Keith Olbermann, Ann Coulter Battle Over Cornell Alumni Status (VIDEO)

Ann Coulter and Keith Olbermann are engaged in a bizarre but real feud over their alma mater, Cornell University.

Earlier this week, Coulter wrote a column trashing Olbermann and alleging that he didn't attend "the real Cornell" because he went to one of the University's state schools, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (known as the Ag School).

Coulter wrote that Olbermann "is constantly lying about his nonexistent 'Ivy League' education" despite the fact that he "didn't go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell."

She continued:

The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants).

Olbermann's incessant lying about having an "Ivy League education" when he went to the non-Ivy League ag school at Cornell would be like a graduate of the Yale locksmithing school boasting about being a "Yale man."

Olbermann responded on "Countdown" Thursday night, naming Coulter one of his Worst Persons in the World and displaying his Cornell degree for all to see. He also corrected the record on the acceptance rate disparity (there is none, he reports), and boasts that he paid much less for the same education as Coulter by attending the Ag School.

Watch:

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Comments

[hallirackit]

"I got into Cornell off the Wait List. A lot of people were like, "Oh, you just got into Cornell because your dad donated a building." No. Okay. I got into Cornell because I'm smart. I'm smart enough to have a dad who donates buildings to things."

[JustSayMaybe]

What I love is her obvious elitism. SAT scores, Ivy League, acceptance rate comparison - blah, blah, blah. But she's selective about when she'll be elitist. She likes to spout off about her daddy being a good honest simple American, longs for the days of Joe McCarthy (who tried to sell himself as a simple hard-working American hero, not unlike Bush's attempted image as a cowboy), and calls Democrats elitist. But here she is turning up her nose at all but one of the colleges of Cornell. What a bizarre distinction to stretch, and what an elitist way to do it.

[HuffStinks]

To JustSayMaybe,

You bring up a good point, Cornell is an elitist college and does require high test scores, but your logic is flawed. It was Olberman who first, and repeatedly, bragged about having graduated from Cornell. Why did Olberman do this? JUST MAYBE OLBERMAN WANTED DESPERATELY TO ESTABLISH HIMSELF AS ONE OF THE ELITE. And that is why Ann Coulter went after him, I've never heard Ann brag about the college she graduated from until SHE OUTED KEITH FOR THE FRAUD HE IS.

Use your head!

[IamPhenom]

I love how you just accept Coulter's characterization that Olbermann always "brags" about his Ivy League education.

Coulter cites ONE INTERVIEW, and if you bother to actually read the interview, the question from the interviewer was boastful of Keith having an Ivy league degree, but Keith's answer was putting down having an Ivy League education. Read the answer. Keith is being self-deprecating, basically saying his Ivy League education meant nothing and didn't really help him at all.

Coulter is being a complete elitist and misleading her audience in yet another desperate attempt to spark some controversy and get her name in the news.

By the way, if Coulter is some diehard conservative like you probably believe, why is she dating a NY liberal Democrat Andrew Stein?

[rain39]

If Ann longs for the days of Joe McCarthy, she didn't grow up in his home town like I did and down the block from his sister. She also didn't know the Benedictine monks and others who hung out with him in bars in Washington D.C. . She may not know that Greta Van Susteren's father, a judge, was his campaign manager for his senate run and how much damage he did to people's lives in his witch hunt? He was a disgrace in many people's eyes, even in Appleton, Wisconsin (Grand Chute to be specific). That fits in nicely into what I think of Ann Coulter who for convenience might vote in Appleton next. Oh, the John Birch society was founded there in 1958, the year after I finally got to leave home. It was a pleasure! Ask Willem Dafoe how he felt about Appleton!

[CarpeDiem09]

quote from Cornell newspaper:
"Just as disturbing is the fact that she has the entire crew of late-night show “Red Eye “on FoxNews convinced that she is somehow right. What is unbelievable is the absurdity of the fact that she has actually managed to convince herself that her statement is the truth. She seems to have employed Seinfeld’s George Costanza’s motto that “it’s not a lie, if you believe it’s true.” Coulter seems so delusional that she has not realized the level of her own ignorance which she has exposed - she hasn’t the faintest clue how her own school operates!
Even if she believed her statement to be true, one would believe that she would correct her outlandish statement just for the sake of self-preservation; the discredit she is bringing to her own name, Alma Mater, alleged political party, and *reputation* is incredible. It seems she has gone rogue from rational thought, and for this reason the Insider will go rogue from Coulter temporarily."

[IllinoisGOP]

Very nice framed diploma. Perhaps Keith made it in shop at the Ag school he attended. It's pretty obvious this got under Olbermann's very thin skin, if he had to take his degree down from the daily affirmation wall that reminds him that he is smart enough...... etc. Most people kind of get over their degrees upon becoming adults. I have a BS and MBA and both diplomas are in a box somewhere. Of course in the Wizard of Oz, it only took a diploma for the scarecrow to get the appearance of gray matter. That may also be true for Olbermann.

There are two Cornell's, but they do award the same degree. People I have met with the state college side of the Cornell degree, tend to fess up. These are of course grounded people that are secure in their intelligence and would never need to produce their framed diploma as proof of their bona fides.

Coulter sort of made him look insecure.

