B&C reports that the First Amendment Advisory Council of the Media Institute has issued an open letter to MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann asking him to apologize to one of its members, Floyd Abrams, for comments made on a January broadcast:
“Floyd Abrams is the foremost First Amendment advocate of our time. He also is Jewish. For any Jew to be compared to a Nazi collaborator is vile, but in the case of Floyd is simply beyond comprehension,” they wrote. “But your offhanded inclusion of this ugly epithet points to a deeper problem that has degraded public discourse — the breakdown of civility….”
Not mentioned in the letter (which can be read here) or in the B&C article is the fact that Floyd Abrams’ son is Dan Abrams, NBC Chief Legal Analyst, former MSNBC general manager, and founder of Mediaite.com. Olbermann has criticized Abrams and Mediaite in the past.