Olbermann: ObamaCare Opponents 'Killing 45,000 People/Year,' 'Who Are the Terrorists?'

On the second day of a new feature on Keith Olbermann's Countdown show, called "Quick Comments," the MSNBC host turned his attention to Neal Boortz - whom he called a "hate radio host" and referred to as being "dehumanized" - and others who oppose the implementation of ObamaCare, accusing them of "killing 45,000 people every year," and suggesting that those who seek to block universal health care are as bad as terrorists. As Olbermann cited a dubious study which claimed that 45,000 people die in America each year because they lack health insurance, the Countdown host charged:

What would you do, sir, if terrorists were killing 45,000 people every year in this country? Well, the current health care system, the insurance companies, and those who support them are doing just that. ... Those fighting health care reform - not those debating its shape or its nuance - people who demand the status quo, they are killing 45,000 Americans a year.

Olbermann concluded by comparing ObamaCare opponents to terrorists: "Because they die individually of disease and not disaster, Neil Boortz and those who ape him in office and out, approve their deaths, all 45,000 of them - a year - in America. Remind me again, who are the terrorists?"

As previously documented [1] in BiasAlert, the CBS Evening News and ABC's World News have both promoted the same report as a "Harvard study," although, as recounted by Baker, it "was really produced by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a left-wing advocacy group which touts itself as 'the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program.' Study co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of PNHP is one of five signers of an 'Open Letter to President Obama to Support Single-Payer Health Care.'"

Below is a complete transcript of the "Quick Comment" segment which ran just after 8:40 p.m. on the Tuesday, January 5, Countdown show on MSNBC:

KEITH OLBERMANN: Now, continuing the debut week of our new feature, "Quick Comments." Each day it seems the lunatic fringe finds a new way to permit its adherents to view the rest of us as a little less than human - we don't count as much as they do, ordinary Americans don't matter. The newest example, hate radio host Nearl Boortz yesterday:

"ObamaCare will do more damage," he said, "than a successful terrorist bombing of an airliner and kill more people as well."

So, rather than count how many things are wrong with that statement or how many times Neil Boortz must have been abused for him to wind up so dehumanized as to say such a thing, let us answer it on his terms. What would you do, sir, if terrorists were killing 45,000 people every year in this country? Well, the current health care system, the insurance companies, and those who support them are doing just that.

Let's frame this in language even conservatives can understand: Those fighting health care reform - not those debating its shape or its nuance - people who demand the status quo, they are killing 45,000 Americans a year. If they were killed all at once or even a hundred at a time, Neil Boortz would be demanding martial law and government by the generals. Instead, because they die individually of disease and not disaster, Neil Boortz and those who ape him in office and out, approve their deaths, all 45,000 of them - a year - in America. Remind me again, who are the terrorists?

- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.