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Keith Olbermann makes an ass of himself
On Monday during "Countdown" (see transcript), TV host Keith Olbermann marveled at the presence of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the now famous "celeb" ad released by John McCain's campaign.
According to Olbermann's (and Bob Herbert's) theory, the tower, being stiff and long and all, represented a "phallic" figure-- in other words, a penis, which was intended to tell us how badly Obama wants to screw Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
The problem: The object to which Olbermann refers was NOT the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but a structure located at the site of Obama's Berlin speech.
That's not all. Olbermann also claimed to have seen the Washington Monument in the ad in question, which is flat-out false. The Washington Monument is not in the ad either.
OLBERMANN (8/4/08): It seems like the celebrity ad continues to echo and Bob Herbert of the New York Times was on this network pointing out something—I don`t know that anybody noticed before—this morning: That not only in that McCain ad were there two underdressed blondes mixed with the black guy in the ad, but there are also images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Washington Monument, and the Victory Column in Berlin, as Bob Herbert put it, "phallic symbols"—three phallic symbols, two blondes and Barack Obama.
Granted, Herbert started it all in his appearance earlier that same day in "Morning Joe", but he does not strike me as arrogant. Herbert is clueless, not arrogant. Keith is both, hence my decision to make him center of this diary. Furthermore, as progressive media critic Bob Somerby observed today:
"He’d (Olbermann) had twelve hours to check his facts—but he still was repeating these world-class blunders..."
Spare us the BS next time, Keith, and start justifying the ginormous salary MSNBC pays you. Watching the video was all it took for you to have avoided making an ass of yourself. Too late now.
Comments (99)
Yawn.
August 6, 2008 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. Olbermann being an ass? Why it's a given on any day. It's only when he started being an ass towards the Administration that progressives started to like him. Which didn't make his ass-acious comments judicious, which he's continued to prove. Be careful of making a clown your spokesman.
August 7, 2008 3:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who said that anyone's done that? He's a guy whose program I enjoy every now and then, but he doesn't speak for me, and I don't always agree with opinions, tone or tact. Y'all need to relax on that.
August 7, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was using the general "you", not the specific. Southern, "y'all".
August 7, 2008 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure about the leaning tower, but I definitely saw something with the same shape as the Washington Monument in there - which is not the shape of the victory column in Berlin. So....
August 6, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
What you see is the Victory column, at 8 seconds, 11 seconds, and 16 seconds into the video. Notice the round base. The Washington Monument does not have a base.
Plus you see the same trees around the column both in 11 and 16, and in the 8th second you see Obama speaking with the column behind him as background.
August 6, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
These are the same people who are unable to find Iraq on a world map, even when it's labeled. The same vertical structure is used in all of the shots. In one shot, the camera is canted, giving the appearance that the structure is leaning and moving, even soaring like a collosal ego. Actually, the more you look at the ad, the better it works. Holds together very well.
August 6, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
C'mon, Billy - you're being disingenous. In one frame there's Britney with a leaning umbrella rod behind her - you think *that* was coincidence? Worse, by being thin, it directly attacked Obama's manhood. This race can't get any sleazier.
August 7, 2008 4:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
**It's the victory column without the top piece. It's been cropped to give it that stiff look. Republicans dig that kind of stuff.
August 7, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
WhatEVER!
At 32 seconds you see the Tower of Pisa. At the end you see the monument in Berlin.
Honestly, even I can see it. It's right there.
Grow up.
August 6, 2008 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
MsJoenne, you must smoking some of what Olbermann and Herbert had, because there is no image at second 32. The ad was already over by then.
August 6, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I clicked on the link provided by the original poster and it was not over by YouTube's count. The image of the LToP was right there.
August 6, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
MsJoanne, there is no image at second 32. The screen is all black in that exact point.
Do you think other readers will simply take your word for it without checking the video themselves?
August 6, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The stubbornness they're defending Olbermann with is a measure of their blind loyalty to all things Obama. How appropriate that the McCain ad uses a German setting and Germans chanting Obama!
August 6, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
See below, please.
August 6, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I clicked on the link provided by the original poster and it was not over by YouTube's count. The image of the LToP was right there.
August 6, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I AM the original poster.
August 6, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL. It's all so CONFUSING!
August 6, 2008 9:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I looked again and I'm wrong...it's at 23 seconds, not 32. Sorry! I was looking at the wrong time field.
August 6, 2008 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!
August 7, 2008 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Someone donates the monitor from an early Apple computer to a sheltered workshop in Cleveland, and "MsJoanne, Internet Genius" is born...
August 7, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Olbermann is proof of the theory that the less sex you get, the more likely you are to see sexual symbols in ads. The entire Progressive blogosphere needs to get laid.
August 6, 2008 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely!!!