[BOin08]

It's bad form to ridicule a satellite degree, but alumni from every school roll their eyes when grads like Olbermann try to equate their degrees with those of the main campus. No one should do that to another alum's face and Coulter should be ashamed of herself. She's making fun of the kid on the short bus.

[me again]

Ag is actually main campus.....they take the same classes from the same profs......many transfer in between the two. This is a picayune argument, which is petty and frankly confirms all of my views of Coulter.......it also is an elitist and snobby arguement. By the way, she went to Michigan for Law School, which while a great School, is state funded and not Ivy League.

[connorin]

You just don't get it do you? The whole thing is funny as all get out. KO puffs himself up and references his so called Ivy League and puts people down for their educations and likes to play gotcha on some minor point or other. Soooo, Ann plays gotcha on a point about the school Keith went to (which he did not deny in his response by the way). So her pointing out that he is really a communications graduate from the non-Ivy League portion of the school works in not only the gotcha that KO lurves so much, but also lays open his stuufed shirt as empty. Maybe he will take that into account when he tries to dismiss someone's law degree from a school ("How many box tops did it take to get that")

[DennisShiraev]

If you are interested in reading the Cornell Review's response to Ann Coulter's comments, please visit http://www.cornellreview.wordpress.com. Coulter helped start the Review, the campus conservative newspaper, when she was a student here.

[me again]

This could be Coulter's most picayune argument ever. The chicken is scratching about degrees from her alma mater.....they read the same, they have the same value in the public eye. She then goes on to represent Yale, the alma mater of our former President, who was admitted via his family pulling strings.....he would not have been admitted on his own.....

[biffrhodes]

Keith,

At least you did not go to the hotel management college at Cornell!

[IDIOTA]

It was ranked #1 in the nation.

[Heidfeld]

Yeah, they have the best courses on making beds and serving "continental" breakfasts.

[kismet96738]

WTF difference would that make? The whole point is that Cornell is Cornell. And really, the larger point should be that everyone who is educated should have more sense than to put down other folks' ' education for ANY reason. What matters is what you DO with your education, not where you got it. There are plenty of Ivy League failures, and plenty of state college success stories.

[JoseFellatiano]

Keith,

Pardon this from a real fan of yours, but Coulter is, well, right. Just get on with your life.

Jose

[Winthorpe]

Right about what, child? That the world is flat?

[MattLB19]

You're obviously very ignorant. I'm a Cornell graduate and I can assure you on campus there is zero distinction between any of the 7 undergraduate colleges, all of which are held in high esteem.

[flyingmonkey]

I'm glad we have these two paragons bringing important matters about themselves to the forefront of the news.
Keith, you're a smart guy, but dude, it's not about you. Go back to the news...if you can remember what that is.

[DucksInDenver]

Ann Coulter should be ashamed (well, she should be ashamed of a lot of things, but this just takes the cake!). As a Cornell graduate, she knows very well that it doesn't matter which of the seven undergraduate colleges in the University you attended; you get a Cornell degree and an "Ivy League" education (for whatever that's worth) whether you went to the Arts and Sciences college or the Agriculture school. As a graduate of the latter, I took courses that are geared to science and agriculture, such as biology and chemistry, etc. The quality of the education is no different than that of the other colleges in Cornell; you get a top-notch science focus, for state school prices. Additionally, you can take classes outside of your college, so I took plenty of liberal arts courses, even though I was in the Ag. school. Of course Ann knows this, but once again she demonstrates that she has no problem with bald faced lying.

[JoseFellatiano]

not true. if i am in ag school, I get a NYS - backed Cornell degree. ditto for the hotel school. only thing that unites school is the football team.

[Cornellaggie]

Either you are as ignorant as Ann Coulter of her own alma mater, or you simply know nothing about Cornell. Apparently, you have not read the many other posts here explaining the school's organization and land-grant status. The three undergrad divisions associated with the state of NY (thus commonly referred to as "public") are Agriculture and Life Sciences, Industrial and Labor Relations, and Human Ecology. The other four divisions, Engineering, HOTEL, Architecture and Arts are "private". The public and private designations are confusing, because it's all private in reality, all part of and under Cornell University. The state helps with the funding of the "public" parts, which reflects the historical land-grant status. The state of NY does not control the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, but its contribution allows tuition to be a terrific bargain for in-staters. Not so for out-of-staters--tuition for Ag is about as high as Arts. My degree has the signature of the president of the overall university at the time. So does everyone else's--including those of my two kids--one from Ag and one from Engineering. It is completely false that the "only thing that unites the school is the football team."

[BGM1906]

I find it hard to believe that Cornell would seperate its students in ivy league and non-ivy league schools. If that were the case (yeah right), Cornell would be the step-child of the Ivy league.

[MattLB19]

Go Big Red!

[Wendy Johnson]

Keith, get over it! She's bitchy to everybody.

There's real stuff happening in this world, stick to talking about that. You sound like Rush Limbaugh.

[destruct1]

hahaha....i love it when she stirs up this lib. Hilarious.

[me again]

Why do you find this amusing? The man has a Cornell degree pure and simple. The degree reads the same way hers does and has a superb reputation.

[skymuffin]

This is why people who went to Ivy League schools are found to be so annoying and snobbish by the rest of us.

BTW, most of the senior managers of the financial institutions are the ones responsible for our present disaster.

[EyeDoc007]

Gee what's next, whose boarding school was preppier?