This is an open letter of sorts to Keith Olbermann. I don't know him but I have seen him post here in the past. I am a HUGE fan of his show though. In particular I enjoy the "Worst Person in the World" segment. Well in light of recent events I would like to enlist the help of Mr Olbermann and in a certain sense this help could be self serving. You see there is now a story going around the blogosphere that originated with a NYTimes article written last week. The substance of that article and the lack of a viable response from the NBC network has given a lot of us pause about the credibility of that network. So for the sake of the liberal blogosphere and for the sake of the credibility of your parent network, Mr. Olberman I ask you to name General Barry McCaffrey as "the Worst Person in the World" because it would seem he has definitely earned it.
One of the things I enjoy about your show Mr. Olbermann, is that you seem to have no problem calling people out even when they are "good" people. I remember the time you made Karen Tumulty of TIME whose stuff I love to read over at the "Swampland" blog a bronze medalist in your "Worst Person of the World" segment and even went so far as to say that she was in fact a good person but something she wrote was grounds for her to be placed on the list on a slow news day. Well Mr. Olbermann there is a story buzzing all about you right now and it would seem that no one at your network is willing to either acknowledge the story nor to apologize for it if in fact it is try. I am speaking of course of the NYTimes article detailing how General Barry McCaffery used several network news shows including NBC and cable news shows including CNBC to promote military policy that helped to benefit defense contracting companies that he was strongly affiliated with and whom he drew massive financial compensation from. Basically as the story reads he was a war profiteer of the highest order and he sold his "independent opinion" to all manner of defense contractors in return for a boatload of cash. Here is an excerpt from the story.
Thus, within days of hiring General McCaffrey, the Defense Solutions sales pitch was in the hands of the American commander with the greatest influence over Iraq’s expanding military.
"That’s what I pay him for," Timothy D. Ringgold, chief executive of Defense Solutions, said in an interview.
General McCaffrey did not mention his new contract with Defense Solutions in his letter to General Petraeus. Nor did he disclose it when he went on CNBC that same week and praised the commander Defense Solutions was now counting on for help — "He’s got the heart of a lion" — or when he told Congress the next month that it should immediately supply Iraq with large numbers of armored vehicles and other equipment.
He had made similar arguments before he was hired by Defense Solutions, but this time he went further. In his testimony to Congress, General McCaffrey criticized a Pentagon plan to supply Iraq with several hundred armored vehicles made in the United States by a competitor of Defense Solutions. He called the plan "not in the right ballpark" and urged Congress to instead equip Iraq with 5,000 armored vehicles.
"We’ve got Iraqi army battalions driving around in Toyota trucks," he said, echoing an argument made to General Petraeus in the Defense Solutions briefing packet.
Trust me Mr. Olbermann the story doesn't get any better from there. And in the story not only is General McCaffery implicated but so are the networks that allow him on their station to give his supposedly unbiased assessments. That is where you come in Mr. Olbermann because you see as I said before, NBC has been one of the most egregious promoters of General McCaffery's opinion.
Glenn Greenwald, who is much better at this kind of thing than well anybody else in the country probably, has a a couple of blog posts up about the whole ordeal and the newest one recounts how Brian Williams from NBC is not only responsible for having Gen. McCaffery on his show repeatedly even after these kinds of acusations had come out in the past, but evidently he has been complicit in trying to bury this news story and the information about McCaffery's war profiteering. I encourage you to go and read Mr Greenwald's blog post but I just want to provide you with another excerpt.
Perhaps most notable of all is how plainly dishonest the NBC response to Barstow is -- a response which, unsurprisingly (given their coordination) is tracked by the response posted on McCaffrey's website and by his hired P.R. agent, Robert Weiner, who is pasting a defense of McCaffrey in various places on the Internet (including my comment section yesterday) without identifying himself as such. As their only defense to these accusations, both NBC and McCaffrey are repeatedly emphasizing that McCaffrey criticized the Bush administration and Donald Rumsfeld's prosecution of the Iraq War, as though that proves that McCaffrey's NBC commentary was independent and honest and not influenced by his numerous business connections to defense contractors.
Both NBC and McCaffrey are either incapable of understanding, or are deliberately ignoring, the central point: in those instances where McCaffrey criticized Rumsfeld for his war strategy, it was to criticize him for spending insufficient amounts of money on the war, or for refusing to pursue strategies that would have directly benefited the numerous companies with which McCaffrey is associated.
Now Mr. Olbermann I understand that you have said several times that you have never been asked to not do a story. If that is really the case I believe that this is one story you HAVE to run with. For one if you don't you will forever be painted as a typical pundit who when the going gets touch compromises their standards just like the Bill Os of the world that you pillory every night. But also because this is a story that SHOULD be told. People need to know that they have been manipulated not just by the Bush administration but also by retired military personel who put their pockets above their integrity.
So again I ask you Mr. Olbermann to show that you are not just another typical talking head and name General McCaffery as a "Worst Person in the World". Not only does he deserve it, but the longer no one at your network is willing to stand up and admit tht he deserves it the more likely you will be colored with the guilty by association brush I hope this message reaches you.
Thanks in advance
A loyal fan.