Keith Olbermann Steals Fantasy Game To Promote Countdown

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has moved from his cable show to Al Gore’s internet TV site Current TV, and will start a new season of Countdown on June 20th. On the web site he asks, “Who’s Ready to Play “Fantasy Politics”?” At first glance I assumed he was referring to his radically left leaning commentaries. But below his video screen he adds, “Keith invents the ultimate political game: Fantasy Politics. It’s not about how you play; it’s about winning and losing.” But with a simple google search of fantasy politics, Olbermann could have seen that a fantasy politics game was already invented in 2007 during that election campaign. Fantasy Politics USA started a game during the run up to the 2008 presidential campaign called Fantasy Politics USA. You could pick 5 candidates from a huge list of potential and fantasy candidates for the 2008 presidency. Points were awarded when the candidates appeared on the talk shows or when they had shifts in the polls. Points were also deducted for doing stupid stuff. At our peak we had over 3000 people playing Fantasy Politics USA from all over the world. We had people from academia and journalism participating in our game, and they could even contribute ideas to award or deduct points. Fantasy Politics USA is a two person wrecking crew, and the thought of bringing our game back out for 2012 has been a daunting task. Because of the weak economy forcing both of us to focus more on earning an income we have held out on introducing the 2012 edition. We had just gotten Presidential Idol going and discovered that Olbermann had “invented” our old game. Strangely enough you start with “5 politicians” and you get points when your candidate moves up and down in polls. Sound familiar? You can also get “two points for each network television news program.” See a pattern here? The only difference so far in the 2 games is Olbermann still hates Fox News so much, that it’s “Minus one point for every guest hit on Fox News,” and he minuses points for hosting a Fox News show. Then he takes another jab at Fox by adding, “Plus a thousand points for every tough question asked by Fox News.” Olbermann is the keeper of all tough questions. Is this a game, or some kind of political commentary on how much Kieth Olbermann hates Fox News? I’m surprised since it was MSNBC that fired him.