Keith Olbermann has always been a political activist. Although he made a name for himself as a sports anchor on ESPN, he just wants to be ...
Keith Olbermann has always been a political activist. Although he made a name for himself as a sports anchor on ESPN, he just wants to be a leftist pundit.
Olbermann has had three stints with ESPN, the first of which began in 1992. He left the company in 1997, and the next 20 years of his career were a carousel of sports and leftist news networks, including MSNBC and Fox Sports.
His last run on ESPN went from 2018 to 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. When he left again in October 2020, he admitted he did so because of a desire to be more political.
“I have adhered to [ESPN’s] desire for their sportscasters to refrain from purely political commentary (an approach with which I largely agree), and they have now agreed with my desire to go and serve my country by focusing my energy on political commentary,” Olbermann said.
On the surface, there is nothing wrong with that. Calling his leftist commentary a service to the country is questionable, but he has every right to cover politics instead of sports if he pleases.
The problem is that Olbermann’s commentary is not helpful to the country in any way. Instead, he is in the business of tweeting outrageous statements aimed at riling up radicals and driving traffic to his own leftist content.
In the latest example of this strategy, Olbermann decided to respond to a story from Barstool Sports about Tate Myre, the star high school football player who was killed Tuesday by a school shooter in Oxford, Michigan.
The story was memorializing Myre, who reportedly died trying to disarm the shooter.
“As more comes out about this case, let us just take time to spread the name and heroism of Tate Myre, a hero who saved a countless amount of lives through self-sacrifice,” the Barstool article said.
Instead of joining that valiant cause, Olbermann decided a memorial for a hero who sacrificed himself attempting to stop a mass shooting would be the perfect chance to insert his deranged commentary.
“This kid died to stop a school shooter whose mother echoed the Trumpist Fascism of @stoolpresidente and @barstoolsports,” Olbermann said in a tweet quoting the story.
There are so many reasons this tweet is thoroughly disgusting.
For one thing, there is no evidence to back his claim that Barstool Sports or its founder, Dave Portnoy, motivated the shooter in any way.
In a subsequent tweet, Olbermann tried to bolster his point by citing an article from the Daily Beast that said the shooter’s mother was a Trump supporter.
That report said the mother, Jennifer Crumbley, had written an open letter supporting then-President Donald Trump after he was elected in 2016 and thanking him for “allowing my right to bear arms.”
Support for the Second Amendment is not evil or “fascist,” as Olbermann suggested in his tweet. But even if he had a problem with Crumbley, there is nothing connecting her to Barstool Sports.
While the company is known for its own edgy commentary around mostly sports and entertainment topics, it has largely tried to remain neutral on political issues. Portnoy himself has been critical of politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Olbermann provided no explanation as to why he linked the shooter to Barstool Sports other than his bogus claim that the company supported “Trumpist Fascism.”
Several employees at Barstool called him out for his vile tweet.
“Dude wtf is wrong with you?” Portnoy said.
“You’re a loser, Keith. A loser,” said Barstool Big Cat, a co-host of the popular “Pardon My Take” podcast.
While name-calling is not typically very helpful, it is hard to refute that title for a man who uses tragic deaths to promote his radical agenda and make money.
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