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Rally to Restore ‘Worst Persons in the World’

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» 44 comments

Say it ain’t so, Keith! Say it ain’t so!

Countdown host Keith Olbermann, in a fit of (toned-down) pique at Jon Stewart‘s false equivalence of MSNBC with Fox News, announced tonight that he is “suspending” the “Worst Persons in the World” segment, with an eye toward killing it. To many of the show’s viewers, this is the best part of the show, and equating its elimination with taking the high road misses the point entirely. Don’t kill “Worst Persons,” just be the better person.

First of all, the very premise of “Worst Persons” is, on most nights, to satirize the very hyperbole against which Stewart rallied. Most of the “winners” aren’t actually the worst people in the world, but rather, people who did something stupid, ill-advised, or even something really bad.

There are times when Olbermann runs afoul of boundaries of taste, but these are as likely to be elsewhere in the show as in “Worsts.” If the concern is the pitch and temperature of the show’s rhetoric, Olbermann’s “Special Comment” segments would be a much more sensible target. Again, though, these are among Countdown viewers’ favorite moments, which make the show more than just another news rehash.

If Keith Olbermann is really concerned with mollifying Jon Stewart, he ought to take a more surgical approach. Rather than tossing out a whole segment, he ought to consider the individual merits of the criticisms leveled against him. Don’t make fun of disabled children, don’t call renowned (Jewish) First Amendment lawyers Nazis, don’t call women with whom you disagree “meatbags,” no matter what segment you’re doing. Don’t ask “Am I being too angry,” but rather, “Am I being too small?”

Sometimes it is okay to get angry. One of the things that propelled Countdown to the popularity it now enjoys was Olbermann’s often righteous, sometimes self-righteous, anger. The premise that he rejects in announcing the retirement of “Worsts,” that fighting Goliath isn’t the same as being Goliath, demands that anger, properly focused, appropriately unleashed. Bring back “Worsts.”

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  • The Real Royal King

    Pretty clever.

  • Latin2

    “Say it ain’t so, Keith! Say it ain’t so!”

    Yeah, sorry Tommy, now you won’t get your daily dose of ‘hatred towards Conservatives’…well at least for a day or two…because we all know that vicious personal attacks and innuendos is Oblermann’s bread and butter. So I give him two days tops before he starts his usual sophomoric attacks.

  • writer

    Yeah, Keith keeps his fans on the edge of their seats. Who will it be tonight? O’Reilly, or Beck? Oh, the suspense!

  • Kird

    hell, after reading this, KO should probably just put the KO on Countdown as a whole and call baseball games.

  • Latin2

    writer said:
    Yeah, Keith keeps his fans on the edge of their seats. Who will it be tonight? O’Reilly, or Beck? Oh, the suspense!

    O’reailly or Beck? who knows maybe he will mix it up a little and go Beck, O’Reilly…with a little Palin thrown in?

  • cd ohio

    tommy, a little higher to kiss his ass . you are just 2 funny

  • writer

    You just never know. The anticipation is unbearable.

  • Latin2

    Kird said:
    little

    but then he would have to hear the CHEERS when G.W. Bush throws out the 1st pitch and that would CRUSH him…lol

  • Cancon2

    Pathetic justifications of idiocy. Well done.

  • Kird

    Latin2 said:
    but then he would have to hear the CHEERS when G.W. Bush throws out the 1st pitch and that would CRUSH him…lol

    he’ll be alright; he’ll just call in sick whenever the Yankees play the Rangers.

  • Latin2

    Jon Stewart >Keif Olbermann

    You just got served and pwned Olbermann.

    The Jester just clowned the buffoon.

  • Latin2

    Kird said:
    he’ll be alright; he’ll just call in sick whenever the Yankees play the Rangers.

    you mean taking a loooonger bath tub break…lol

  • http://Race4Congress.com Magister

    Kird said:
    hell, after reading this, KO should probably just put the KO on Countdown as a whole and call baseball games.

    That’s what he already does, which is why the show is largely unwatchable. Unlike sports with foul lines, bases, penalty lines and all kinds of black and white rules, politics and legislating have many shades of gray.

  • Latin2

    Shark…Meet Olbermann…Olberman, meet shark.

  • cd ohio

    lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Elizabeth-Brown/1535113846 Elizabeth Brown

    The media is to inform and that is what Keith does. The worse, worser, and worst is very informative to me because it is filled with such disbelief as to what some people can do or say and feel as though the world will never know. Keith speaks to these people character when he calls them out in this segment of his broadcast. It will be back because inquiry minds want to know whether someone on the left or right had the nerve to be so callous. I would ask Keith to please do not let one monkey stop the show.

  • cd ohio

    left or right mrs. brown ,do you watch the show?

  • notsofast

    KO is calling off his hate parade?

    Don’t bet on it!

  • notsofast

    Elizabeth Brown said:
    Keith speaks to these people character when he calls them out in this segment of his broadcast.

    Then he ought to include himself in the list every night.

  • Latin2

    notsofast said:
    KO is calling off his hate parade?

    Don’t bet on it!

    That makes up 90% of his show…lol.

    How is he going to change that?

  • Sean68

    You left off the segments wherein he compared the clintons to nazis and KKK’ers and the segment where he slandered Scott Brown and his family in a most reckless and vile fashion. But if you aren’t playing for the same team as he (the good guys, as you see yourselves), then you’ve missed that those are just highlights of a low, dishonest propagandist.

