Olbermann to O'Reilly: “If people cared about the personal lives of people in newspaper or TV, you would be working the change booth at a video arcade by now”

Written by Anna Dimond

Published

Keith Olbermann once again bestowed a “Worst Person” award upon Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, this time because O'Reilly threatened to “get into” the “lives” of The New York Times' Frank Rich and Bill Keller.

On the January 3 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann once again bestowed a “Worst Person” award upon Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, this time because O'Reilly threatened to “get into” the “lives” of New York Times columnist Frank Rich and executive editor Bill Keller. O'Reilly made his comments -- documented by Media Matters for America -- on the January 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor during a discussion with NPR senior correspondent and Fox News contributing political analyst Juan Williams. Kicking off his “Worst Person” list with O'Reilly's award, Olbermann said: “Bill, nobody cares about their [Rich and Keller's] lives. If people cared about the personal lives of people in newspaper or TV, you would be working the change booth at a video arcade by now.”

As Media Matters has noted, Olbermann has crowned O'Reilly with all three tiers of his “Worst Person” award on several occasions in the past few months. On the November 30 edition of Countdown, for example, O'Reilly swept the awards, winning the gold, silver, and bronze medals; a week later, Olbermann honored O'Reilly again with the “Worst Person” and “runner-up” awards; and on the December 13 broadcast, Olbermann gave O'Reilly the top “Worst Person in the World” award for making false claims about bans on holiday clothing.

From the January 3 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: But first, time for Countdown's list of today's three nominees for “Worst Person in the World.”

Bronze, maybe we can just permanently bronze him. The latest is a flat-out threat against columnists Frank Rich and editor Bill Keller of The New York Times. He says the Times has been unfair in its coverage of the Bush White House. So quoting him, again: “If they want to attack people personally, then we're going to have to just show everybody about their lives.”

Bill, nobody cares about their lives. If people cared about the personal lives of people in newspaper or TV, you would be working the change booth at a video arcade by now.