Countdown's Worst Persons for Feb. 1, 2010 with winner Bill O'Reilly -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: O'Reilly's math blunder: 4-year trial at $200 million a year equals "almost a trillion dollars"
Runners up James O'Keefe -- Clown Time: James O'Keefe Explains Himself and Mark Levin -- Levin suggests Sen. Patrick Leahy drunk on Senate floor.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 28, 2009 with winners being a whole host of right wingers for their response to the State of the Union address. Media Matters has the breakdown--The right-wing response to Obama's SOTU address: "jerk," "arrogant," cocky". Runners up Karl Rove for his appearance on Fox & Friends--Does Rove Think Reagan And Bush Were ‘Weak’ For Discussing The ‘Situation’ They Inherited? and Rudy Giuliani on the same show--Giuliani falsely claims Obama never said "war" in State of the Union.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 26, 2009 with winner Bill O'Reilly. Runners up Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Grace.
Bill-O -- O’Reilly jokes: Kidnap top Dems, waterboard Speaker Pelosi:
During a recent stop of the Bold & Fresh Tour with fellow Fox News personality Glenn Beck, right-wing talker Bill O'Reilly couldn't help but to spin a hypothetical.
In his fantasy world where Obama hires him as a presidential adviser, O'Reilly explained the first thing he'd do is lavishly decorate his office. Thing two would be having the CIA director kidnap top Democrats and "waterboard" Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
He was, of course, "joking" during the Jan. 23 appearance. The audience roared with laughter, even as O'Reilly had cautioned, "Don't tell anyone I said this, please."
Rush -- Defending Limbaugh, right-wing media smear Foxman:
After Anti-Defamation League (ADL) national director Abraham Foxman criticized Rush Limbaugh for his January 20 statement that "a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there's starting to be some buyer's remorse there" -- remarks Limbaugh later lied to defend -- the right-wing media has rushed to defend Limbaugh and to attack Foxman. Foxman has been smeared as a "terrible Jew" and a "plague on his people," and described as a "disgusting, craven little twerp."
Nancy Grace -- Nancy Grace Interview Contributed To Melinda Duckett Suicide, Professor Says:
A Harvard professor says CNN Headline News host Nancy Grace's relentless questioning of a Florida mother three years ago contributed to her suicide, according to a filing in the family's wrongful death case.
Grace launched aggressive nightly coverage of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett's case shortly after he disappeared in 2006, usually with a collection of analysts. When the boy's mother, Melinda Duckett, appeared by telephone two weeks into the case, speculation was beginning to narrow on her possible involvement.
Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, a clinical professor of psychiatry, wrote in a filing this week. that Grace "struck a highly accusatory tone."
The professor saw "a distraught young woman who is subject to repeated and increasingly sharp questioning by a hostile interviewer who displays increasing suspicion and anger towards Ms. Duckett."
The next day, the 21-year-old Duckett shot herself in the head.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 18, 2010 with winner Sean Hannity. Runners up Karen Hughes and Dean Zerbe.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 12, 2009 with winner Rep. Gresham Barrett. Runners up Bill Cunningham and Tucker Carlson.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 7, 2010 with winner Sherman Frederick. Runners up Michael Steele and Glenn Beck.
Countdown's Worst Person's for Jan. 5, 2009 with winner Karl Rove. Runners up Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 4, 2009 with winner Brent Bozell.
In a December 31 Newsmax article, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell is quoted as saying that if Rush Limbaugh said liberals "want to kill people," then "[i]t would be the end of his career." But Limbaugh has made numerous remarks of the sort, including declaring that "It's the American Left that wants you to die" and that the Democratic Party is "obsessed with your death."
Runners up Scott Rasmussen and The Politico.
Reporting on criticisms of right-leaning pollster Scott Rasmussen, Politico presented as fact his official bio as “an independent pollster” who “has never been a campaign pollster or consultant.” The article quotes Rasmussen’s critics, but fails to question his supposed independence.
And Gretchen Carlson.
Gretchen Carlson Promotes Bogus Bertha Lewis White House Visit Story On Fox & Friends
Gretchen Carlson is a graduate of Stanford where, one assumes, she learned that information must be properly sourced and vetted before it is used in a report. Thus, one has to question why former Miss America pushed a discredited Andrew Breitbart report which claimed that ACORN’s CEO, Bertha Lewis, recently visited the White House. Fox Nation ran with the smear for three days before taking it down*. But today, pretty in pink Gretchen reported that “ACORN's chief Bertha Lewis got an inside look at the White House just days before those explosive undercover tapes about ACORN were released. Could her relationship with the First Family affect the way the administration ended up viewing those tapes?” Ah, the “explosive” tapes that resulted in a Congressional Committee concluding that ACORN hasn’t violated any federal regulations in the last five years. Gretchen didn’t mention that little detail.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 17, 2009 with winner Michelle Malkin. Runners up Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
OLBERMANN: That`s next, but first time for Countdown`s number two story, tonight`s worst persons in the world.
