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Keith Olbermann Tries His Hardest to Disprove Corporate-Collusion Story

Yesterday, we told you not to worry that Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly had been reportedly ordered by their corporate overlords to stop bickering. There’s no way they could really hold off for very long, and anyway, after that story, Olbermann basically had to go after O’Reilly, Rupert Murdoch, and Fox in order to maintain his dignity. Lo and behold, last night he did, blasting Brian Stelter’s Times report that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had colluded to muffle their anchors in order to protect corporate interests. (O’Reilly remained mum.) “I told him that not only wasn’t I [party to any deal], that I wasn’t even asked to be by my bosses, and he printed it anyway!” Olbermann railed at Stelter. “This was merely a misinterpretation of an announcement that I made here on June 1, that because Bill O’Reilly at Fox News had abetted the assassination of George Tiller, he’d become too serious to joke about and I would thus stop doing so.” Olbermann reversed that decision, calling O’Reilly a “racist clown” last night.

If you watch through to the end there, Olbermann sort of defended his sworn enemy: “How would you like to be [Fox News boss] Roger Ailes right now, or Bill O’Reilly or anybody else who thinks they decide what goes on, even for a minute, at Fox News channel?” he asked. “How dare you muzzle Bill O’Reilly, Mr. Murdoch? … This is the essence of corporate interference in the marketplace of ideas. Solidarity, brother Bill!” That would be sort of sweet, except it’s based on the presumption that even though the half of Brian Stelter’s story about him was false, the half about Fox News was true, which is awfully convenient for Olbermann.

Keith Olbermann Tries His Hardest to Disprove Corporate-Collusion Story