Keith Olbermann is not OK.
The oft-fired broadcaster’s Twitter feed has become increasingly unhinged in recent years, with the former ESPN personality slinging out deranged partisan attacks, such as claiming the U.S. shouldn’t supply Texas with COVID-19 vaccines. But on Wednesday night, Olbermann may have reached a new low.
He blamed the recent shootings at a Michigan high school, which killed four teenagers and injured seven others, on David Portnoy and Barstool Sports.
Seriously.
In response to a story Barstool shared about one of the victims, 16-year-old football player Tate Myre, who classmates say tried to disarm the shooter, Olbermann tweeted the following: “This kid died to stop a school shooter whose mother echoed the Trumpist Fascism of
@stoolpresidente and @barstoolsports.”
To defend himself, Olbermann shared screenshots of a Daily Beast article that published a pro-Trump Facebook post the suspected shooter’s mother wrote in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
While the prosecutor overseeing the case hinted Wednesday she may charge the teenage suspect’s parents, Olbermann’s tweet is asinine and offensive. There are plenty of legitimate gripes one can hold about Barstool and its content. But using a mass killing to advance an anti-Barstool narrative is the lowest of the low.
Olbermann resigned from his latest run at ESPN in October 2020. It’s safe to say we’ll never see him back.