O'Reilly “Worst Person” for comments about VA Beach mayor; Morris runner-up


On the April 11 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the “winner” of his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment for comments O'Reilly made about Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf on the April 6 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program. Olbermann said of O'Reilly: “He not only called the mayor of that city ... quote, 'limited in her intellectual capacity,' but added, quote, 'She should be home baking pies.' As Media Matters for America documented, O'Reilly made his comments during a discussion about a March 30 automobile accident in Virginia Beach, which resulted in the deaths of two teenage girls, reportedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant who said he had been drinking the night of the accident. Olbermann also observed that O'Reilly “returned to the tragedy in New York, in which he said the kids in the Bronx all burned to death because the city, the sanctuary city of New York, doesn't regulate how many people you can cram into a slum.”

As Media Matters has noted (here, here, here, and here), Olbermann frequently includes O'Reilly in his “Worst Person” segment. Olbermann also honored O'Reilly with the top “Worst Person” prize during the March 23 edition of Countdown for, as Media Matters documented, instructing his staff to cut off the mike of co-host Lis Wiehl, during the March 21 edition of his radio show, while the two were discussing the U.S. attorney scandal.

Additionally, during the April 11 program, Olbermann named Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist Dick Morris “runner-up” for “Worst Person” because, as Media Matters also documented, “after reading a 'Fox Noise' poll indicating that 26 percent of respondents would be scared if Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton [D-NY] were elected president, Morris offered this gem, quoting, 'You have to ask yourself, the first black man is running for president and nobody is afraid of him because everybody's afraid of Hillary'?”

From the April 11 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

Tonight's runner up: Dick Morris of “Fox Noise,” after reading a “Fox Noise” poll, indicating that 26 percent of respondents would be scared if Senator Clinton were elected president, Morris offered this insightful gem, quoting, “You have to ask yourself, the first black man is running for president and nobody is afraid of him, because everybody's afraid of Hillary”? Does the name Don Imus mean anything to you?

Back in our saddle again as our winner, back in his own world about immigrants, Bill-O, back to the two teenage girls killed by an illegal alien drunk driver in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He not only called the mayor of that city, Meyera Oberndorf, quote, “limited in her intellectual capacity,” but added, quote, “She should be home baking pies.”

And he returned to the tragedy in New York, in which he said the kids in the Bronx all burned to death because the city, the sanctuary city of New York, doesn't regulate how many people you can cram into a slum, even though there is still no vindication -- or indication that the victims there were undocumented aliens and no explanation, except in Bill's mind, as to how that possibly could be relevant.

Sir, would you please, as Shakespeare wrote, assume a virtue, if you have it not. Let these families mourn for a while without exploiting them for your own twisted political agenda. Bill O'Reilly -- today's Worst Person in the World.