We are requesting Keith Olbermann issue an on-air retraction to his repeated assertions that James O’Keefe required “permission from his parole officer” to attend CPAC in Washington, D.C.


Around :40 into the above video, Olbermann says:

O’Keefe accepting an award there, I kid you not, with permission from his parole officer, according to Politico. Trust the law and order party to check in with its parole officers.

Olbermann’s source, Politico.com, has since corrected the bogus claim that O’Keefe needed permission from a “parole office[r].”  Since Olbermann’s source has been discredited, Olbermann himself should correct the record as well.

Fast forward to about 4:00 into the clip and Olbermann has this to say to The Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel:

We’ll start with the law and order party, honoring the guy who needs to get his parole officer’s permission to attend.

The assiduous Patterico, who made a similar request of Olbermann last night, pointed out that this time, Olbermann neglected to source his false claim: “Note that, in the second passage, Olbermann does not attribute the claim to Politico, but makes it outright. Meaning he owns this falsehood and has an independent duty to retract it.”

As we explain in detail here, Mr. O’Keefe did not need “permission from his parole officer,” as he has never been paroled.  The lead entry for the word “parole” at dictionary.com is, “the conditional release of a person from prison prior to the end of the maximum sentence imposed.” In other words, in order to be paroled, one must first be convicted and sentenced.  Mr. O’Keefe, of course, is still pending trial.  In a statement to BigJournalism.com, Mr. O’Keefe said he was granted permission to attend CPAC from a “pretrial services officer” from the New Jersey Pre-Trial Services Agency.  The role of the officer assigned to him is to “investigate defendants who are charged with federal crimes and awaiting a court hearing.”  The operative word being “charged.”  Olbermann’s characterization of Mr. O’Keefe implies a conviction.

Politico did their due dilligence and issued a speedy and accurate correction almost immediately after we asked them to do so:

CORRECTION: This story was altered to reflect that O’Keefe and Basel are on pre-trial release, not probation or parole, as was stated in an earlier version.

We hope Mr. Olbermann will abide by the same journalistic protocol.

This event should also serve as a teachable moment illustrating what happens when a respected news source (in this case, Politico) prints misinformation that can be used by other media outlets to wage a smear campaign against an individual or organization.