MSNBC’s
Keith Olbermann named THG Person of the Year
By Chris
Kasinger, THG Features
December 26, 2004
For giving the Hoosier
Gazette hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity on his
nationally televised news show Countdown, television journalist Keith
Olbermann was the overwhelming choice for the Hoosier Gazette 2004 Person of the
Year.
According to MSNBC’s web
site, Countdown, a unique newscast that counts down the day’s top stories
with Keith’s particular wit and style, telecasts weeknights from 8-9 p.m. ET
on MSNBC.
Olbermann may be best
known for anchoring ESPN’s “SportsCenter” from 1992 to 1997, when his inimitable
style made the blend of pop culture and sports a hallmark of the modern
television sports reporter.
On September 7, Olbermann
mentioned a Hoosier Gazette article about an Indiana University
study that proved having children lowers both parents’ IQs by 12-20 points on
average as his number one story of the day.
Too bad for Olbermann his
underlings forgot to check their sources and the
article mentioned was a
hoax.
This turned out to be a
tremendous windfall for the Hoosier Gazette. Olbermann was forced to use the
number one spot on the September 8 edition of Countdown to retract the
previous day’s number one story. Olbermann even used images of the Hoosier
Gazette web site and highlighted some other current THG stories.
All the attention THG
received because of Olbermann’s blunder helped push our website over the million
hit mark for 2004.
Olbermann is just the
second THG Person of the Year. Last year’s ‘winner’ was ‘writer’ Steve Oakey of
the San Diego Union-Tribune. Oakey edged out runner-up Jim Rome by using our
fake
Jason Smith/Purdue Basketball story as real in both the
print and web editions of the Union-Tribune.
