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Keith Olbermann

From dKosopedia

Category: Media

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 1 Special Comments 2 "Keith number" 3 Books 4 See Also

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)

See Also

Keith Olbermann 24 controversy

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