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Friday, September 5, 2008

Politics Olbermann Apologizes for Airing GOP 9/11 Pandering

Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 4:30 PM

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, appearing visibly emotional, condemned the Republican Party last night for airing a video that included graphic footage of the 9/11 atttacks and their aftermath.

Olbermann said:

If, at this late date, any television network had, of its own accord, shown that much video tape and that much graphic video tape of 9/11--it, we, would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that video tape the way I did, I apologize. It is a subject of great pain, for many of us still, and it was probably not appropriate to be shown.

The video, embedded below, implies that the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, the Iraq War, the 2000 USS Cole attack, various attacks on US embassies overseas, and the 9/11 attacks were all linked by a common enemy--"those who... obey God's command to kill Americans." Over shots of the collapsing World Trade Center, firefighters rushing to pull bodies out of the rubble, and a solemn Rudy Giuliani arriving at the scene, a male narrator solemnly intones, "This enemy has been at war with us for decades. This, we now know. The jihadists are intent on attacking...freedom--the very soul of America."

It is, almost literally, sickening.

Watch it:

And Olbermann's reaction:

The hoots and hollers from the Republicans crowd after the video (standing ovation can be seen here) ends tell you all you need to know about what sort of person is supporting John McCain.

Via Slog.

 

Commenting was not available when this article was originally published.

Comments (11) RSS

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1
Ex-cellent!
Posted by Monty on September 5, 2008 at 4:50 PM · Report
2
"perhaps even trying to evoke that pain again"

Perhaps.

I think the kreepy kats described these people best as "half-wit hokels who keep voting like the planes on 9/11 were point at them"
Posted by I want to delete my account on September 5, 2008 at 4:59 PM · Report
3
How about we blame the g*&damn Islamic terrorists? Oh yeah, that would likely involve courage.
Posted by D on September 5, 2008 at 5:16 PM · Report
4
The Homer-esque meatheaded chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" that punctuated a lot of RNC speeches told *me* everything I needed to know about that crowd.
Posted by tk. on September 6, 2008 at 8:23 AM · Report
5
The Homer-esque meatheaded chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" that punctuated a lot of RNC speeches told *me* everything I needed to know about that crowd.
Posted by tk. on September 6, 2008 at 8:23 AM · Report
6
Just more fear mongering and tasteless pandering from the party that has the audacity to parade and exploit at the RNC the same veterans that they so cruelly have turned their backs on through their merciless troop deployments, budget cuts, and active duty policy changes. Country first? Patriotism?? Courage???

It's time for HOPE as well as change.
Posted by Gary on September 6, 2008 at 12:21 PM · Report
7
For how many conventions can we talk about 9/11? We already had a convention in NYC in 2004; will we have to hear about this in 2012? 2016?
Posted by ambrown on September 6, 2008 at 4:06 PM · Report
8
We need to hear it from both the Dems and Repubs! Lest we forget that tragic day, it was a beautiful and touching piece of art. Thank you from a fiercely independent.
Posted by jsucese on September 7, 2008 at 9:44 PM · Report
9
jsucese - you are as independent as McCain - you know the maverick that votes with Bush 90% of the time.
Posted by rickyvern on September 10, 2008 at 6:38 AM · Report
10
Oh yes, it takes a lot of courage to blame a group of people that we don't know anything about, and to lump "them" in with every middle eastern person. But the video does much worse than do the really cowardly and asinine thing of blaming "them" without defining who, precisely--not vaguely and generally--"they" are; it opens a "911 tribute" with images and voiceover regarding the Iran hostage crisis, which has absolutely no relation, connection, or parallel to 911. And it suggests that "they" were behind BOTH events. Small groups of politically-motivated individuals perpetrate acts like the taking of hostages or the bombing of buildings. The RNC video purposely obscures that fact and tries to terrify the American people into hating others--and getting us ready to bomb Iran, a country that is doing nothing to threaten us in any way. I have never seen anything so blatantly and terrifyingly propagandistic and incorrect as this RNC "tribute" video. A tribute to American fear, if there is anyone in America who does not reject this video and its messages outright.
Posted by daphne on September 11, 2008 at 6:08 PM · Report
11
'They' are precisely radical Islamic terrorists and 'their' philosophy and followers have been at de facto war with the United States since the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979.
The connection is linear and quite solid.
Bombing and killing across the globe for decades.
And we are not scared of them either.
Posted by D on September 17, 2008 at 2:25 PM · Report

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