PBS' Bill Moyers interviews Keith Olbermann 12-14-07 PART 1

[bkury64]

olby is a total traitor, he is lucky that i am not in charge

[katoombawarren]

The country is lucky you're not in charge. A traitor to whom? And why?

[bayondai]

Of course Keith Olbermann doesn't understand Hockey...It's a MAN's sport! This guys an ass clown!

[pizzledizzlewizzle]

can anyone tell me if this was before or after the jon stewart one? I just dont see how people dont realize that this is so one sided... i mean olbermann is just one train of thought

[asyland]

"Franken and Moyers often lie and say The NY Times, academia, et al are not liberal biased, while blasting Fox News and the Washington Times for being conservative biased. God knows, that's as much a lie as anything"

No. Actually they don't say this. You create "facts" as well as any FOX reporter. Academia is biased? Thought you'd lump that in with the news media because what? You're against education? I'm not surprised.

[Gerkinstock]

No, I'm not against education. I know first hand that there are professors who use their classes and to indoctrinate students-- I've seen this at UCLA and from visiting professors from San Diego State University first hand.

Franken has stated that the MSM (i.e., liberal media) does a fair and balanced job, while right-wing media (non-liberal media sources) uniquely slant their coverage. He called Bernard Goldberg an "asshole" for writing about his experiences at CBS News.

[Gerkinstock]

Bill Moyers has stated that claims of an overall liberal bias in MSM is a lie created by the right-wing media machine and once described American media, in a speech to Take Back America, as being composed of two sectors: pro-conservative and pro-Republican/pro-corporate. He lies repeatedly about media bias and is the ulimate hypocrite for bashing O'Reilly and Limbaugh for being conservative yahoos while supporting liberal yahoos like Maher, Olbermann, Franken & Moore.

[Gerkinstock]

"You're against education? I'm not surprised."

A red herring if there ever was one.

[Gerkinstock]

Franken and Moyers often lie and say The NY Times, academia, et al are not liberal biased, while blasting Fox News and the Washington Times for being conservative biased. God knows, that's as much a lie as anything.

[iamalittlespy]

I challenge you to name one documented occasion when either Franken and Moyers have been cought lying. Going once, going twice......de de dee. Unlike O'reilly and Coulter who get cought lying all the time. Just go back to watching Fox and agreeing with everything they say.

[Gerkinstock]

I don't watch Fox because I am not a yahoo as you clearly are. Moyers lies through his teeth whenever he denies that there is any liberal bias in the U.S. mainstream media. Harvard University produced a study showing that to be a lie. He lies when he says he opposes bias and demagoguery in the media, then supports people like Olbermann, Moore and Maher. Go to the Franken Lies website for lies Franken has told.

Do you work for Media Matters, by any chance?

[Gerkinstock]

P.S. -- You're not a little spy, you're big nitwit.

[iamalittlespy]

I didn't bother replying for this for a while. But here it is. Enjoy the blue America ! Who's a big nitwit now ? Who are you going to blame for the Obama victory and maybe the filibuster proof majority. Is a big liberal conspiracy ? Notice how you said there was a study without providing any information on it. I am not even going to bother in checking out anything Malkin said. Remember I asked you for documented proof ? Not hearsay and stuff about some unknown nameless "studies" form Harvard.

[Gerkinstock]

P.S. #2-- Michelle Malkin... yes, as right-wing as Franken is left-wing... has also documented lies and illegal activities he's been involved with, including:

"DFL Senate candidate Al Franken acknowledged today that his New York-based business wrongly failed to provide workers' compensation insurance for nearly three years, his campaign said."

[YesterdaysHero1982]

i like olbermann

[Gerkinstock]

Hmmm... two left-wing commentators who pretend to be objective journalists. Moyers claims to oppose sensationalistic and ideologically biased commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh but supports the likes of Olbermann, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and Al Franken.

The irony is so thick it's unbearable.

Oh yeah, Rolling Stone is an irrelevant hippie-stained piece of leftist puke.

[drlabon]

what an arrogant blowhard...liberalism is just a new form of fascism

[slantedeskimo]

Yeah, thats why the democrats created our energy policy behind closed doors with oil company executives.Thats why there are hundreds of drugs with fucked up side effects that get thru the fda.Thats why we're making corn ethanol instead of sugar ethonal.Thats why this administration made it illegal to investigate the phone companies that now spy on us.Oh yeah,all that has taken place over the last seven years,all under the watch of the crony capitalists that make up this administration.

[NastevilsBack]

"I have lived much of my life assuming much of the responsibility around me and developing a dread of being blamed for things going wrong. Moreover, deep down inside I've always believed that everybody around me was qualified and competent, and I wasn't, and that some day I'd be found out." -Keith Olbermann in Salon online ESPN Mea Culpa November 17, 2002

[slantedeskimo]

So you think he's humble or you think he's right about himself in the second sentence?

[NastevilsBack]

I think the second part of his statement is the truthful part. It is a really revealing statement he made prior to becoming an MSNBC

personality. He is so hateful on air that you know there is something not right there.

[slantedeskimo]

His anger isn't unappropriate tho.

[jjoshaugh]

Just so people know, NastevilsBack has been spreading this quote around everywhere, see 8vZST3RU9k. He also has been blabbing about The O'Reilly factor Vs Countdown veiwing figures in various vids for literally months (see 42K1I0qn3_Y), and inadvertently has been proving that Countdown has been gaining viewers and the Factor losing them. He either has no life or an agenda.

As for me, I've seen variations on what KO said written by many people, and it shows humility and appreciation for his team

[Gerkinstock]

Ratings aside, Olbermann and Maher and Franken and Moore are left-wing yahoos every bit as much as O'Reilly and Limbaugh are right-wing yahoos. Taxpayer-subsidies-addicted Bill Moyers is too much of a liar to acknowledge what is transparent and obvious.

[Gerkinstock]

Bill Moyers hypocritically blasts conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly for being right-wing and hateful, then coddles people who are left-wing and hateful (Michael Moore, Al Franken, Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann).

Bill Moyers lies through his teeth when he claims there is no liberal media in America. Even Harvard University acknowledges how left-wing the mainstream media, Hollywood and taxpayer-subsidized academia are.

He is the dictionary definition of hypocrite.

[slantedeskimo]

Idk, the definition of a hypocrite to me is someone who demonizes drugs all your life, then get caught doing thirty oxycoton a day, Rush Limbaugh.And yeah he blasts them because they,unlike Maher,Moore,Olbermann,and Franken, make shit up to back up their arguments.The libs you mention get worked up over factual occurrences.Granted,sometimes the conservatives get mad over facts too,like illegal immigration,but most of the time they're ranting about stupid shit like flag burning.

[Gerkinstock]

No, people like Maher, Franken, Moore and Olbermann are just as dishonest. That often means telling the 40% of a story that promotes your POV and conveniently leaving out the other 60%. Michael Moore was being honest when he said Cuba has free speech and free expression? Maher talks about McCain opposing a bill aiding soldiers but leaves out the reason why he opposed it: the Dems loaded it with pork unrelated to aiding soldiers.

P.S. -- Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite.

[Gerkinstock]

Moyers and Olbermann should at least be honest enough to acknowledge that their not journalist-- they're liberal commentators. To be fair and balanced, Bill O'Reilly should also acknowledge that he is a conservative commentator.

[slantedeskimo]

I think you're right,all three are more commentators than journalists.However all three do perform the functions of journalism, reporting news and the events around it.Granted they do so from their political corners, but they do report the news nonetheless.But I do reiterate that the conservative ones, O'Reilly and Limbaugh imparticular, seem to get worked up over the wrongs things more often, and on occation get facts completely wrong, if not make shit up all together.

[Gerkinstock]

There are entire websites devoted to the lies, partial truths and misinformation produced by the likes of Franken, Olbermann and Moore. They are just as selective about what they tell (and don't tell) their audiences as Limbaugh and O'Reilly. Olbermann is so pro-Obama he should be paid by the Obama campaign for his services. He also relies on left-wing "reporting" from Air America, The Nation, Rolling Stone magazine and others.

Moyers is worse, though, because he is taxpayer subsidized.

[slantedeskimo]

Well Moore isn't a journalist, he's a documentarian, and i haven't seen anything of his other than fareheidt 9/11, and he presents factual documents to back up his points in that.Franken isn't a journalist either.But in any case i do like to think i make judgements based on facts, so send me the links of whatever proves that the people you named have lied in their work and then maybe i'll put them in the same league as O'Reily and Limbaugh.

[Gerkinstock]

No, but Moore does have the respect of Moyers, even though he distorts the truth as much as anybody. Limbaugh and O'Reilly also present factual evidence to back up their cases; that doesn't mean they don't distort the truth. Moyers wants people to believe that O'Reilly and Limbaugh are right-wing yahoos while Moore (who does claim to be a documentarian rather than propagandist), Franken, Maher and Olbermann (who does claim to be a journalist) are not left-wing yahoos.

[Gerkinstock]

Check for Michael Moore's appearance on Nightline from 2007, where he claimed Cuba was a country with free speech and free artistic expression. Maher called The Pope a Nazi on a recent show, but later apologized. John Stossel has exposed misinformation Moore has given on health care. Olbermann has people from The Nation, Rolling Stone and Air America who clearly favor Obama. Larry Elder produced a film called Michael & Me that exposed numerous lies contained in Bowling for Columbine.

[Gerkinstock]

There is a a website called Franken Lies and a book called Pants on Fire detailing how he has distorted the truth. Franken once threw a chair at Michael Medved, lied about it then stormed off when MM showed him video of it. Olbermann lied on his show about Medved also, claiming MM wrote a column supporting slavery.

One lie Maher tells often is that Bill Clinton was impeached for having an affair, where he was actually impeached for committing perjury in a sex-discrimination suit.

[Krunch89]

My favorite part of the Franken Lies website is when he calls Franken's jokes lies. Like when Franken wrote that Armitage broke Helen Thomas' hip. Clearly a joke. Yet, like a moron, he actually emails Thomas to see if it actually happened.

By the way, you mentioned Media Matters in another post. A great website, wouldn't you agree? I like how they post videos and transcripts, and all the relevant source documents...so you can verify the conservative misinformation yourself.

[Gerkinstock]

Franken's jokes shouldn't count as lies.

No, not a great website. Olbermann has people on from Media Matters and Rolling Stone and Air America and The Nation as if they are objective reporters and commentators. There is nothing objective about those sources. MM supports un-Constitutional Fairness Doctrine not because right-wing talk show hows uniquely slant stories to their advantage but solely because they don't want the Right to have the same opportunity do dominate radio that...

[Gerkinstock]

... the Left has had to dominate academia, Hollywood and MSM. 89% of Washington-based MSM voted for Clinton in 1992 (compared to 43% of voting Americans) while only 7% voted for Bush 41 (compared to 37.4% of voting Americans), yet MM and Bill Moyers want people to believe that Harvard University, among others, is part of a right-wing media machine trying to deceive people into believing there is any substantial liberal bias in American media.

[Krunch89]

Wow, you and your conservative ilk are predictable. The MSM is not liberally biased, nor is it conservatively biased. The MSM's problems are that they are lazy, superficial, seek out scandal and controversy, and would rather cover the horse race/personality of politics rather than policy. They aim to be entertaining rather than informing. It's sad.

Who claims Harvard is part of the conservative media? I've never heard MM nor Bill Moyers say that. I think you're just spewing here.

[Gerkinstock]

Well, you're certainly not predictable at all!

And I was being sarcastic. Harvard University is a VERY left-wing university and their studies showed a strong overall left-wing bias in the media (regarding Repubs vs. Dems, abortion, death penalty, racial issues, sex-based issues, welfare reform, et al). Bill Moyers has sad that such claims stem from the right-wing media machine, so I offered that Harvard must be part of that machine as well.

[Gerkinstock]

There has been plenty of documentation of liberal misinformation and bias that MM will never shine a light on, because it only exists to stigmatize people on the right (such as Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly) and highlight right-wing misinformation. It is not remotely unbiased in whom it targets.

David Brock was a sleazy right-wing yahoo who became a sleazy left-wing yahoo. He contradicted himself left and right during an interview with Michael Medved a few years back.

[Krunch89]

MM's goal is to expose conservative misinformation. Comparing them to MRC shows MM to be superior. MM not only gives full videos, audios, and transcripts of the item, but also links to supporting documents which show the conservative information to be misleading and wrong (you know, on a factual basis).

The Media Research Center finds "liberal bias" basically through a difference of opinion. MRC doesn't like what the media says, and basically complains about how it has to be a liberal bias.

[Krunch89]

One MRC example I just found involves the big 3 networks reporting on the slumping economy. MRC thinks that they are casting the 1.9% growth as a negative instead of a positive (keep in mind that Bush's best economic growth just reaches Clinton's AVERAGE economic growth).

MRC's only evidence that this is biased is based on an OPINION POLL showing people feel like the media is negative on the economy. That's it! No comments from experts or contrary evidence about the economy. It's so pathetic.

