Olbermann Yanks 'Worst Person' Segment

Hears Stewart's gripe, agrees to tone down the volume
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2010 10:40 AM CDT

Keith Olbermann might think Jon Stewart is a candidate for "Worst Person," but he's suspending the longtime segment in wake of the comedian's Rally to Restore Sanity anyway. After Stewart ripped MSNBC and Fox News equally for histrionics, Olbermann took a long look in the mirror and last night agreed to turn down the volume—but he takes vehement exception that what he does is remotely comparable to Fox.

"Sticking up for the powerless is not the moral equivalent of sticking up for the powerful," he said on last night's show. But Stewart's "overall message that the tone needs to change was not lost on any of us. The anger in this news hour was not an original part of it ... But there is an institutionalization of it that may no longer be valid. That is 'The Worst Persons in the World' segment. Its satire and whimsy have gradually gotten lost in some anger, so I am unilaterally suspending that segment with an eye towards discontinuing it." (More Keith Olbermann stories.)

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