Reason TV’s valedictory salute to Olby
posted at 8:15 am on November 6, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
First, let’s start on a lighter note with Reason TV, which put together a highlight reel of why no one should really miss Keith Olbermann, even in his more mundane moments. On any other news network, a couple of these would have been enough to get a supposed “news anchor” fired, or at least provided a little counseling. This is the longest Peter Finch imitation ever, as this fond salute demonstrates:
Yesterday a coalition of conservative voices, some of whom belong to the Worst Person in the World fraternity, began calling for Olbermann’s reinstatement. Hugh Hewitt, a friend and mentor, called this the “Free Keith” effort, tongue somewhat in cheek. Bill Kristol took it more seriously at Weekly Standard, as did National Review’s Dan Foster, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Jonah Goldberg, and Kevin Williamson. Andy McCarthy even framed it as a free-speech issue, which I certainly hope was tongue in cheek. Olbermann does not have a First Amendment right to demand publication by MSNBC or anyone else, and MSNBC is under no obligation to do so under the First Amendment — which bars government from silencing its citizens, not force cable news networks to hire (or re-hire) someone whom they do not wish to put on air.
Since I’ve been both a Best and Worst Person in the World in Olbermann’s universe, I have full moral authority to say that the entire exercise is ridiculous. First, NBC is probably not going to fire Olbermann; their executives said as much to the New York Times yesterday. They’re trying to make an absurd point that they treat MSNBC with the same journalistic standards as NBC’s traditional news organization, a suggestion that should have everyone in NBC News walking out in a wildcat strike. As the video above shows, the product makes that argument an obvious and silly lie. Olbermann will get a couple of days off and will return soon; he has nowhere else to go, and NBC doesn’t have many more options, either.
But even if Olbermann was fired for stupid reasons (and this is definitely a stupid reason) … so what? As long as MSNBC operates within the contract, it’s their decision to have whomever they want in that slot. Why would anyone rush to defend someone who refers to conservative women as a “big bag of mashed-up meat with lipstick” while supposedly filling the role of a news anchor? Does a man with a long track record of launching hyperbolic insults and accusations deserve to have people rushing to defend his violation of what appears to be a long-standing rule (even a stupid one), especially when the same person spent prime-time air just a few weeks ago blasting his competition for doing essentially the same thing?
If NBC does fire him, they have plenty of good reasons to do so, not the least of which was the dreadful, histrionic, and completely unprofessional meltdown on Election Night from their entire prime-time lineup. They shouldn’t stop with Olbermann; in fact, they should start with Phil Griffin and start working downward.
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Probably not at terminal velocity — I doubt it fell far enough for that. Terminal velocity for a metal part is going to be a lot high than terminal velocity for a person.
Count to 10 on April 27, 2013 at 2:35 PM
I think they call it gravity.
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 2:36 PM
It’s obvious:
“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH”
JFKY on April 27, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Obviously Dick Cheney was hauling this piece of fake debris up to the roof during the night of 9/10, when suddenly he had a brief heart attack and lost his grip on the rope. Since he still had to go plant all the controlled demolition charges in the towers, he was out of time and had to just leave it there.
Fabozz on April 27, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Maybe it was ‘put’ there to stop the mosque being built? Could be ‘human remains’ there also to stop things till it is investigated?
L
letget on April 27, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Not against all probability. People win lotto’s all the time even though they are extremely low probability events which this would be also. That said the second explanation seems more reasonable.
chemman on April 27, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Maybe it isn’t part of a 9/11 plane but was planted there to underline that the mosque would be built on sacred ground? That’s super-lame as an explanation, but it’s what I thought of
ParisParamus on April 27, 2013 at 2:39 PM
Has the Mohammed Atta passport thing been explained?
I have trouble keeping the conspiracies and facts separate.
vityas on April 27, 2013 at 2:42 PM
As long as we’re coming up with wild conspiracy theories – it’s clearly been placed there by people sympathetic to the mosque. They were going to build a shrine inside the mosque and place it on display.
worldtvlr on April 27, 2013 at 2:43 PM
I’m sooooooooooooooo behind, Mohamet Atta and his passport? I MUST know….and yes, it’s probably a “conspiracy”…by this time most things are. We pretty much knew 95% of what there was to know within 180 days of 9/11.
