Keith Olbermann's Dan Rather Moment

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Bill Steigerwald

[West Coast Conservative]

So, America, what's sloppier?

Our shaky elections system or the jayvee journalism practiced on Keith Olbermann's fake MSNBC news show "Countdown With keith Olbermann"?

I cast all of my votes for Olbermann.

The recovering sportscaster is openly liberal and his irreverent, run-and-quip offense is easy to detest. But I kind of like him and his fast-paced infotainment show, which has the fatal misfortune to occupy the 8 p.m. time slot opposite Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor."

Olbermann, however, really made a Dan Rather of himself last week.

He never directly charged that Republicans stole the election or demanded that Karl Rove should be picked up for questioning by the U.N. But for 15 minutes on Monday, Olbermann pointed to a "small but blood-curdling group of reports of voting irregularities and possible fraud" from across the country, topped it with some vague partisan innuendo from Democrat Congressman John Conyers, and acted like he deserved a Peabody Award for Civic Journalism.

On Tuesday I checked out some of Olbermann's claims. Using a high-tech personal communication device professional journalists refer to as a "telephone," I called an elections bureau person in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (greater Cleveland), where, as Olbermann pointed out, 93,000 extra votes had been inexplicably cast Nov. 2.

It turns out the votes were "a computer anomaly" that didn't affect or reflect the official vote count. And those 18,472 votes Olbermann said were counted in Fairview Park, a Cleveland suburb that had only 13,342 registered voters? Absentee ballots from many precincts had been grouped together by the computer and credited to Fairview Park, where 8,421 voted.

But what about Florida, the Vote-Fraud State?

[MadIvan]

Bush convincingly won this election and the popular vote. If the Democrats continue in this vein, they will only enhance their "Sore / Loserman" reputation.

Let's thank them in advance.

Regards, Ivan

[Twinkie]

ping

[fenway]

Why bother to take him outside?????fenway

[Chuck54]

Thanks for sharing that. I also heard Juan with his "talking" points and wondered where he acquired them. You enlightened me and thousands. You are to be commended.

[scottinoc]

Olbermann, however, really made a Dan Rather of himself last week.

Olbermann should go back to reading hockey scores, he is already a couple of notches above his level of incompetence.

[UncleSamUSA]

libs_kma:
Kudos to you on your insight into the wacko statistician on DU and to the shameless Juan Williams for repeating this drivel as some sort of newsworthy insight.

Olberman's ratings reveal how powerful his left-wing show is... his drawing power is even less than Phil Donahue's was before ol silverhair was booted.

Juan Williams is a total disgrace on every level of analysis and I am amazed Fox News still allows him a soapbox. Mara Liasson and Cece Connolly are much better advocates of the left-wing cause.

And fianlly, a well-deserved Purple Heart to you, libs-kma, for somehow having the intestinal fortitude to read the childish drivel on DU, before and after the election, to enlighten us all. I know I didn't last more than 3 minutes in the one time I went there to peruse the clattering masses there. I don't know how you do it, but we are all glad for your insights into where JW got his "talking points".

[SquirrelKing]

Olbermann just got choke-slammed.

[burndoubt]

Is it just me, or would a jet-black mustache get him a front-row seat at the Groucho Marks will-reading?

[geedee]

Olbermann is a jerk.

Now, now. You're being way too kind.

Olbermann is living proof that abortions aren't 100% effective.

[StAnDeliver]

He is a loon. Of the curious mind, I went to his website. At the very beginning, he fails to consider the null hypothesis (Bush wins) to any degree whatsoever.

Additionally, any election 'model' that purports to assign AR, CO, FL, IA, MO, NM, OH to Kerry right out of the gate is to be instantly discarded as casual sophistry.

