Keith Olbermann
From dKosopedia
Keith Olbermann is a news anchor and commentator who currently hosts Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. The show is normally a tongue-in-cheek news program and includes a countdown of the worst people in the world. However in late Summer 2006 Olbermann began to include a Special Comments segment in which he persistently gives scathing reprimands to notable political figures. [1]
For persistently scourging the second Bush administration, Fox News, and American conservatism in general, Olbermann has not only won the Edward R. Murrow award but also has been called the Edward R. Murrow of the 21 Century.
Contents |
Special Comments
- August 30, 2006 Feeling morally, intellectually confused?
- Re: Rumsfeld
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks & Liars Video/Transcript
- September 5, 2006 Have you no sense of decency, sir?
- Re: Bush's speech
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- September 11, 2006 This hole in the ground
- Re: 9/11 5 years later
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- September 18, 2006 Bush owes us an apology
- Re: Bush's Rose Garden press conference
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- September 25, 2006 A textbook definition of cowardice
- Re: Bill Clinton's interview with Fox News
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- October 5, 2006 A special comment about lying
- Re: Difference between enemies and critics
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- October 18, 2006 Beginning of the end of America
- Re: Military Commission Act
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- October 23, 2006 Advertising terrorism
- Re: Use of terrorists in Republican Campaign Ads
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- November 1, 2006 Bush owes troops an apology, not Kerry
- Re: Kerry's joke
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- November 6, 2006 Where are the checks, balances?
- Re: Checks and balances
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- November 20, 2006 Lessons from the Vietnam War
- Re: Bush comparing Vietnam and Iraq
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- November 30, 2006 Free speech and the delusion of grandeur
- Re: Gingrich
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- January 2, 2007 sacrifice
- Re: Sacrifice and Bush's surge plan
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- January 11, 2007 The president who cried wolf
- Re: Bush's credibility and Iraq
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- January 30, 2007 Bush shoots for ‘Jaws,’ delivers ‘Jaws 2’
- Re: Bush's claim to have stopped four terrorism plots
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
- February 26, 2007 Condi goes too far
- Re: Rice's comparison of Hussein to Hitler
- MSNBC Video/Transcript | Crooks and Liars Video/Transcript
"Keith number"
During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary season, Olbermann began using the term "Keith number" in reference to the sum of a pre-election opinion poll's margin of error and the percentage of respondents who are undecided. Olbermann believes this value tends to be predictive of the extent to which a poll may vary from actual election results, and also of the volatility of the electorate's leanings.[2]
To summarize:
- The greater the poll's margin of error, the further the results may be from the current views of the voters.
- The more undecided voters, the more likely voters are to change their views in the future.
On the January 11, 2008 episode of Countdown, Olbermann described the number as follows:
"What, you ask is the ‘Keith number‘? This is the margin of error plus the percentage of undecided—in this case, four-and-a-half margin of error plus five percent undecided. I thought of it so, I named it after myself. You think of a better caveat for polls from now on and we‘ll name it after you."[3]
Olbermann's "Keith number" is unrelated (mathematically or otherwise) to the more traditional (and arcane) use of the term, which refers to a Fibonacci-like sequence of numbers.[4]
Books
- Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values (Random House, 12/26/2007)
- The Worst Person In the World and 202 Strong Contenders (Wiley, hardcover 09/11/2006, paperback 09/10/2007)
- The Big Show: Inside ESPN's Sportscenter (Atria, 04/01/1998) (coauthor: Dan Patrick)