Keith Olbermann On Ad Hominen Attacks From The Left and Right: ‘We are doing the same thing’

By Alex Weprin 

Back in 2007, then-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann sat down with Bill Moyers. The conversation was wide-ranging, with much of it focusing on his criticisms of the Bush Administration. Toward the end however, Moyers asked Olbermann questions from friends of the show, and one drew a particularly poignant response. (16:20 in the video below.)

“How does Mr. Olbermann differentiate his ad hominem attacks from those we see on the other side?

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“It is the most vulnerable point because it bothers me too. It is the one criticism that I think is absolutely fair, we are doing the same thing. We are becoming a nation of screechers, it is never a good thing, but emergency rules do apply. I would like nothing better than to going back and do a sportscast every night, but I think the stuff that I am talking about is so obvious, and will be viewed in such terms of certainty by history, that this era will be looked at the way we looked at the President and the leaders of this country who rolled back reconstruction, it is that obvious.”

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