JFKY on April 27, 2013 at 2:44 PM
Erika’s story contained the following phrase: “…stamped with a clearly visible Boeing identification …”
I’m guessing that either the word “Boeing” was stamped there along with the serial number, or there is a Boeing logo stamped on it.
If none of this is true, then hellifiknow.
bugsy on April 27, 2013 at 2:48 PM
Chalk one up for the nanny state busybody.
Fenris on April 27, 2013 at 2:48 PM
Allah has landed!
Let the Muslim cultists wailing begin.
pat on April 27, 2013 at 2:49 PM
It’s obvious that Bush put it there.
vcferlita on April 27, 2013 at 2:49 PM
News reports said there was a “prominent” stenciled Boeing on some part of it. Probably that made the surveyor associate it with the 9/11 tragedy and why he called police.
Webrider on April 27, 2013 at 2:54 PM
How did that piece get there? Aliens.
DStreete on April 27, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Eating coddled eggs and drumming up conspiracys. Lazy. Phoning it in.
The weekends are when I actually have time to digest intel on serious matters, and I’m starved.
You can write good pieces. Please do so.
The effing thing fell from the sky. What’s to discuss?
I can’t stand Jazz, the music.
C’mon dude. Something relavent?
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 2:58 PM
Doesn’t the piece clearly say Boeing on it? At least that’s what I’ve read. Could be why the cops were called.
wte9 on April 27, 2013 at 3:04 PM
How could it lay there for a dozen years and the metal thieves,er junk recyclers not have found and sold it?
docflash on April 27, 2013 at 3:15 PM
It might have been missed as it was actually wedged high up in the gap and over the last 12.5 years it fell to be at ground level. It does not say it the brick work was damaged with scratches and how fair if it had to fall thought the gap or could it be hit the gap in a direct shot. There was other landing gears found in Park 51 building so it might have been another part from that gear.
tjexcite on April 27, 2013 at 3:15 PM
Perhaps it’s traditional for Moslems to build mosques on the bones of their enemies.
erp on April 27, 2013 at 3:16 PM
Having spent most of my life in the military and being around cannons and other destructive items, it isn’t much of a leap that some parts flew off at weird angles. Many items tend to spin wildly and bounce at crazy angles. Inspections at scenes after explosions almost always reveal at least a couple unusual fragment trajectories. We would just scratch our heads amazed at some of the locations we would find fragments.
Second guessing at the motives of the person reporting the item is just random speculation, which I guess is just as well it’s done on a slow traffic Saturday. We can all dream up a myriad of reasons why or why not.
Rode Werk on April 27, 2013 at 3:16 PM
Do you need help, finding things we want to talk about?
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 3:16 PM
Some things are unknowable.
Curtiss on April 27, 2013 at 3:17 PM
The rope doesn’t look particularly weathered after 11 years. But I don’t know that much about ropes and weathering.
Rose on April 27, 2013 at 3:17 PM
Agree with the rope not being weathered – but that could mean that whoever noticed it (maybe the guy that reported it?) first thought he could get it for himself and somehow fished a rope around it, to ty and drag it out. After he found out it was stuck, the cut bait and reported it to the public.
Well, it’s as good as the other theory!
Tom Servo on April 27, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Jazz, do you know if the buildings are exactly the same height? Or is one taller than the other?
Captain Kirock on April 27, 2013 at 3:28 PM
Perhaps it has something to do with the concept of a mosk called a rabat that muslims build on the site of a victorious battle in the heart of their enemy; maybe it needs relics of the battle or something.
Islam Center’s Eerie Echo of Ancient Terror
slickwillie2001 on April 27, 2013 at 3:30 PM
“JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS”
Kenosha Kid on April 27, 2013 at 3:37 PM
Time travelers have been messing with the space/time continuum, and loose ends like this keep popping up.
In another timeline, the WTC was located in the space where the wheel was found. Due to a rift in the STC, the wheel appears in the right spot, just in the wrong time.
Conversely, there is a time line somewhere thats missing a wheel to one of the aircraft.Any doubt there is great conspiratorial conjecture as to why?
I wonder if there is a Bush in that timeline.
BobMbx on April 27, 2013 at 3:38 PM
Yea Jazz, are the buildings the same size? Because if they aren’t, surely it matters. Right?
You need to let us know.
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 3:38 PM
That’s why HotAir never complains about Drudge going Truther with Alex Jones links daily… They sympathize?
