Elisabeth Hasselbeck earns the silver in Keith Olbermann's "World's Worst" for falsely claiming that President Obama never mentioned the word "democracy" in his speech to the Muslim world. In fact, he did mention it -- multiple times. Watch:
Transcript below the fold.
Video transcript:
And, you can fool some of the people some of the time. And about Obama‘s speech, you can fool Elisabeth Hasselbeck all of the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, TV HOST: He didn‘t mention the word democracy which had some people kind of upset.
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OLBERMANN: OK. You must have missed some of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The fourth issue that I will address is democracy. Democracy.
For democracy. Elections alone do not make true democracy.
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OLBERMANN: Just as two ears do not make true listening. Worst Persons.
[snip]
A tie at the silver, Elizabeth Hasselbeck and Michael Rubin of the "National Review" Online. They didn‘t like what they said they didn‘t hear from the president‘s today in Cairo. Ms. Hasselbeck said, "he stressed changing course and, also, he didn‘t mention the word democracy, which had some people kind of upset."
Mr. Rubin wrote, under the headline, "Obama Abandons Democracy," quote, "Obama studiously avoids the word democracy."
One hopes there is no intermittent deafness afflicting either individual, because here is President Obama not mentioning the word democracy today four times in Cairo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The fourth issue that I will address is democracy. I know—
I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years.
There are some who advocate for democracy only when they‘re out of power.
Elections, alone, do not make true democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: So, once again, a blatant falsehood about Obama is presented as fact, and an entire portion of the community, already inclined to believe that falsehood, with or without the slightest sliver of evidence, because of its own prejudices, swallows it whole.