Keith Olbermann: Twitt

Recently, Keith Olbermann has been guilty of some pretty embarrassing lapses of research. Today at Redstate.com I wrote about one of the biggest. To summarize, about a week ago Olbermann named Twitter his "Worst Person in the World" for allegedly refusing to stop a fraudulent imposter account.

It seems that Olbermann received an email addressed to Dan Cooper which referenced the @KeithOlbermann Twitter feed. Olbermann implies that Dan, as part of an apparent Fox News plot to defame him, is running the account. Small problem in this theory: the account was valid. MSNBC held the account in Olbermann's name. Also, as my interview with Cooper illuminates, the idea that he would be a part of some conspiracy with Fox is absurd on its face. But the fact that a conspiracy theory is absurd hasn't hampered Olbermann flogging it in the past, sir.

The whole report was sloppy. At Redstate I've posted screenshots of Olbermann's second Twitter account, which actually Tweeted the very segment in which he rants about not being a Twitterer. Yeesh. It's funny, but the casual manner with which Olbermann maligns Dan Cooper is anything but amusing.

Dan is a media professional and a writer. He's had a long career in journalism. What's more, he's a progressive Democrat who is at odds with former employer Fox News. In short, nothing Olbermann slyly implies could be further from the truth. A fact which I emphasize in my story.

It is extremely damaging, both to my business and emotional state. Never in my life have I been accused of shoddy journalism. Let alone of such activity as violating the rules of a web site, as happened here. Far more important, I am at a critical point in the launching of a new media venture, and taking the time to deal with Keith Olbermann's insanity and NBC's lack of ethics and irresponsibility has cost me valuable time and energy. I do not, and have never, colluded with Fox News. I have never impersonated Keith Olbermann. - Dan Cooper, interview with Redstate.com

It won't take long, we all know, for Olbermann apologists to come out and defend him. Take, for example, Tommy Christopher.

It seems that being an apologist for Keith Olbermann is reason enough for Tommy to turn on a fellow Democrat:

Call. Me. A Wahhhmbulance. A guy starting a media company is going to be hurt by all of this publicity? This wouldn't make it into Rain Man's "Serious Injuries Notebook." I'm certainly not above some self-promotion, but I don't pretend to be Norma Rae in the process.

I guess Tommy is critical when it suits him. Like Olbermann himself, we can expect his apologists to make snap judgments about Dan's character. Because they are reflexively defending Keith, sure, but also because Dan once worked at Fox News. Incidentally, here's what he had to say about that when he published the prologue to the book he was working on, Naked Launch, in January of last year:

Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to brainwash America into thinking right-wing ideology is actually the political center. And he did. And, I'm ashamed to tell you, I helped him.

Not exactly a fan, wouldn't you agree? But this information, which can be found by anyone in five minutes, didn't stop Keith, just as it didn't stop the left blogs who repeated the accusation, just as it won't stop apologists from continuing to attack Dan. Though Dan would clearly disagree with me here, I call that Fox Derangement Syndrome.

The fact is, Olbermann recklessly ran with a story for which he and his staff clearly hadn't done even the barest of research, something that is all too common for Countdown. He pointedly posits a conspiracy theory, and gets every single fact wrong. It's a perfect example of what passes for journalism at the utterly incompetent MSNBC.

For bloggers from the other side the aisle, in particular those at DailyKos, Olbermann is a daily hero. They cheer his vituperation, they parrot his hyperbolic tirades, and they treat him as a credible source, as he in turn treats them. It's a comfortable little echo chamber, one which moves the argument from the center to the extreme, and no doubt satisfying in a visceral, Roman colliseum sort of way. But the fact is, what Keith is doing isn't journalism. It's the angry blogger with a grudge, writ large on the screen. NBC should be ashamed.

You can find me, Dan, and even Tommy (if you're so inclined) on Twitter, because we actually know how to use it.