing the video of if, I was right. Keith was wrong. Katie was right. His bosses never put a woman's campaign in context. Not even close. This segment can't be of any surprise.

Mind you, the campaign lost me when her old man shilled for Rushi-wushie. This, after he pandered with papa scum for Katrina relief, OF ALL THINGS. The guys spaun successfully ignored any sense during an entire lame shucks administration. People continue this particular very nightmare to this hour. We'll leave the rest for other discussions.

One is not likely to galvanize to a White House after either. But, both madame media and militant blogging slander of his supporters was as gutless, as mindless. Some were on point. But while the nominee took the high road, those supporters never let up. One even said she was not only the closest thing to our precedant, but just plain close. What the F@*%!

As grating as they frequently find themselves, we owe so very much to this couple as a nation and species. Instead, the outsourcing of ad hominen prevailed.

Thank you, Katie : )

[generaldelivery]

Senator Hillary Clinton was called a monster, a racist, a bitch, a witch and a murderer. She responded with a gracious and historical declaration that she was "honored to be on the same stage" as her opponent, who did not return the gesture. There has never been a candidate who has shown such class and been excoriated with such visceral hatred as Senator Clinton. I learned a lot about Obama's character from watching his "new politics".

[DCtrain]

lol, Hillary and her surrogates stirred up the hate and discontent. I've been watching this race very closely. I don't recall anything about sexism... I have seen video of McCain operatives calling her names... In Obama's camp, if someone said anything negative about Mrs. Clinton, he fired them.
Finally after a second pastor said careless things about her, he left his church of 20 yrs...

Obama has taken the high road every time the Clinton camp stirred up criticism... His new politics is
No retaliation, No smears, only truth. If someone in his camp dos not abide by these fundamentals, then they are asked to leave... Barak has brought back dignity to the race for the WhiteHouse, even past Regan staff said that his 'no retaliation' policy smacks of Ronald Regan's approach to running a campaign.

[dndelyne]

have you yet to realize that you need all of Hillary's "surrogates". get off the high horse and come together!

[randomx6]

Jim Johnson

[rudyinbama]

Your first sentence is correct - about the media.
Unfortunately the rest is all BS.
.

[era996]

So true
Vote McCain

[peskyliberal]

"She responded with a gracious and historical declaration that she was "honored to be on the same stage" as her opponent, who did not return the gesture."

Are you kidding us?! Please provide a quote or a link where Obama trashed Clinton the same way Clinton trashed Obama.

Stop spreading misinformation and lies!!

[gaypastor]

I think this one is true. I remember this from one of the earlier debates. She said this line and Obama didn't respond in kind in way during the debate. But then again Obama said to Hillary early on that she was only "likeable enough" so I didn't really expect him to honor Hillary's run as the first female top contendor for president.

[eden4barack08]

In what year's primaries was that? Must've missed it!

[BBGG]

Olberman and Matthews are pricks (little pricks), which is their problem. O'Reilly is a gentleman. I do not watch MSNBC because of the anti-woman bias they have shown during the Clinton campaign. They need to be replaced by someone unbiased as they are obviously woman haters, probably because they are small, you know where. Katie was right on it. She should replace Olberman. Then there would be some excellent reporting and unbiased presentation. Someone has to take these MSNBC dicks off the air. They stink!

[chelliza]

Of course there was sexism, and racism. But O'Reilly is a gentleman? I have never witnesses anything close to that. He is the worst there is.

[DDHereNow]

Nothing sexist about calling someone a prick and making snide remarks about their genitalia, right?

[eden4barack08]

..Child, you MUST be lost!

[suburban]

You are just an idiot. No better than when a male calls a women a c***. Take your bitter pill and disappear sown the dark place you crawled out of.

[Guitarsandmore]

Sadly, there are plenty of people out there that voted for Hillary because she was a woman or voted against her because she was a woman which is the very definition of sexism.

