Olbermann soars to new depths

Bill O'Reilly deserves a medal for the way he spoke out on the Judge Cashman sentence of the child rapist in Vermont and ultimately caused Cashman to increase the rapist's sentence. But MSNBC's Keith Olbermann jumps in and makes himself the Worstest Person in the World by using the subject to criticize O'Reilly for something he didn't even say (thanks to the always-sharp NewsBusters for the catch:)

On his Countdown show Friday night, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivered his latest attack on FNC host Bill O'Reilly during his show's regular "Worst Person in the World" segment for saying something the FNC host did not actually say. Referring to O'Reilly as a "joke," Olbermann accused O'Reilly of attacking MSNBC for not covering the case of a Vermont judge who initially sentenced a child rapist to only 60 days in jail. In fact, O'Reilly complained that the "network newscasts" had ignored the story, which would only include ABC, CBS and NBC newscasts.

During his regular "Worst Person in the World" segment, Olbermann normally chooses three nominees to be awarded the dishonor of that name. His three nominees are labeled as "Worse," "Worser," and "Worst." On Friday's show, after giving the second place distinction of "Worser" to conservative columnist Ann Coulter for joking that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned, Olbermann moved on to dishonor O'Reilly with the label of "Worst": "Speaking of jokes, tonight's winner. [Photograph of O'Reilly displayed on-screen] Him again. He walked right into another propeller."

Olbermann went on to recount erroneously that O'Reilly had criticized MSNBC for ignoring the story of Judge Cashman and pointed out that he had covered the story on his Countdown show on January 6th. Olbermann concluded by quipping that he had made a bet in the "'When does [O'Reilly] have his actual nervous breakdown?' pool."

An examination of the Thursday January 26 'Talking Points Memo' segment of The O'Reilly Factor shows that the FNC host, instead of attacking MSNBC for ignoring the story, in reality charged that "the big liberal newspapers like The New York Times and the network newscasts totally ignored the story."

So let me get this straight: When Olbermann observes "Hmm, heartbreaking story" why does that immediately translate into "How can I exploit the entire tragedy and further my personal vendetta against my arch-rival O'Reilly for ratings?"

How long before the stress of being up against O'Reilly causes Olbermann to start smoking on the air? I'd tune in to see the smoke swirling up from beneath the desk as he comes back from commercial, a wisp emanating from his nostris as he leans into the teleprompter....