Furthermore, deep into his Monte Carlo analysis, his model bets the house on -- Bush:

Now let’s consider fifteen polls. Here the MOE is a very tight +/-0.80% confidence interval. For the same 52-48% average spread, the probability is 95% that the leader will receive between 51.2% and 52.8% of the popular vote. The probability that the leader will exceed 50% of the national vote is 99.99+%. If the leader has an average 52%-48% lead in 15 national polls the day before the election, then an election defeat will be extremely unlikely. In fact the odds would be less than one in a thousand.

[BenLurkin]

The guy is a joke!

He did a yuck-yuck SPORTS report on a local news show in L.A. (not even one of the 3 bigs) until one day he simply disappeared.

Then several years later he turns up on cable pretending to be a serious journalist? Get outta here!

[Condor51]

Gee I wonder if this MOPE Olbermann would like to see what a couple of us have found out regarding Chicago's voting.

Now you want to talk "irregularities", how about these:

• A fellow Illinoisan found that in one Chicago neighborhood (Englewood) 98% of the eligible "adults" voted. That doesn't discount all the Felons who live in that 100% black community. (IIRC Jesse Jackson says it's 50% - would he lie?)
  
• I crunched some numbers yesterday and according to Chicago's vote total, after you discount Minors, Felons, Illegal Aliens and Legal Immigrants - an astounding 64% of all eligible Chicagoans voted. And that 64% is a minimum as I had to 'guesstimate' some numbers from the US Census data and use averages. And I was conservative on the factors I guesstimated. So I wouldn't doubt that my 64% is in reality 70%!

As such, I'd really like to ask my mom if she voted in Chicago this year - but she passed away in 1994!

(heck, I'm probably still 'voting' in Chicago and I moved out of 'that place' in 1975)

[mvpel]

Did Mr. Steigerwald crib this article from Ann Coulter's November 10 offering? Olbermann Can 'Countdown,' But Can He Count Up?

[GaltMeister]

Creepy Liar

[Miss Behave]

Olbermann thinks he's SO hot, but he has TWO, not one, spare tire that he tries to hide. I can't stand the way that he thinks he's so cool. Olbermann makes me want to hurl in the fashion of "Gary" of "Team America: World Police."

[Miss Behave]

Whoops. Make that spare tireS.

"America, F Yeah!"

[SoCal Pubbie]

Yup, I used to call him Doberman. Still do actually. I always wondered who he slept with to get that gig at KTLA. He's a real POS, IMHO.

[granite]

[Spook86]

Olberman has been a failure most of his professional career; he often tells the story about his station manager in LA (at KCBS) asking why he couldn't show highlights from previous games, to save the cost of sending a crew to cover more recent sporting events. In reality, Olberman was, as you describe him, a royal ass who totally alienated himself from his co-workers at Channel 2. Of course, it never occured to Mr. Ego that he was working at the last-place station in LA, where on-air talent comes and goes with the change of seasons. People who worked in LA media circles at the time tell me that CBS was more than happy to give Olberman the axe. He lasted two years in Los Angeles, roughly the average of his on-air stints before and after ESPN.

Ironically, it was after LA debacle that Olberman enjoyed the only sustained success of his professional career, as Dan Patrick's partner on ESPN's SportsCenter. But once again, Olberman felt he was being slighted, and quit in a huff. ESPN never missed a beat; Dan Patrick became the "star" of SportsCenter; younger sportscasters (such as Stuart Scott) filled Olberman's shoes more than capably, and the network never looked back. Meanwhile, Olberman has slithered from cable show to cable show, each gig a little less glamorous that the last one. He's almost certain to get the heave-ho again, when MSNBC has its next, semi-annual house cleaning. I hope Olberman has saved his money; he's burned so many bridges in the TV industry that he's approaching the point that no one will hire him. If you need proof of how reviled Olberman is in the TV business, consider ESPN's recent 25th anniversary celebration. A number of former ESPN hosts were invited back for the party. Olberman was conspiciously absent. It was no accident....

[Cableguy]

We knew Keith was biased. Now we know he is an idiot too. And lazy. He should stick with sports. Oh I forgot, he got fired from ESPN also.