Keith slams Breitbart and anti-Occupy 'propagandists' for 'exploiting rape victims'

Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night blasted conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart for claiming that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement condoned rape.

"The subject of rape itself is no laughing matter," he said. "The allegation that a political or cultural group condones or encourages rape and sexual assault, against anyone, is virtually as serious a charge as can be leveled. Yet nearly just as bad, is to fabricate, twist, and alter facts, to make it seem like such a charge against such a group has credence."

Breitbart recently shouted that members of the 99 Percent movement should “stop raping people,” a reference to reports of crime and sexual assaults at some "Occupy" camps.

The various demonstrations across the country took place in public parks and most of them offered free food and shelter. This attracted a number of people who were not strictly a part of the movement, including criminals and other troublemakers.

After DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas appeared on Olbermann's show on Tuesday and accused Breitbart of "mak[ing] stuff up," Lee Stranahan of Big Journalism demanded an on-air retraction and apology. He cited a list of 17 news stories of rape and other sexual crimes at "Occupy" protests.

But Olbermann said that list include some stories twice and could not be attributed to the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. In four of the stories, he noted, neither the victim nor the assailant were even associated with the protest. In seven other stories, the protesters were the victims, not the assailants.

"That is the evidence that Andrew Breitbart has submitted to rationalize his irrational attempt to smear the Occupy movement and Occupy members, as rapists, and to brand anybody who points out his dishonesty, his twisting of the facts, and who bothers to actually read the stories that disprove his own contention, as a rape denier or rape apologist," Olbermann said.

"What Mr. Breitbart and his fellow propagandists have done, in fact, is to take at least eight women, eight members of Occupy, who were raped or otherwise assaulted, and blamed them."