Keith Olbermann’s tax debt is fuel for feud

updated 3:40 p.m. ET June 5, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann, who spotlights misbehavior nightly with his "Worst Person in the World" recognition, owes New York state for unpaid business taxes, according to a tax warrant notice.

And his conservative counterparts and bloggers are making sure the debt is fodder in the ongoing political commentators' feud.

Olbermann, the host of "Countdown," owes New York $2,269.50, according to a tax warrant obtained by The Associated Press. State Tax and Finance Department spokesman Tom Bergin said the debt recorded against the TV host's Olbermann Broadcasting Empire Inc., based in Los Angeles, is still open.

MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines called it a bookkeeping disagreement between Olbermann's accountants and the state and said it was resolved months ago.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal. The latter operates the MSNBC television network.)

Bergin said the debt could have been resolved recently, but it has not yet been legally "satisfied" and so remains an open case.

The tax debt has been featured on the blog OlbermannWatch.com, which referred to Olbermann as a "deadbeat," and among Page Six items in the New York Post. The tabloid referred to Olbermann as a "professional angry man" who likes tax-and-spend liberals "but didn't pay his own taxes."

Olbermann has named Fox TV conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly the world's worst person more than a dozen times. News Corp., headed by CEO Rupert Murdoch, owns the New York Post and Fox News Channel, among other properties.

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