News

By Kathleen Gilbert

NEW YORK, June 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – MSNBC's Keith Olbermann dove into the debate surrounding the George Tiller murder Thursday by singling out pro-life blogger Jilll Stanek as his pick for “Worst Person in the World.”

In the context of a post on late-term abortion providers in the U.S., Stanek had recently posted images of Nebraska abortionist LeRoy Cahart’s small abortion facility along with commentary on an Associated Press report describing the building. Cahart has been in the news in recent days for having offered to continue Tiller’s late-term abortion business following his murder.

Olbermann based his invective on the claim that, in addition to pictures, Stanek posted the addresses of Cahart’s abortion mill as well as that of abortionist Warren Hern of Boulder, CO – a claim that Stanek says is completely false to begin with. 

The news anchorman last night took aim at Stanek, who, he says, “did not get the point in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller that you can be complicit in a crime even if you never met the man nor his assassin.”

“Miss Stanek, you'll never understand that in a just world, to tell a bunch of crazy people like your readers where they can find somebody and abuse, threaten, or kill them that that should be enough of a crime to put you in jail for the rest of your life,” Olbermann said. ”So let's try this one out instead. 

“You do realize that by posting online the addresses of these two doctors' clinics you probably enabled some woman seeking their help to now find them and get an abortion? You, Jill Stanek, have just enabled an abortion.”

Stanek responded to the remarks on her blog.

“Never mind that I didn't actually post the addresses of LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern,” she wrote, “had I done so it would have been akin to posting the address of President Obama and being accused of making him a target for nutcases.” 

“Libs, get a brain,” she said. “These guys both advertise on the web. They want people to know where they operate.”

Stanek also noted that photographs of the abortion facilities had also been published by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.

“Still, I proudly accept my award. Thank you for the badge of honor, Keith!” Stanek concluded.

Olbermann's remarks about Stanek inciting pro-life advocates to murder comes only days after he singled out Fox News, and especially Fox's Bill O'Reilly, for inciting people to “terrorism and murder.” The statement was based upon O'Reilly's long-time criticism of abortionist George Tiller's gruesome late-term abortion practices.

“Fox News Channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism,” said Olbermann, ”not until its profits begin to decline or when its growth stops, so not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop. …The goal is to get this blindly irresponsible man and his ilk off the air.” 

O’Reilly has responded that he believes the reports from liberal news media linking mainstream pro-life activism to Tiller's murder are part of a deliberate campaign of the “far left.” “By exploiting the death of Tiller,” he says, “the far left is seeking to silence Americans who are appalled at late-term abortion. By demonizing people like me who believe that terminating viable fetuses must only be done when there are catastrophic health ramifications, pro-abortion zealots are trying to inhibit dissent on the abortion issue in general.”