  • Sean68

    Elizabeth Brown said:
    The media is to inform and that is what Keith does. The worse, worser, and worst is very informative to me because it is filled with such disbelief as to what some people can do or say and feel as though the world will never know. Keith speaks to these people character when he calls them out in this segment of his broadcast. It will be back because inquiry minds want to know whether someone on the left or right had the nerve to be so callous. I would ask Keith to please do not let one monkey stop the show.

    You must be horrified, then, that obama appointed the nazi-like hillary clinton to represent the US govt. to foreign nations.

  • arik1969

    This ends my dream of one day being the worst person in the world. Oh, the agony!

  • Tommy Christopher

    Sean68 said:
    You left off the segments wherein he compared the clintons to nazis and KKK’ers and the segment where he slandered Scott Brown and his family in a most reckless and vile fashion. But if you aren’t playing for the same team as he (the good guys, as you see yourselves), then you’ve missed that those are just highlights of a low, dishonest propagandist.

    I’m not sure what your criticism is. I gave 3 examples, but it’s a blog post, not an encyclopedia. There are many more examples than you cited, so why didn’t you list them all? The same reason I didn’t.

  • American Infidel

    His 18 viewers will be very upset

  • RazorsEdge

    Tommy Christopher said:
    First of all, the very premise of “Worst Persons” is, on most nights, to satirize the very hyperbole against which Stewart rallied. Most of the “winners” aren’t actually the worst people in the world, but rather, people who did something stupid, ill-advised, or even something really bad.

    Agreed. Sounds like TC likes O’Rreily’s “pinheads/patriots” spot as well. TC, this premise is correct, right?

  • Cecelia

    “Its just that today, given the serious stuff we have to start covering tomorrow, we think its the right thing to do short term and then we will see what happens. And we’ll also see if anyone else, on tv, or radio, will do something similar.”

    This comment by Olbermann, sounds to me that this is about the coverage Olbermann will be focusing on a new Republican leadership.

    He’d like to present a more serious image so his attacks will NOT be dismissed as his typical hyperblic partisan rants (skewered by Stewart).

    I forsee the dire earnest portentiousness of Olbermann’s “special comments” becoming the rule of the day.

    I

  • crclarkNY

    >>Sometimes it’s okay to get angry.”

    I’m sure you’re applying this to everyone, right?

  • Puter Boi

    If Keith Olbermann is this generations’s Ted Baxter……Tommy Christopher is his Georgette.

  • Harry Flashman

    Olbermann not doing the Worst Person In The World segment is like going to the circus and the clowns not coming out of the little car. It’s what you go for.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Treacher/542957672 Jim Treacher

    Most of the “winners” aren’t actually the worst people in the world, but rather, people who did something stupid, ill-advised, or even something really bad.

    Such as getting better ratings than Keith Olbermann.

  • chatmandu002

    Watch the “Spin-meister” Uberman try to spin the fact that the republicans don’t win the senate as a mandate for the democrats to continue their march towards big government socialism.

  • Pablo

    Ooooh, somebody’s cranky:

    Americans gave GOP 8 years to fuck this country up, and gave Obama and the Dems 21 months to fix it. Dumbfucks. Especially stay-home D & I.

    Let’s not tell him that the Dems have been in control for 4 years until tomorrow.

  • Pablo

    chatmandu002 said:
    Watch the “Spin-meister” Uberman try to spin the fact that the republicans don’t win the senate as a mandate for the democrats to continue their march towards big government socialism.

    Keef will be telling us that the GOP failure to take the White House is evidence of their catastrophic loss.

  • Michael_T

    Whether it’s K.O.’s “Worst” or BillO’s “Pinheads & Patriots”, I find them both entertaining and both worthy of criticism and praise depending on the night.

    IMO Tommy Christopher’s comments are spot on. I frequently fast forward my DVR to K.O.’s “Worst Person”.

    For those old enough to remember “Laugh-In” back in the early 1970s it kind of reminds of their segment “Fickle Finger of Fate”.

  • TeaPartyPatriot

    Rally to Restore ‘Worst Persons in the World’

    …What’s the point? Hasn’t TAX CHEAT olbermann won that title for life?

  • Tony the Fist

    God, I hate Vietnam Vets…they’re like, the worst people in the world. Next to all those evil conservative women.

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    notsofast says:
    “KO is calling off his hate parade?”

    Hate fest. Coming from the biggest hater who comments here, that’s pretty ironic (at best). You are a big defender of my subject, Mr. Beck. Now who says quite ofter, “I hate ____” I have never heard Olbermann declare his hatred for any president, dead or alive. Disdain? Contempt? Probably, but not the hatred that seethes from Mr. Beck.

    Not even close.

    Notsofastorsmart, Got hypocrisy?

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    Michael_T says:
    “IMO Tommy Christopher’s comments are spot on. I frequently fast forward my DVR to K.O.’s “Worst Person”.”

    My wife doesn’t like Olbermann: too strident, too arrogant. However, she does enjoy the “worse persons” segment.

  • Tony

    How is this Keith “Tokyo Rose” Olbermann……bring back worst person, however, invote the person that you named WP on the show the next night to defend themselves face to face with you! You will not do it because you are a coward. Come on KO-KO the clown. Prove me wrong.

  • http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

    Tony says: “Come on KO-KO the clown.”

    No restoration of sanity on this comment.

    Next.

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