Legal Commentary

Olbermann Regrets Offensive Remarks

By Big Tent Democrat

Greg Sargent reports (a report marred by some nonsense which I will discuss below) that Keith Olbermann expressed regret for his unfortunate remarks:

This line drew some very sharp criticism from The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, who noted acidly that Olberman could "only mean one thing: Beating the crap out of Hillary Clinton, to the point where she is physically incapable of of getting up and walking out."

Which prompted Olbermann to send Sklar an apology:

It is a metaphor. I apologize: the generic "he" gender could imply something untoward. It should've been "only the other comes out -- from a political point of view." You could've called for reaction first if your main motive had merely been criticism.

Here is my question - shouldn't the apology be directed to Hillary Clinton, not Rachel Sklar? More . . .

Second, Sargent wrote one of the most ridiculous paragraphs ever:

As I've noted here before, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has a bizarre tendency to listen to the substance of criticism against him. Even more strange, considering that he's a top-shelf media star, is the fact that he apologizes for his conduct when he's wrong.

Olbermann is wrong, grievously wrong, night after night. He not only does not apologize for his outrageous behavior, he doubles down. Wake up Greg, you are better than this nonsense.

Jeralyn's earlier post on this, with video, is here.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Update (TL): Joan Walsh's view of the apology is here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).