Keith Olbermann‘s latest Special Comment attacked the Clinton campaign for their lack of response to Geraldine Ferraro‘s remarks about Sen. Barack Obama.
Olbermann prefaced last night’s comment by saying, “I am not here endorsing Senator Obama’s nomination.” It all began Tuesday night, when he called Ferraro’s comments “clearly racist.” Last night, Olbermann said Sen. Clinton was, “campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican.” Olbermann, who anchors MSNBC’s election coverage, said the Clinton campaign is, “awash in this filth.”
This morning, Politico’s Ben Smith asked Clinton campaign communications director Howard Wolfson about the comment. “We obviously, vigorously disagree with that characterization, although many of us remain fans of Keith and enjoy watching the show on nights other than last night,” Wolfson said.
After the jump, a detailed look at MSNBC’s history with the Clinton campaign. Also, the video of the segment…
MSNBC has been attacked multiple times by the Clinton campaign for its perceived anti-Clinton stance. Most notably the David Shuster “pimped out” comment that lead to his suspension. Other MSNBC anchors have been called out by the Clinton campaign for things they’ve said on the air, including Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson.
As for Olbermann, before airing his 10-minute comment on Sen. Clinton, he took the Special Comment to his blogosphere home at Daily Kos, writing a post. The site disabled comments after receiving more than 1,000 of them. Olbermann also provided a comment of his own, soothing any thoughts of repercussion. “Please allay your fears about internal blowback: my always-supportive masters saw this well in advance,” he wrote.
And with last night’s comment, Olbermann has shown a willingness to attack in a bi-partisan manner:
• In February, Olbermann named Sen. John McCain, now the Republican candidate, the Worst Person in the World.
• Also in February, Olbermann called President Bush a “fascist.”
In addition to delivering opinion on his nightly broadcast, Olbermann has lead coverage as co-anchor of every election night in the 2008 presidential primaries. Last month, the LA Times’ Matea Gold talked with Olbermann who seemed to question to dual role himself: “Some of it is subtle, like can I do a special comment on Monday and anchor primary coverage on Tuesday?”