...but that has absolutely no bearing on the validity or fallacy of your argument that KO is somehow not doing his job.
August 6, 2008 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not at all. His audience wants to see phalluses (phalli?), he's giving them phalluses. His audience wants manufactured outrage? He's giving them manufactured outrage. That's Entertainment.
August 7, 2008 4:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I won't bother pointing out the many phallacies in your argument.
August 7, 2008 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't there a way to alert the site that member MsJoanne is flooding the board with the same message over and over? I see no "report abuse" button anywhere. Anyone?
August 6, 2008 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Way to ignore my 23 second marker correction.
And I can't help it if my computer put up a dup message. All over the board? I repeat...grow up.
August 6, 2008 10:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the 23rd second marker, the only thing we can see is the face of Barack Obama smiling.
MsJoanne, I think you need some rest, or a good psychiatrist.
August 6, 2008 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you apparently need glasses and an idea of what the LToP looks like.
You're embarrassing yourself.
August 6, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know what the Tower of Pisa does not look like: The face of a smiling Barack Obama, which is what's shown in the 23rd second of the video, which is the spot that you claim contains an image of the Tower.
August 6, 2008 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've watched it on three computers and it's at different second markers on each. Nonetheless, it's still there.
Since you apparently have no idea what the damned thing looks like, I screen captured it, just for you, dear idiot, and stuck it up at Photobucket. I even circled it for you - in case you can't make it out.
http://s352.photobucket.com/albums/r325/Ms_Joanne/?action=view¤t=LToPforanidiot.jpg
And, in case you STILL can't make it out on your own, here are some Google images to help you see what the LToP looks like.
http://images.google.com/images?q=leaning%20tower%20of%20pisa&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Either you are ignorant or stupid...or both.
August 6, 2008 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You just showed us the Victory column. Look at the Victory column in this google image:
http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/victory-column-berlin-brviccol.jpg
It's exactly what you showed us. Look at each individual stick.
You sure need psychiatric help, Ms. Conspiracy theorist.
August 6, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ma'am, I hate to say it but the video cap you posted appears to show BO with the Berlin Victory Column in the background over his right shoulder. Here's the Wikipedia page link for the Column:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Victory_Column
and here is the link to the Leaning Tower of Pisa page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_tower_of_Pisa
I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
August 6, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks father. In the images of the Pisa Tower and the Victory Column, we can see that the sticks in the Pisa tower are smooth almost in their entirety, while the Victory Column sticks are consistent with the shapes in the photobucket picture shown by the clueless MsJoanne.
And still, what would be the purpose of digitally deleting a phallic symbol and sticking another phallic symbol from another country via photoshop?
Beats me.
August 6, 2008 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are right and I am wrong. Thanks. See my comment below. :-)
August 6, 2008 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok I applaud you for trying to gather the facts, and admitting being human. That's what Olbermann and Herbert should have done.
August 6, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think MsJoanne is Olbermann. ;-)
August 7, 2008 9:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Psssst. This is when you are supposed to apologize for casting aspersions on her mental health.
August 7, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, you showed us nothing new, because you simply showed what's on the 8th second, and I told all of you earlier that the Victory Column was in second 8th, 11th, and 16th.
But apparently you thought that freezing the image and putting it in Photobucket would make you more credible. Not the case.
August 6, 2008 10:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I think you're right, but the VC doesnt have that X degree lean which that image does...which gives that much more weight to this being nothing but a phallic symbol. Since it was so fuzzy and shown for around a second or two, i mistook it for a real monument not McCain's sick handler showing an erection by skewing the image of the VC in the vein of the LToP. That makes the whole ad that much sleazier.
Thanks for showing me the error of my way and how much more disgraceful and disgusting McCain's handlers are.
August 6, 2008 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
lol so now you make a claim that Olbermann and Herbert didn't even make: that the Victory Column was skewed. Oh boy.
August 6, 2008 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is. Look at it. Put that pic on Photobucket next to the LToP and the VC. Which does it look more like? Am I wrong that the VC is 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the ground? That ad sure isn't. Neither is a male erection.
I love it. It's so sleezy!! Thanks sooooo much for pointing it out!!
August 6, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the first link to wikipedia provided by fatherOKC, you can see another picture of the VC with a small tilt along its left edge, while the right edge appears perfectly straight.
Plus in this other picture, the VC appears with a steep angle. In that last case, it appears that the photographer held the camera at an angle:
http://z.about.com/d/cruises/1/0/Q/R/3/paris001.jpg
August 6, 2008 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, my bad. That's not the VC lol. It was the wrong picture. But as I said, the wikipedia link has a picture with a slightly inclined VC.
August 6, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
All you need ever post again is" my bad."
August 7, 2008 12:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
In Olbermann's fevered brain, there are 3 phalluses in the celebrity ad. Conveniently, there are also 3 people. That might mean that Obama and Britney and Paris each have a penis. Or it might mean that Obama has 3 penises.
