Olbermann named O'Reilly “Worst Person in the World” for threatening a boycott on Mexico

Written by Ben Fishel

Published

Keith Olbermann named Bill O'Reilly the winner of his daily “Worst Person in the World” award for warning Mexico's foreign secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, “If the Mexican government files one lawsuit in the U.S.A., one, pertaining to the National Guard, I will call for a total boycott of Mexican goods and no travel to your country.” O'Reilly also suggested that Derbez “give the French ambassador a call” so he could “fill” Derbez “in” on the effects of an O'Reilly-sponsored boycott.

On the May 22 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the winner of his daily “Worst Person in the World” award for comments O'Reilly made on the May 17 edition of The O'Reilly Factor. As Media Matters for America noted, O'Reilly threatened a boycott of Mexico if the country's foreign secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, makes good on a promise to sue the United States if evidence emerges that the National Guard is directly helping to detain Mexican citizens trying to enter the United States illegally. O'Reilly warned Derbez, “If the Mexican government files one lawsuit in the U.S.A., one, pertaining to the National Guard, I will call for a total boycott of Mexican goods and no travel to your country.” Continuing, O'Reilly suggested that Derbez “give the French ambassador a call” so he could “fill” Derbez “in” on the effects of an O'Reilly-sponsored boycott. As Media Matters also noted, O'Reilly has often overstated the impact of his alleged boycott on French goods, claiming that it has caused the French economy to lose “billions of dollars,” even citing the “Paris Business Review” -- the existence of which Media Matters has yet to find evidence -- as a source to back up his claim.

Olbermann mocked the idea that O'Reilly had any such impact on the French economy by imitating what the French ambassador might have to say in response to O'Reilly: 'Allô, Monsieur Ambassadeur? O'Reilly? Mais oui, it is called a delusion of grandeur. Monsieur O'Reilly is, how you say, the 'Worst Person in the World.' "

Olbermann said of the award, “It's for you, Stewie” -- a reference to a character from the animated TV show Family Guy who, during an introduction to a segment earlier in the program, asked, "[W]hy the deuce doesn't he just do more stories about that bastard Bill O'Reilly?"

O'Reilly who is a frequent recipient of Olbermann's “Worst Person in the World” award, most recently received the award on May 17 after claiming that The New York Times and “many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed.”

From the May 23 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: But speaking of which, the winner -- he's on quite a run. It's for you, Stewie. You may remember when he claimed his boycott of France had cost the French economy billions of dollars and quoted his source, the “Paris Business Review,” even though there isn't a “Paris Business Review”? Well, now it's Mexico. Threatening it with O'Reilly double-secret probation. If Mexico files one lawsuit over the National Guard troops assigned to the border, Bill O says, quote, “I will call for a total boycott of Mexican goods and no travel to your country. And if you think it doesn't matter, Mr. Secretary, why don't you give the French ambassador a call, he'll fill you in,” unquote. 'Allô, Monsieur Ambassadeur? O'Reilly? Mais oui, it is called a delusion of grandeur. Monsieur O'Reilly is, how you say, the “Worst Person in the World.”