Kaptain Amerika on April 27, 2013 at 3:45 PM
In which case shouldn’t they search for a magic carpet (or remnants of one) instead? :)
jimver on April 27, 2013 at 3:46 PM
BobMbx on April 27, 2013 at 3:38 PM
I hope you copy righted that, or Alex Jones will still your story in 5,4…and present it as original and factual :)
jimver on April 27, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Ask the Paultards, they’ll tell you…
’twas teh Juice.
catmman on April 27, 2013 at 3:48 PM
It’s your rant. Answer it.
They found debris. Sifting for bone possible. Why?
What does it matter?
Does the wheel prove anything? give closure?
It’s just perversity. I expect it from NY writers.
You tell me your point. Did you have one?
If I had reported it, it would have been in memoriam.
That’s all it should be.
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 4:00 PM
Why is it not about those who perished? Jazz?
wolly4321 on April 27, 2013 at 4:05 PM
The t.v. reports said the word “Boeing” was clearly visible on the piece. Also said both planes that hit the towers on 9/11 were manufactured by Boeing.
That may have had something to do with it.
AZCoyote on April 27, 2013 at 4:08 PM
This picture clearly says Boeing, I would call the cops.
http://twitpic.com/cm4tkh
MontanaMmmm on April 27, 2013 at 4:08 PM
I think the better question is, when you have an event ejecting multiple thousands of pieces of wreckage, what are the odds that at least one ends up wedged somewhere in this fashion. Not terrible I’d say. Certainly not enough to provide compelling evidence for some sort of conspiracy.
rightmind on April 27, 2013 at 4:08 PM
“Height” is not the same as “size”.
If one building is taller than the other (the actual question asked) that might make the accidental “capture” of the part a bit more likely. OTOH depending on which way the part was flying through the air, it might make it nearly impossible.
I don’t think it matters a lot how likely it is or isn’t, though: stuff, as they say, happens.
drunyan8315 on April 27, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Obviously a sign from Allah that the mosque should be built on this location. They can enshrine the relic inside the front door, just above a sign saying “Look what we did!”
GarandFan on April 27, 2013 at 4:18 PM
The rope could be from someone trying to remove it sometime in the last 12 years, and failing. How wedged in there was it? How heavy is it? Could someone have tried to yank it out with a truck or car?
starboardhelm on April 27, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Yup. Possibly scrappers…
http://www.spike.com/shows/scrappers
Fallon on April 27, 2013 at 4:29 PM
considering that debris was raining down everywhere there, what is amazing to me is that nobody bothered to look between two buildings. It’s like not bothering to look between the front seats in your car when you lose your wallet.
keep the change on April 27, 2013 at 4:35 PM
In another timeline, Margaret Sanger was born in Arabia in 545 AD, and you know the rest.
slickwillie2001 on April 27, 2013 at 4:36 PM
Is it that this huge chunk of metal falling out of the sky
No point in planting it unless it was from one of the planes. In that case the bigger problem would have been getting it in the first place.
It is possible it went through the roof of the building and the people wanting to build the mosque tried to dispose of it but got it lodged between the buildings somehow.
Time will tell possibly.
Steveangell on April 27, 2013 at 4:54 PM
I guess Media Matters is covering the Drudge/Alex Jones partnering. While Hotair fuels conspiracy theories of their own.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/26/alex-jones-worked-with-drudge-contributor-to-cr/193800
Kaptain Amerika on April 27, 2013 at 5:06 PM
Official searches often don’t seem to find things. How many times has some kid gone missing and they find the body weeks or months later within a mile of where the kid disappeared?
trigon on April 27, 2013 at 5:08 PM
War trophy, or someone wanted it look like one.
jury is out.
WryTrvllr on April 27, 2013 at 5:09 PM
WryTrvllr on April 27, 2013 at 5:11 PM
‘The five, dancing, Hasidic JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS’
Resist We Much on April 27, 2013 at 5:12 PM
Well, yes actually, building Mosques on the grounds of great Muslim military victories is the genesis for more than half of the Mosques in Middle Eastern countries.
I think opponents of the planned Mosque planned to spring this before the project got any further than it did.
The whole Mosque project was more flash than pan from the beginning. No one involved had the money or the inclination to follow it up; they just thought it was a good way to p**s off the Infidels….