But I'm pretty sure the ad is supposed to mean that Obama is dickless.
August 6, 2008 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Heh heh...he said penis.
August 7, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
KO was wrong, but that is not the point. The point of the Bob Herbert and Olbermann positions is that the McCain campaign is trying to play on the fears of white Americans. They are playing the oldest racial canard by juxtaposing two white, blonde women with a black man. Why wouldn't McCain's people use Tom Cruise or any other celebrity in their ad? And by the way, we need KO on our side. We can only fight people like Flush Limbaugh and Bile O'Reilly. He's the only person that isn't scared of taking on the rightwing blowhards.
August 7, 2008 1:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why didn't McCain make a pointless ineffective ad?
Why did he use stars that would draw a reaction?
Why didn't he do it my way?
Why won't he leave Obama alone?
August 7, 2008 4:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
conspiracy theorists think that using the word "juxtaposing" is enough to prove there's a conspiracy theory going on.
If Obama is being compared to Brit and Paris, who do you want the campaign to juxtapose their pictures to? A-rod's? Of course their pictures have to be "juxtaposed" to Obama's image.
August 7, 2008 6:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's all get laid today and see if those vertical structures still look like penises. We'll meet here tomorrow and discuss it.
August 7, 2008 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh. Not you, father. You having taken a vow of chastity and all.
August 7, 2008 8:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to... but it's not easy when you've got 160 feet of steel & an angel strapped to your jeans - and these Prussians always staring at you.
Hey you kids! Get DOWN off there!
Bloody Prussians.
August 7, 2008 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
This has to be the funniest thread I've read in a long time.
August 7, 2008 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Confirmation of Billy's theory?
August 7, 2008 9:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Classic lines:
Theater of the Absurd.
August 7, 2008 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
We should collect some of TPM's most precious moments and publish them as a separate blog. I believe most of it must be made up. It's impossible for so many broken people to gather in one place by accident.
August 7, 2008 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great idea! this one is hiliarious.
August 7, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's gonna be hard to beat gasket's 2nd choice. Shoulda been a post - Things The Leaning Tower Of Pisa Does NOT Look Like.
August 7, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Things I learned from this post:
August 7, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I AM the original poster!
Right my column for me, willya?
August 7, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to ask the moderator whether these types of personal come-ons are acceptable and appropriate. If not, you'll have to pay first.
August 7, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
The word you are looking for is obelisk.
(Phallic symbol hunters can click the link to satisfy their recommended daily allowance phallic images. Of special interest in that regard: Hatshepsut's fallen [or pulled down] obelisk -- Hatshepsut being one of Egypt's few female pharoahs. Hatshepsut's successors made a concerted attempt to remove her from the historical record, a successful female king being seen as a dangerous precedent.)
August 7, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, slb, yes, you're right - Phallic Structures for $100 would be "obelisk". I'll take "Architectural Dislocutions in Presidential Races" for $20 please.
August 7, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh.... so Billy's here all day, egging 'em on, and gasket & I show up the next day, and suddenly it's all these "broken people."
And don't try any of that "I was looking at the wrong time field" horseshit either. Sir, you are either ignorant or stupid or all three.
August 7, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
5, sir.
August 7, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iz that what keeps you here, Billy?
You're on every single reader's post thread.
August 7, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gasket, thank you for my second giggle of the day :) Funny stuff.
August 7, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares whether it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or not. The subliminal message point is the same, even if it was the Watts Tower. And don’t be such a hater. Keith’s show manages to get enough facts right, to justify his salary. A hell of a lot more than O’Reilly and Limbaugh!
August 7, 2008 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
When Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, he had neither at the time met the republican innuendo machinery nor had he heard of Bill Clinton's creative usage of cigars.
August 7, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
And sometimes a nearly-empty glass of alcohol is..... I forget.
Note: I think it was a subliminal play on our anti-French feeling. Paris, Brittany... What's next? References to Obama being Nice? One of those Limousin liberals?
August 7, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
When wine becomes mere alcohol, then a tower easily becomes a mere phallus.
August 7, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you'd pour a working guy a drink every now and then, maybe we wouldn't be so bitter.
Just a sec. MERE phallus? Harrumph.
August 7, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is Olbermann out?
August 7, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Naw, but I'm outta here for a coupla weeks, and likely of the E-tether. Been too far from the Bay of Fundy... Appaloosas and eagles and tides. BG & gasket, try to keep the signal to noise ratio up, willya? Des, since I can't be here to irritate people & crank up the noise, maybe.... ahhh. Do I contradict myself? Very well then...
No regrets, coyote.
August 7, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Last Waltz? Take care of yourself, quinn. It will all still be here when you get back.
August 7, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers.
