MSNBC proclaims me world's 3rd-worst person!

How many White House correspondents in U.S. history have ever been listed together with the president of South Africa and the chief of staff of the vice president of the United States as "The Three Worst People in the World" – by a television network program host?

That was done last night by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, host of the program "Countdown."

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Olbermann told his network audience of my question asked of presidential press secretary Tony Snow on Friday, Aug. 31:

Q: Reuters reports from Harvard that Fidel Castro has just described Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as "an apparently unbeatable ticket." But the Reuters report did not mention either of these two U.S. senators repudiating this endorsement. And my question: Does the leader of the Republican Party believe that Clinton and Obama should repudiate this dictator's endorsement or not?

Without any mention of Tony Snow's witty answer (possibly because Tony told me that Olbermann has twice called him the worst person in the world), the MSNBC host (accompanied, I noted, by the most somber background music of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue") went directly to why I am The Third Worst Person In the World – as follows:

"It was a column Castro wrote. It was about as much of an endorsement, Les, as if you wrote that Castro would still be the Cuban dictator tomorrow. Only Castro apparently has readers."

In other words (of Olbermann on MSNBC), Castro's written statement that Senators Clinton and Obama are "an apparently unbeatable ticket" is no endorsement at all, no endorsement whatsoever, no endorsement in any way.

This, therefore, has been turned by Olbermann into a semantic argument.

How does "Webster's New World Dictionary" define the word "endorse"?

Several ways – beginning with what is done on the back of a check – then:

2. To write a note, title etc. on (a document);

3. To give approval to; support; sanction; to endorse a candidate.

In other words, there are six different definitions of the word "endorse" before the dictionary mentions any endorsement of a political candidate.

Fidel Castro – as neither a Democrat, nor a Republican – and surely not a U.S. citizen but a Cuban communist – surely did fulfill more than one of those dictionary definitions of the word "endorse" since he undeniably "gave approval to" and "support" as well as "sanction."

I will surely not denounce Olbermann as being one of the World's Worst People for this spectacular blunder. I would merely suggest that his comedy writers need, seriously, to recruit either a semanticist – or at least someone who is more familiar with the dictionary than Mr. Olbermann is.

Olbermann undeniably has both fans and follow-uppers, including an organization called "Media Matters For America."

This group has published on the Net the following rather extensive headline – which makes the same semantic mistake as TV host Olbermann:

WorldNetDaily's Kinsolving repeated false claim during White House press briefing that Castro endorsed Clinton and Obama

"Summary: During a White House press briefing, Les Kinsolving falsely asserted that Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama received an 'endorsement' in a column by Fidel Castro. However, at no point did Castro endorse Clinton or Obama; to the contrary, he attributed to Clinton and Obama a pro-democratic view that he called an 'error,' and he said of the two candidates, 'They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon.'

"During an Aug. 31 White House press briefing, conservative radio host and WorldNetDaily.com White House correspondent Les Kinsolving falsely asserted that Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama received an 'endorsement' from Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Kinsolving was referring to Castro's Aug. 28 column in the Cuban newspaper Gramma, in which Castro described a potential Clinton-Obama presidential ticket as "seemingly invincible." However, as Media Matters for America senior editor Terry Krepel noted and as Media Matters has documented, at no point in his column did Castro endorse Clinton or Obama; to the contrary, he attributed to Clinton and Obama a pro-democratic view that he called an 'error,' and he said of Clinton and Obama, 'They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon.'"

There was similar vitriol from another organization called National Post, which accused me of a "false assertion."

To these two Internet critics and to MSNBC I would suggest: 1) Back to the dictionary! and 2) Try to avoid such astringencies as "false claim."

In conclusion, I feel compelled to confess a mistake I made at that White House briefing – an error that all three of these furious critics missed! – As follows:

"Reuters reports from Harvard that Fidel Castro has just described …"

That was a slip of my tongue in which my intended word "Havana" came out "Harvard."

I confess the possibility of my subconsciously comparing Havana with Harvard.

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