The one thing I dislike about Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" segment is that he never takes on NBC News or MSNBC personalities. From Tucker Carlson to Chris Matthews, there's a lot of stupidity at that network too, but whether because he's told not to or because he doesn't want to wage internal war, Olbermann never mentions it—the Imus battle a notable exception.
That's why you won't see NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams listed for tonight's Worst Person in the World, a spot he justly deserves for this report slipped in after a standard wank piece about MoveOn.org and news that Barry Bonds will do something else next year:
An MIT student is in trouble in Boston tonight after she showed up at Boston Logan Airport today wearing a sweatshirt with a circuit board and batteries attached to it, so no one could blame airport security people for thinking it was, perhaps, a bomb.
So if you know anyone affected by the hubbub in Boston today, you can blame Star Simpson, who says it was all an art project celebrating her engineering major. The police say she is lucky to be alive, because she was arrested today at gunpoint.
There is so much wrong with this that it's hard to count, but let's take a first pass.
No, Brian, who could possibly imagine that authorities in Boston would completely overreact to the presence of a 9-Volt battery? It's not like that ever happened before less than nine months ago as reported by your own newscas, that you and your reporters have commented upon multiple times. That's completely beyond the scope of imagination.
After all, the United States is the greatest country on earth. The mightiest, the strongest, and more than able to withstand minor threats such as OHMIGOD! SMOKE DETECTORS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! RUN! FLEE! INVADE CONNECTICUT!!!!!!!
Well, who can blame the Boston authorities for overreacting—it's not like there are 2,250,000 listings on Google for "electronic T-shirts" or anything, right?
Since there is no law against wearing clothing that, you know, has flashy lights on it, it's a good thing you didn't also completely overreact by broadcasting the name and picture of the young dark-skinned woman wearing the shirt and telling people they could "blame" her.
And, of course, she should feel "lucky to be alive," because it's well-known that carrying a 9-volt battery into an airport is a capital offense in Boston, and that people with clothing of unknown origin should simply be executed. Better safe than sorry! That whole "free press" concept didn't affect NBC News much, did it?
This, by the way, was on the same newscast where Williams managed to report that the FBI has been bugging Sen. Ted Stevens' phones for a year, but not that a witness swore in open court that he'd been bribing the Senator for even longer than that.
Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News: today's Worst Persons In The World!
(Cross posted from my blog because Kos has more bandwidth)