Dear Mr. Olbermann,
Let me first say that I'm a huge fan. During the latter part of the Bush administration watching your show every night helped me retain my sanity. There were times when you seemed to be the only news person/commentator out there willing to talk about what was going on. For that you have my eternal gratitude.
Even now, when I sometimes find Countdown overly obsessed with Ms. California and various members of the Palin family, I still tune in nearly every night, despite the fact that the Mets are inevitably on at about the same time. (Go Mets!) In all honesty, this is a difficult choice, and I sometimes miss bits of your show when, say, Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy are at the corners and David Wright is at bat and I don't turn back the channel in time. And in a good Mets year, my loyalty to your show suffers greatly in September. Sorry about that.
But I digress.
I'm here to respectfully request that you apologize for using what is very probably an ethnic slur on Countdown last night (5/9/09). I'm quite certain you weren't aware that it is very probably a slur, and I have already forgiven you and will continue to watch (subject to the aforementioned short lapses) even if you don't apologize. But it would be really great if you did. It would show people that you're willing to learn something new and admit that you may have made a mistake.
I suspect you're probably confused about what you said, so let me clear that up. (Only the first 45 seconds are relevant.)
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Transcript:
Milwaukee rightwing radio host Mark Belling vowed that if the horse Mine that Bird won the Kentucky Derby (quote), "I'll never bet on another race and will vote for Jim Doyle for reelection." Mine that Bird won the Kentucky Derby, and being a man of his word, Belling promptly said he would vote for Wisconsin's Governor, provided Mr. Doyle fulfilled 11 conditions Doyle would have to meet before he, Belling, would do what he promised to do. More evidence that being a rightwinger on the radio means you're a welcher. Let's play Oddball.
Although I'll be the first to admit that the origins of welcher/welsher used in the sense of "going back on one's word" are somewhat unclear, the fact that it's still considered derogatory to call a person of Welsh descent a welcher in the UK is probably an important clue.
The Welsh have historically been an oppressed people for long portions of their history. What is now Wales was occupied first by the Romans and then by the English for several centuries (source). In the 18th and 19th centuries Welsh children were discouraged from speaking Welsh in schools. Teachers punished students by hanging a wooden board (called a Welsh Not or a Welsh Note) around their necks. A child could get rid of the board by tattling on another student for speaking Welsh, thus passing the board to the new transgressor. The student stuck with the board at the end of the day was subject to lashing.
I would also like to point out that the office of President Bill Clinton apologized for using the phrase "welch on your debts" at a press conference in 1995. (His full remarks are here, and the particular phrase appears in the answer to the 1st question.)
I don't want to make too big a deal of this. It's not the end of the world and no one's life is at stake here. But you could educate some people on an important issue if you were to express some regret over using a word that very likely has roots in the oppression of the people who gave us Dylan Thomas, Tom Jones and, to a far more limited extent, President Barack Obama. (Two of Madelyn Dunham's great, great grandparents were born in Wales.)
Sincerely,
wide eyed lib
P.S. I love your ties!
P.P.S. I also forgive you for being a Yankees fan, even though I was born and bred a proud member of
Red Sox Nation.