On Monday, outspoken sports and politics pundit—and well-known Penn State critic—Keith Olbermann called a PSU alum "pitiful" after a student tweeted a link to a news item about a fundraiser to fight pediatric cancer.
His explanation wasn't much better...
.@dave_seidel her tweet reads "we are..." I finished her sentence "...pitiful." At this rate your diploma won't be recognized, Moron
...especially when he called The Daily Collegian, Penn State's student newspaper which wrote about the fundraising, a "fanboy site."
@codykon I didn't offer it. I got a tweet that said "We Are!" and then had a link to a Penn State fanboy site.
He then turned it back into a "criticism" of the institution at large:
.@dave_seidel No, Son. I said PSU students were pitiful. Had nothing to do with fundraising #AlsoPSUReadingComprehensionAppearsToBeWeak
With, again, a dig at Penn State students as an entity:
.@dave_seidel Again - get your $ back - you didn't learn how to read. PSU students are pitiful because they're PSU students - period.
Olbermann seemed to be unable to recognize the merit of fundraising even within a school with a reputation as tarnished as Penn State's.
I'd like to thank the students and alums of Penn State for proving my point about the mediocrity of their education and ethics.
As a result, ESPN suspended Olbermann for four days.
We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the views of ESPN. We have discussed it with Keith, who recognizes he was wrong. ESPN and Keith have agreed that he will not host his show for the remainder of this week and will return on Monday.
Olbermann apologized for his dozens of angry tweets, calling himself "stupid and childish."
I apologize for the PSU tweets. I was stupid and childish and way less mature than the students there who did such a great fundraising job.