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Worst Persons in the World: NewsBusters

The gold goes to right-wing media watchdogs NewsBusters, who can’t tell NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Brian Ross apart.
/ Source: Countdown

Every night at 8 p.m. on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann awards his daily pick for "Worst Person in the World." Some contenders are lucky — or unlucky —enough to be nominated more than once.

The Bronze for Friday, Oct. 6, goes to Leslie Sanchez, a Republican strategist who said on Tucker Carlson’s show this afternoon that Democrats have been “preying on the fact they hoped there’s some other type of terrorist attack.” 
       
Pardon me, madam, but are you insane or — or — sorry, I can’t think of any other option. Honestly, take a shower, check yourself into a hospital. Get your blood chemistry tested. Jeez!

The Silver goes to the indomitable Wall Street Journal editorial board for proudly trying to take journalism back to the 15th century — trying to spin this Foley disaster by saying the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, had voted in favor of revoking the charter of the Boy Scouts because the group had banned gay scout masters.
   
You might want to hire a fact checker. There was a vote on that. Rep. Pelosi, like 49 other House Democrats, voted neither yes nor no, but present. Basically, that would be an abstention. Nice try, though, Wall Street Journal editorial board.
   
But tonight’s winners are NewsBusters. Rabid right-winger Brent Bozell’s self-style media watchdog ran this typical kind of breathless headline: “Is Brian William the next Dan Rather?” Somebody named Al Brown claimed that the Mark Foley instant message story was a prank and that in breaking it, “Brian Williams and ABC have already abused the anonymous source dodge at least once in this saga.” And, quoting again, “Perhaps Brian Williams should resign. But for now, ABC is standing by their story.”
   
Listen, I don’t want to tell you how to do your jobs, NewsBusters; I mean, after all, you are the experts and we’re just the ideologues trying to feed falsehoods and mistakes to the gullible American public. But don’t you think you’d look a little in the know and a little less deranged if you didn’t write articles in which you suggest that Brian Williams, the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” and Brian Ross, the investigative reporter who broke the Foley story for ABC News, that they’re the same guy?
   
I mean, if you prefer looking like slovenly political hacks who make the same mistake 10 times in an eight-paragraph story, hey, go nuts! You’re obviously highly trained professionals when it comes to humiliating yourselves. But you already know all this. You don’t need to get the names or the networks right. Facts, smacts. Keep Page Sixing this thing; it’s working for you. Brian Ross, Brian Williams, hell, maybe it was Brian Kilme from Fox!
   
I’m just sayin’.
   
NewsBusters and Al Brown (if that is your real name): today’s Worst Persons in the World.