[Gerkinstock]

Probably the most laughable claim Brock tried to make was that Republicans were wrong to try to hold Bill Clinton accountable for committing perjury and investigating claims of sexual harrassment against him even as he stated that Democrats were perfectly correct to go after Clarence Thomas and Bob Packwood when they were accused of (less obscene) acts of harrassment, sans perjury. His partisan and ideologically-driven double standards are glaring, to say the least.

[Krunch89]

I don't remember George Soros spending millions of dollars to fund "fact-finding" missions of liberal journalists to the hometowns of Thomas or Packwood to dredge up old rumors. Or paying police officers to claim they helped arrange for affairs with Thomas or Packwood.

Brock had a problem with making up stuff about Clinton (or Anita Hill for that matter) in order to create scandals or discredit them.

[Gerkinstock]

No, just Clinton sexually harrassing numerous women, committing perjury in a sex-discrimination trial, and then claiming he was the victim of a witch hunt.

Look, the Dems created the independent council, the Dems created the "women tell the truth about sexual harrassment" standard, the Dems empowered trial lawyers to dig into people's personal lives in sex-discrimination issues, and Bill Clinton sexually harrassed and assaulted women and committed perjury under oath.

[Gerkinstock]

You can't go from saying the woman tells the truth in a He Said/She Said when it's Clarence Thomas (even when the woman is a liberal Democrat) to the reverse just because the accused is a Democrat. The ABA, which is very liberal, disbarred Clinton, and they're pro-Democrat.

The David Brock who supports anti-Constitutional Fairness Doctrine is the same scumbag who wrote The Real Anita Hill. He is interested in his side winning, even if it means illegally silencing the other side.

[Gerkinstock]

It also doesn't bode well for free speech that Brock and the Hispanic Congress want Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck taken off the air for their views on illegal immigration, esp. given that their TV shows aren't even on the public airwaves. Not that anyone would accuse Brock of supporting Constitutional rights that aren't his own.

[Gerkinstock]

BTW, unlike come conservatives, I freely acknowledge the right-wing bias of The NY Post, The Washington Times and the Fox News Channel. The last thing I would want to do is reduce myself to the level of dishonesty displayed by people like Moyers and Eric Altermann.

[katoombawarren]

Dishonesty of Moyers. Why would you pick out Moyers for dishonesty when you have Bunning, McConnell, Rumsfeld, Chaney, Bush and any of a number of high profile dissemblers to choose from?

[bayondai]

Actually, Bill O'Reilly readily admits that he is a conservative commentator. He refers to himself as a "traditionalist" not a republican. I agree with most of what you've said here but just wanted to point that out.

[turbosamvara]

I am a crow because I refer to myself as one. Kaw!

[Alicecbrown]

There is also a very similar quote about career women, about how we bear the bad conscience of upward success: "When will they find me out?" It comes from being honest with oneself. the opposite of the arrogance of ignorance we see on the right.

[NastevilsBack]

Alicecbrown,

BULLSHIT! You obvisouly don't watch Keith's show do you?

[waltermh111]

by the way, i wouldnt touch a republican candidate with a 100 foot pole. and i dont consider ron paul republican in any way shape or form except that his closest relation to them is that hes religious, except hes not fundamentalist i think so even thats only a slight connection.

[martyyu]

I really love Bill Moyers. He's honest and thorough; a true journalist.  I also enjoy Keith Olbermann. He's incredibly articulate and insightful though can stray into the strident and petty. In this interview, Olbermann admits to being aware of coming off that way, which is admirable. Both men are doing great work on their respective networks and I hope their popularity grows. An informed democracy is an effective democracy.

[buckybadger9876]

why is olby not supporting rP?

[waltermh111]

why would olbermann support ron paul?

i always saw olbermann as a liberal, how far left of center i dont know, but i couldnt see him agreeing with enough of ron pauls policies.

i would not have a problem with ron paul myself but i could never vote for him since libertarians scare me with too many of their policies.

either way, i wouldnt mind keith mentioning ron paul sometimes.

[cityview1989]

Ron Paul sets the bar too high for the rest of the canadates and he doesnt get as much TV time as the rest of the canadates.

All Ron Paul supporters(polls get rigged)

YouTube "Hacking Democracy"

Diebold owner(the voting machines owner) likes neo-cons.

He promised in a letter to Bush he will win & he did win.

I highly recommend Ron Paul supporters to watch "Hacking America" on YouTube.

Dont forget to register Republican