Judging from her performance on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" last night, MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell might have hypothermia of the brain--but more likely, she's just keeping right in step with MSNBC's institutional bias against Republicans (and its twin, lazy reporting.) Take her pronunciation of conservative strategist Richard Viguerie's (rhymes with "hickory") last name: VIH-guerre-y. Olbermann got the pronunciation right, not once but twice, even, in his intro to her "the fight on the right" segment:
Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN, William F. Buckley, Francis Fukuyama, James Dobson, and now, remarkably, in the editorial pages of “The Washington Post,” Richard Viguerie. The noted conservative‘s public rebuke so stung that the White House actually issued a response trashing Viguerie for having similarly criticized Ronald Reagan six times in office, including as late as 1988.
Yet O'Donnell mispronounced Viguerie's name twice in her segment--or, more accurately, couldn't be bothered to check the pronunciation. The possibility exists that she just couldn't retain the correct pronunciation long enough to speak it out loud, though I seriously doubt that. But here's the thing: it's sloppy reporting, yes. But does anyone think for a second that O'Donnell would have mispronounced--or not bothered to check--the pronunciation of a liberal or Democratic icon's name? Does anyone think she'd mispronounce unusual names from the left, past and present, like Shalala, Steinem, Che Guevara, Pelosi? There's actually an interview with Viguerie in the segment--she really and truly is that contemptuous of her subject that she can't bring herself to commit the smallest, most basic requirements of journalism? "Hey, junior producer over there, how do you pronounce this jerk Vigwashisname's name?" Not even that?
You expect this kind of careless, "whatever" attitude from, say, sullen teenagers massing in a Starbucks on a Saturday. But from a national news correspondent? Oh, well. "Whatever" O'Donnell--her new nickname--has performed one service, if not actual journalism: she's given her biased game away.
She looks nice in a tube top, though.
