Keith Olbermann has walked into a propellor again. This time he should do the right thing.

Subject: Countdown for Jan 27

Date: January 28, 2006 11:46:17 AM GMT-05:00

To: countdown@msnbc.com

On January 27 Keith Olbermann took another on-air shot at Bill O'Reilly (by our count, #58 in his continuing series). Displaying a photograph of Mr O'Reilly, Mr Olbermann stated:

He walked right into another propellor. He has now ripped us here at MSNBC on the air for supposedly not covering the case of Judge Edward Cashman of Vermont...Bill O'Reilly, once again, today's "Worst Person in the World"!

Mr Olbermann did not present a direct quote of what Mr O'Reilly said. However, the transcript can be found here.

It is clear that Bill O'Reilly said nothing whatsoever about MSNBC's coverage of the matter. Olbermann's report seems to have been made up out of whole cloth. Mr Olbermann went on to claim:

Here's the thing, Bill. The Judge Cashman story? We covered it here on Countdown on January 6th of this year. You didn't start covering it until January 9th.

But Mr Olbermann is being disingenuous. He fails to mention that Bill O'Reilly couldn't have covered the story on Friday, January 6 because he wasn't on The O'Reilly Factor that day. There was a substitute host. (He was back the following Monday: January 9.) By the way, the Countdown "coverage" Mr Olbermann boasted of amounted to three sentences.

Mr Olbermann's entire attack is based on a falsehood, a made-up O'Reilly comment that O'Reilly didn't say. It's Keith Olbermann who has walked right into another propellor. It is incumbent on Mr Olbermann and MSNBC to retract and apologize publicly for this cheapest of cheap shots.

Johnny Dollar's Place
Olbermann Watch

UPDATE: Full details of this Olbermann broadcast can be found in this entry at Olbermann Watch.