E9RET on April 27, 2013 at 5:32 PM
The NY Daily News reported today that a member of the NYPD aviation unit went to the scene and confirmed it was a plane’s landing gear. A check of its serial number linked the wreckage to the attack that killed 2,753 people.
Park51 (on Sept.11, 2001) was a 5 story building and 50 Murray St. is 22 stories….nice apts. by the way, studios starting from $2400.
NY Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there were no marks on the buildings to indicate the piece hit the walls on the way down. Cops were also investigating how the gear got there, including the possibility it was lowered into place because of the rope that was found intertwined with the metal. And the debris was described as being about 5 feet by 4 feet by 17 inches, lying in a very, very narrow, confined area.
Bizarre, very bizarre.
lynncgb on April 27, 2013 at 5:43 PM
“I love a good mystery, though I usually stick to old Nero Wolfe novels.”
Ditto!
Ira on April 27, 2013 at 5:47 PM
Really amazing it landed right next to touching in fact Jimmy Hoffa.
ConcealedKerry on April 27, 2013 at 6:08 PM
“Against all probablility”? There are zillions of parts getting flung everywhere after a collision like that. Those parts have to land somewhere.
What’s against all probability is the worshipful attitude some American elites have adopted towards sexist, anti-Western, xenophobic Islam since 9/11.
kd6rxl on April 27, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Ummm, no. Terminal velocity is based on the aerodynamic drag and has nothing to do with density. All objects fall at the same rate in a vacuum (some guy named Galileo worked that out, I think).
I think we’re going to find this isn’t as spectacular as it seemed at first (probably a partial hoax), but it is still pretty incredible to find this part after 11+ years.
GWB on April 27, 2013 at 6:48 PM
Density is almost everything. If you have two identical boxes, one is empty and one is full of lead, the one with lead will drop a lot faster. The aerodynamic shape plays a small roll, but the big factor is weight per unit volume.
keep the change on April 27, 2013 at 7:03 PM
…Allah Akbar!
KOOLAID2 on April 27, 2013 at 7:05 PM
I’m Batman
LtGenRob on April 27, 2013 at 7:25 PM
Sorry:
Feather & Hammer Drop on Moon
V7_Sport on April 27, 2013 at 8:09 PM
Looking at the building on Google Earth, the mosque building is surrounded by taller buildings in a U shape open to the WTC. It is plausible that the gear hit the taller building and slid down the wall. That doesn’t explain the rope, which is not a lilly white new rope, but dirty like the rest of the gear. Someone found it on the rooftops during the cleanup and tried to lower it down as a souvenir but wasn’t able to retrieve it?
tdarrington on April 27, 2013 at 8:11 PM
I *KNEW* I left that somewhere…..
ProfShadow on April 27, 2013 at 8:13 PM
We are not on the moon. We have an atmosphere. The atmosphere creates resistance. To overcome resistance you need weight per unit volume – density. Two objects of the same size, and same shape, will fall at very different speeds depending on their densities.
keep the change on April 27, 2013 at 8:23 PM
It’s simple…it’s a trophy
Youngs98 on April 27, 2013 at 9:25 PM
Possible. Maybe that’s why they were running a sham ‘building a mosk’ project. President George W. Bush has a piece of the WTC in his library and Saddam’s gold-plated .45, Osama wanted his own souvenirs. Possible.
slickwillie2001 on April 27, 2013 at 9:34 PM
From the first time I heard of this a couple days ago, I figured it was there to be worshiped like the Al-Ħajaru l-Aswad stone in the Kaaba;
Some sort of holy artifact to celebrate their victory over the infidel.
LegendHasIt on April 27, 2013 at 10:32 PM
Is that a rope or some kind of steel cable? I would almost put my money on the latter, and, if so, could this be part of the landing gear system. Part of a pulley-system perhaps?
Corporal Tunnel on April 27, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Stole my thunder. For their mosque inner sanctum it probably represents to them a big score for the Koran against civilized infidels.
viking01 on April 27, 2013 at 10:57 PM
Pamela Geller:
ITguy on April 28, 2013 at 12:08 AM
Repeating a comment I made yesterday…
It’s not surprising that part of the landing gear was found next to the building, since another part of the landing gear went through the roof of the building (then a Burlington Coat Factory). This piece may have gone through the roof and then exited through the wall to the alley… taking building debris with it into that mound in the alley.
