MSNBC's Keith Olbermann awarded his "worst person" award to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for displaying sheer "stupidity" during a speech last Friday.
The frequent Palin detractor "gave 'Sister Sarah' the honor for her 'gaffefest' at Cal State Stanislaus over the weekend, during which, he said, 'she said, perhaps, 100 things that brand her as a phony," Huffington Post noted.
"But none is more symbolic of her imbecility, her corner-cutting, her downright endorsement of stupidity instead of intelligence than this one," he said, introducing her false claim that Ronald Reagan attended "California's Eureka College."
"Eureka College is in Eureka, Illinois," Olbermann said. "Illinois, where Ronald Reagan was from. There is a town of Eureka in California, but it doesn't have a college. And Palin went to three different colleges and doesn't have an education. Well, that woman is an idiot."
Olbermann then mimicked Reagan's classic debate line "there you go again" to pay tribute to Palin winning the "worst person" distinction for the nth time on Countdown.
On Saturday, RAW STORY reported, "A Fox affiliate television station is refusing to apologize for accidentally broadcasting a room full of reporters offering very frank assessments of a speech by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin."
The slip-up happened Friday night as Fox40 in Sacramento was broadcasting live from California State University, Stanislaus. After the speech concluded, journalists and crew members behind the scenes offered some off-the-cuff assessment of her remarks, with one man saying he felt like he'd just stepped off a roller coaster.
Another said he could understand why "the dumbness doesn't come through in sound-bytes." Yet another argued that she'd not used a complete sentence or even "made a statement."
The station insists their reporter and photographer were not behind the comments -- however, they do not offer an apology or name the reporters whose voices were picked up.
Indeed, it's possible the error was due to Palin's pronounced dislike of the media, as even the Fox crew was turned away from her actual speech, according to their explanation. Instead of filming the former official up close, they were forced to point their cameras at a screen in a media overflow area at a separate venue.
The following video is from MSNBC's 'Countdown' with Keith Olbermann that originally aired on Mon., June 28, 2010:
