AP gets "Bronze" in Worst Person for calling Obama "inexperienced in foreign affairs"

Summary: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann awarded the "Bronze" to the Associated Press in his nightly Worst Person in the World segment for calling Sen. Barack Obama "inexperienced in foreign affairs" in a June 5 news analysis. Calling the analysis a "really slanted piece," Olbermann said: "When the AP starts taking sides and starts reading like The Washington Times, or The Nation, we're all in a lot of trouble."

On the June 6 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded the "Bronze" to the Associated Press in his nightly Worst Person in the World segment for calling Sen. Barack Obama "inexperienced in foreign affairs." Describing the June 5 news analysis by AP diplomatic writer Barry Schweid as a "really slanted piece," Olbermann said, "Nothing in media is utterly objective, but its clients keep the Associated Press in business in order to have one entity trying to cut it straight down the middle." He concluded: "When the AP starts taking sides and starts reading like The Washington Times, or The Nation, we're all in a lot of trouble."

From the June 6 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: First, time for Countdown's number two story: our Worst Persons in the World. The bronze to the Associated Press -- preparing a really slanted piece for its thousands of newspaper, radio, TV, and Internet clients about the McCain-Obama race and foreign policy. Barry Schweid wrote: "Obama, by contrast, is decades younger and inexperienced in foreign affairs. His political success until now is powered to a large extent by his youthful optimism for 'change.' While that may ignite enthusiasm, it could also inspire allegations of naiveté." The article then quotes Secretary of State Rice, of all people, criticizing Obama's willingness to engage Iran, leaving out other viewpoints, like from that appeaser who says Obama's right, and we need to engage Iran -- Robert Gates, President Bush's secretary of Defense.

Nothing in media is utterly objective, but its clients keep the Associated Press in business in order to have one entity trying to cut it straight down the middle. When the AP starts taking sides and starts reading like The Washington Times, or The Nation, we're all in a lot of trouble.

—M.A.