Editor's Note: See the previous installments of Forsmark's "Meltdown with Keith Olbermann" series here.
While every other news channel at the top of the hour led with the mass murders committed by Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan, Keith Olbermann led Countdown with ahysterical rant about the health care demonstration at the Capitol, implying it was treasonous, seditious activity by the Republican Party, a call to violence, racist, and reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa.
Keith Olbermann could connect the dots between one offensive sign at the anti-socialized medicine rally at the Capitol today, racism, and the Republican leadership; but the fact that Hasan had been in some hot water with the Army for an internet post where he said that suicide bombers were comparable to soldiers who sacrificially throw themselves on a grenade to protect their comrades in arms did not strike him as a salient point.
While MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews, Olbermann and Maddow all mentioned that Hasan was distraught over an imminent deployment to Iraq, and sometimes mentioned he was against the war, none emphasized that he was a Muslim who made statements that the Muslims should "stand up" against American forces in the Middle East.
NBC News Terrorism Analyst Roger Cressey pointed out to Matthews that the "pasty white kid" who is the al Qaeda American spokesman called for just such actions, but that was the last of that kind of talk for the night on the network.
Matthews kept going on sympathetically about PTSD, and the "horrendous things" that Hasan must had heard as an Army psychiatrist. But in a fairly long career as an Army shrink, Hasan had never been deployed overseas.
But that fits the liberal media template. Military service can drive you nuts.
I'm guessing no one on this network will EVER point out that it may be a measure of political correctness that this guy was still on active duty at all, with these danger signs. Was someone afraid to be accused of cashiering an "outspoken Muslim," because of "profiling?"
Former FBI profiler Cliff van Zandt did mention to Olbermann that Hasan may have had a "secondary" religious motive. Of course, in van Zandt's experience, serial or mass murderers who claim a religious motive are usually covering for something else, in many cases a psychosexual fantasy.
But this is no "God told me to purge those women" run of the mill psycho; and a not insignificant portion of his co-religionists have gone on suicide missions with religion as a PRIMARY motive.
And a half hour into Maddow's show, the word Muslim has not come up, though his degree from Virginia Tech, scene of another mass shooting has been come up in an ironic context few times—and Mark Benjamin of Salon emphasized "secondary PTSD" as the most likely motive, with no basis for that theory, followed by Christopher Smith of Rolling Stone saying that the military is negligent in treating PTSD, and relating lots of stories about disturbed veterans.
Once again folks, HASAN HAS NEVER BEEN DEPLOYED OVERSEAS.
But back to Countdown. Remember the format. Olbermann led with his hysterical rant about the supposed rebellion at the Capitol today, but that made it the 5th story in his top 5. Next, was Cliff van Sant and an attempt at profiling Hasan.
That made Fort Hood Keith Olbermann's NUMBER 4 STORY OF THE DAY!
Number 1? The earth shattering revelation that conservatives from Dick Army to Sarah Palin have contradictory opinions over the meaning of the Congressional race in New York 23, edging out Rush Limbaugh making the Worst Person in the World list for a joke about "anal poisoning."
No, I'm not kidding.
Yeah, it's FOX that's not a real news organization.
Editor's Note: See Ben Johnson's commentary on President Obama's poor remarks proceeding his words on the massacre.