August 7, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers, quinn! Have a good trip!
August 7, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
No problem, Q, I'll water the plants and fuck with people while you're gone. And maybe hold fake conversations with a dual avatars just to keep the "no pseudonyms" crowd reeling and pretend you're here. In your gumbo.
August 7, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG_scaZ-474
August 7, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
For dinner, I'm leaning toward pizza tonight.
August 7, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bob Herbert is just showing his age by attempting long-discredited Freudian analysis of media for subliminal sexual imagery.
I think the McCain ad can credibly be said to contain some coded messages about race and sex (namely, associating a vigorous black man with promiscuous white women). But this phallic symbol stuff is nonsense.
August 7, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not so sure Maxi. Nothing moves rich old white men, like an erect building!
August 7, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Freudian analysis of media for subliminal sexual imagery.
Freudian analysis of media? Freud was a psychoanalyst -- are you thinking of Baudrilliard?
In any case, nothing is such ads appears "by chance" and so the double/triple phalluses were someone's idea. Herbert's point about the Paris/Brittney/phalluses imagery only appearing in ads for black male candidates still stands (get it?). Y'all can be as "naive" as you want, but this is sleazy race-baiting. Again.
August 7, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama! Obama! Behold his mighty hand! So far, Moses has only been in an attack ad with a black candidate, too. Keep those excuses coming.
August 7, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
And how many days did the media (including PBS) repeat Dana Milbank's bogus statement? How many days did the media repeat the lie about Obama not citing the troops in Germany? A mistake on the identification of exactly which phallus symbol was in the add does not diminish the point....but then perhaps you don't want to talk about the point? Your claim is and obvious distraction from the issue, typical GOP tactic.
August 7, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish you folks would stop saying "erect" - it is completely destroying my concentration.
August 7, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
KO is an Obama hack and anything negative said about the one will be tossed under the bus quicker than a Viagra erection.
August 7, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Goatlife, please no more of your personal stuff.
August 7, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess I stumbled in to the daily "McCain Makes the Best Ads EVER and Obama Stinks Like Doo Doo" thread.
Do you guys actually LIKE the ad?
August 7, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boo hoo!
The dumbest part of this post (and I can't believe that I'm adding to it) is how meaningless this whole discussion is. Never mind what structures were shown: there were phallic symbols in the ad. Anyone who can't acknowledge it is being foolish.
If Olbermann is wrong about the exact structures, someone should send him an email. Olbermann actually acknowledges his mistakes and he'll be glad to hear from you.
I'm sure I'll be bashed for I've added to the conversation: That's fine. "Obama's your god!" "You can see no wrong." You're wasting your time with this stuff.
If your candidate lost (or is losing), get over it. It's time to fix your country. Or is it Olbermann that's ruining America.
Once again, boo hoo!
August 7, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Victory column had to be included in the ad, because it was located in the site where Obama gave the speech.
Get it, dork? Did you want the ad producers to digitally remove that monument? Are all vertical structures in an ad there becuase the producer wants them to represent a penis? You are weird, over-analytical and blinded by an obsession to play the race card.
If Obama gave a speech next to the Egypt pyramides, would you ask the producers to delete them? Or the Great Wall of China if the speech were given there?
August 7, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
hear a hack, there a hack...everywhere a hack hack...
like the resident Hillary hack hack...
August 7, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting how this web site attracts Olbermann haters. This one's the usual tempest in a teapot.
August 7, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't hate him. He's just a pompous jerk.
August 7, 2008 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
So I assume all of you people were equally outraged when Obama elected to give his speech in front of a big phallic symbol? How idiotic to try and smear McCain because he used an image of the tower Obama actually spoke in front of. And really, Tom Cruise? He hardly equals Britney and Paris in the public perception of being an airhead. Exactly which celebrities do you think would be equally recognizable and communicate the empty-head message? Every suggestion I've seen (Oprah? really) is just ludicrous.
And you people keep claiming that the Obama campaign didn't use race in a disgusting way.
August 7, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not his fault, he wanted to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which is a large white orifice.
August 7, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the main problem is echoed by Chris: that the McCain campaign is claiming that Obama is an airhead. Which apparently Chris has bought into. Leaving aside Obama's own academic success,we're left with the old wrinkled white guy who benefited his whole life from the military's version of affirmative action: 4-star admiral legacy, then finished in the bottom 5% of his class.
And who now has a less than faithful memory of anything. Of course, there are lots of low-information voters out there who will buy into the airhead Ad, but that's why they're the real airheads.
August 7, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are getting to be an annoyance. What difference does it make which "phallic symbols the low-life Rovoids used in their ad? And how dose it matter if Olbermann mis-IDs them? The facts and the strategy are there in plain sight.
It serves only to provide a perch for your screams for attention.
August 7, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
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