The damage to the building was the reason why it was sold… AND the reason why it was bought…
Muslims have a history of taking places they attacked and turning them into “victory mosques”.
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_Zero_mosque was originally named “Cordoba House”. One of the largest mosques in the world was a church in Cordoba, Spain that the Muslims changed into a mosque after they conquered it.
The modern day “Cordoba Initiative” said the name “Cordoba House” was meant to invoke 8th–11th century Córdoba, Spain, which
they called a model of peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jewsmarked the apex of the Islamic caliphate.There is more to the big picture than many people realize.
Remember Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain?
Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain wasn’t “tone-deaf”, it was “pitch perfect”…
to the Cordoba Initiative
ITguy on April 28, 2013 at 12:10 AM
Is that rope or is that a piece of steel cable?
What I would do is attempt to draw the trajectory of the planes and pass the line directly through the buildings and see if the location of this part is even close to that line of travel. If it isn’t, then it is highly unlikely that the part landed there on its own.
crosspatch on April 28, 2013 at 1:13 AM
crosspatch on April 28, 2013 at 1:13 AM
I never thought it was a rope. It looked like a cable to me.
Oh well.
BigAlSouth on April 28, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Wolly4321,
I was picking up on some Nero Wolfe vibes in your post, well, until the effing part. Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly, as the big man would say.
HoosierHawk on April 28, 2013 at 9:13 AM
Akzed on April 28, 2013 at 9:46 AM
Um – Terminal Velocity is terminal velocity (at least in this atmosphere.)
Please see Galileo Galilei’s experiment at the tower of Piza.
Wander on April 28, 2013 at 10:56 AM
You should sue whoever educated you—really!
Al in St. Lou on April 28, 2013 at 1:59 PM
How did it end up there.
Well, see there was this guy named Mohammad, who one day decided to create a religion that fit his Geo-political outlook. His followers were none to bright warriors and goat lovers..uh herders. It took a while to gain popularity. He had to recruit kid lovers and sadists by giving them a pass- religiously speaking of course- for their membership, but eventually he raised an army.
So, after the religion got popular (since there was no wi-fi or Internet or Ipods back then to keep the people occupied, and frankly the option of not joining was beheading), Mohammed decided to take the show on the road and conquer everyone who didn’t agree.
The great thing was that the religion justified about any horrible and disgusting act a backwards thinking moron and evil soul could imagine. So after Mohammed passed away his follower kicked it into high gear and started killing, raping and pillaging with great gusto across the known world. Always content to say it was the will of Allah that allowed them to kill and destroy anything they felt wasn’t Muslim..ish.
Then, about…uh what? Okay.. I’ve been told to speed it up.
Soooo fast forwarding a number of centuries. A bunch of followers of Mohammad, upset at the way of the West, hijacked four planes full of innocents and crashed them into buildings, killing thousands. One of those planes had the gear break off and rocket into the wall between the buildings.
And there you go.
I hope I helped.
archer52 on April 28, 2013 at 10:24 PM
Well, see there was this guy named Mohammad, who one day decided to create a religion that fit his Geo-political outlook. His followers were none to bright warriors and goat lovers..uh herders. It took a while to gain popularity. He had to recruit kid lovers and sadists by giving them a pass- religiously speaking of course- for their membership, but eventually he raised an army.
So, after the religion got popular (since there was no wi-fi or Internet or Ipods back then to keep the people occupied, and frankly the option of not joining was beheading), Mohammed decided to take the show on the road and conquer everyone who didn’t agree.
The great thing was that the religion justified about any horrible and disgusting act a backwards thinking moron and evil soul could imagine. So after Mohammed passed away his follower kicked it into high gear and started killing, raping and pillaging with great gusto across the known world. Always content to say it was the will of Allah that allowed them to kill and destroy anything they felt wasn’t Muslim..ish.
Then, about…uh what? Okay.. I’ve been told to speed it up.
Soooo fast forwarding a number of centuries. A bunch of followers of Mohammad, upset at the way of the West, hijacked four planes full of innocents and crashed them into buildings, killing thousands. One of those planes had the gear break off and rocket into the wall between the buildings.
Someone lowered it from the roof and dropped his rope in the process, which is clearly visible in the photo.
Akzed on April 29, 2013 at 9:47 AM
Maybe it’s the landing gear from some other plane crash besides 9/11.
CrustyB on April 30, 2013 at 11:00 AM