The bronze to Orly Taitz Limbaugh. One of the great historians, he, described the second Reagan term and the only George H.W. Bush term as eight years of prosperity. "Now after eight years of prosperity under Bush 43, we`re again seeing the seething hate for profits."
Let`s see. The recession from July 1990 to March 1991. The recession from March 2001 to November 2001. And the current George Bush recession, which started in December 2007. Oh, oh, I forgot, when Limbaugh talks about prosperity and profits, he means his own personally; screw the rest of you.
The runner-up, Sean Hannity. This is special; he was outraged -- outraged -- because "the president has a new pen pal, North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-il. Now according to "The Washington Post," the president wrote Mr. Kim a secret letter that was delivered last week to the communist dictator by the administration`s special envoy to North Korea."
This month is the second anniversary of the day Kim Jong-il got another personal letter hand delivered in secret. It was from President Bush. I guess that was OK. Maybe he had better penmanship or something.
But our winner, Michelle Malkin. She has exposed more persecution of Christians trying to celebrate Christmas, in this case a little boy who had been asked to draw something that reminded him of the holidays. "Public school lunacy of the day; a second grader in Taunton, MA was kicked out of school, suspended and ordered to undergo a mental evaluation for drawing a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross."
It`s the freaking Roman Coliseum out there for Christmas fearing celebrants, people. While Ms. Malkin`s readers are threatening the teacher, one small problem with the Malkin story -- actually five small problems. According to the superintendent of schools in Taunton, Mass, the nine-year-old was not kicked out off. He wasn`t suspended. And his class had not been asked to draw something that reminded them of the holidays. And actually he didn`t draw a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.
He drew a picture of himself on the cross. Just in case his message was not clear enough, he wrote his name right above the picture. You know, maybe you want a doctor to ask him if everything is OK at home. Also, since 1914, Taunton, Massachusetts has been known as the Christmas city, because of the huge Christmas display set up each year on Taunton green, at town expense. Michelle "facts, what are facts" Malkin, today`s worst person in the world.
From Countdown Dec. 16, 2009, Keith's Worst Persons segment.
OLBERMANN: First time for Countdown‘s number two story, tonight‘s worst persons in the world.
The bronze to Jay Walder, this month‘s chairman of New York City‘s MTA, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the city‘s managers of subways and buses and stuff. The authority today approved budget cuts, closing two subway lines, reducing trains, charging school kids more to take public transportation to school. This is a result of the shocking, total surprise budget shortfall that the MTA has had every 18 months or so for the last four decades. The latest, 400 million dollars they suddenly discovered last week they just didn‘t have.
I know this is a local thing, but this has been going on since I was a kid. It is the biggest running scam in this town since they caught Boss Tweed.
Our runner-up, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann—although we really must thank her for unintentionally lightening the mood tonight—compared a Code Red anti-health care reform rally to a moment in history I guess she thought she understood. “It‘s the charge of the light brigade.” You know, like the poem, half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley of death road the 600? A little over 600 British cavalry men charged the Russian lines at Balaclava in the Crimean War on October 25th, 1854. At least half of them were killed, injured or captured, largely because the 600 were attacking 20 Russian infantry battalions that had 5,240 men and 40 siege guns.
Supposedly, Lord Cardagan was ordered to make the charge by Lord Lucan, because Cardagan was his brother in law and Lucan had hated his guts for 30 years. So, Congresswoman, if you want to compare your nut bags to the charge of light brigade, have a nice ride.
But our winner, former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino. I‘ll admit it, when she was still on the job, I wondered, was she specifically selected because she had no clue? Had she been trained to not have a clue? Did she have one of those memory imprinting problems?
But after the president told CBS last night that he didn‘t wave the flag at West Point about Afghanistan because he thought, quote, “one of the mistakes that was made over the last eight years is for us to have a triumphant sense about war,” Ms. Perino followed up on Fixed News by saying, “I hope President Obama didn‘t mean it the way it came across, when he suggested that President Bush was too triumphant in his rhetoric when talking about war.”
Ms. Perino, over here, ma‘am. I‘d like to show you a photograph and ask you if you recognize when or where it‘s from. Hmm? No? No clue? Any idea who the guy was? Seriously? You‘re hoping President Obama didn‘t think President Bush was too triumphant in his rhetoric when talking about war? I mean, even Mr. Bush has now said mission accomplished was now a mistake.
Dana, is my head attached to my shoulders or did I leave it at home by accident, Perino, today‘s worst person in the world.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 14, 2009 with winner John Whitehead. Runners up Vincent Keane and James Inhofe.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 9, 2009 with winner David Wright. Runners up Glenn Beck and Fox & Friends producer Lauren Petterson.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 8, 2009 with winner Mayor Russell Wiseman. Runners up the WSJ's Bret Stephens and Fox & Friends.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 7, 2009 with winner Mayor Russell Wiseman. Runners up Alisyn Camerota and Glenn Beck.
Countdown's Worst Persons for Dec. 3, 2009 with winners Fox & Friends. Runners up Ari Fleischer and Gretchen Carlson.