There are also people I know that would have voted for Hillary against McCain but will not vote for Obama because they don't trust him. Also very sad. Most people aren't digging far enough or looking close enough because they are too busy doing other things. Obama is the obvious choice now to me.

[gladys46]

Thank you! Will history recall the exit polling of 2008's democractic party nomination's (of all too many residing in all too many american states) .... percentages of "yes" responses that RACE mattered to them!? I'd like to toss this truth into the sea of forgetfulness ... will that day ever come ... Hopefully!

[mariannex1x]

Katie is a very talented journalist and does a great job. It is no secret in the broadcasting business that her CBS Evening News did not have the start-up advantage of a highly-rated lead-in program, as did Olbermann's and other MSNBC shows. But she does a fine broadcast and is undeserving of all that criticism.

Katie only had the courage to say publicly what the rest of this country already knows--the largely-male media was biased against Hillary.

But everyone knows that the real reason Keith is so whiny is that Katie is a woman and makes a lot, lot more money than he does, and he just can't stand it. Ha, ha, ha. Poor Keith...Yea, Katie!!!

[eden4barack08]

and all this thanks to sexism huh?

My, my, my, such hypocrisy.

[gaypastor]

You people truly don't understand what "sexism" looks like, do you? Wow! What college do you go to? Yes, ONE (or even a few) women can succeed in a sexist environment and yes, make more money, and yes...make some sexist minded men angry.

[midknightryder13]

"A highly rated lead-in program" To a TELEVISION NETWORK NEWSCAST? There is no such thing, and never has been. (At least, NOT from the network.)
Also, "The CBS Evening News" has been around for, what, about 50 years? "Countdown" has been around for 5?
"Evening News" is BROADCAST, "Countdown" is cable -- the two are not equal in many ways. So, your conclusions are suspect because you are starting from a faulty premise.

[gloriar8]

When you pull yourself away from the crackpipe, I got something to tell you. There is/was blatant racism, and B.O. never complained once. Maybe that';s why he won the nomination. Nobody likes or respects whiners. Overcoming obstacles is how people gain respect. HRC and all her cronies were racist bums. People saw through it, now they need an excuse, so as not to take any responsibility for teir own poor behavior.

As for the blogger who call couric a journalist, is that what goes for journalism these days. Walter Cronkite once anchored that desk and the fact that sexist cbs chose a female with the least amount of real reporting experience serves them right for putting her in there. Just like HRC, there are more qualified women.
WE LOVE YOU KEITH!

[randomx6]

Wow, the opium is working, I guess.

[Docbcs]

Brava Katie! I've not watched Katie Couric, because I thought she was "lightweight news", but that changes as of tonight. She took on "the big guys" on an issue that neither the DNC, Howard Dean, or the Obama campaign were willing to even acknowledge until they needed women's votes. The issue of sexism and demeaning slurs on the basis of gender should be no more tolerated than racist slurs. Whether you're for Clinton, Obama, or McCain, whether you're male or female ,"iron my shirt" is no more acceptable than "shine my shoes". It is beneath us as Americans.

[DCtrain]

She may be light weight news but she's light weight brains

[SEQUOIABISON]

I guess Katie has never seen the testosterone testicles on that woman, what sexism?

The time for anger regarding these ridiculous statements thank goodness is over, we now have our candidate and we do not wish to re-visit these old absurd charges, lets just magnanimously ignore this type of nonsense and support our nominee.

[demdan07]

If you want th anger to subside , maybe you should watch what you say in your posts. Testosterone testicles? Who is keeping the hate alive? When Obamanation stops the silliness, maybe Clinton supporters will get behind him.

[DDHereNow]

Was it sexism when James Carville made a statement on CNN to the effect that if Hillary gave Barack one of her testicles, they'd each have one? And if it was sexism, by whom and against whom?

As for that stupid nutcracker - which showed up in July, 2007 - its inventor, Frank Freeman, was a "self-described independent" regarding the presidential race. Interestingly, he claimed last year that 40% of his customers were Clinton supporters.

http://www.kare11.com/news/ts_article.aspx?storyid=491213