Keith Olbermann Shames Hunter for Killing Rare White Turkey: Make His Life a ‘Living Hell’

ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann has called for making a young man’s life a “living hell,” goading his social media followers to attack him for shooting a rare white turkey during hunting season.

The Mississippi Clarion Ledger recently reported that Hunter Waltman, of Kiln, Mississippi, legally bagged a rare all white turkey.

The turkey Waltman bagged had nearly all white plumage, with white spurs and nails, but a black beard and normal eyes — meaning the bird isn’t an albino. The bird was apparently “one out of several hundred thousand individuals.”

But the SportsCenter host was not interested in celebrating Waltman’s rare trophy. Indeed, the TV sportscaster’s tweet organized his social media followers to launch an all-out assault against the man.

Olbermann soon jumped to his Twitter account to mock Waltman for the hunt saying, “It be rare and beautiful so me should kill it.”

The ESPN host added that Waltman was a “pea-brained scumbag.” But he also criticized the Ledger for daring to write a story about the rare harvest.

For its part, the paper stood by both its reporter and his story.

“What was I thinking?” Ledger editor in chief Sam Hall said on his own Twitter feed. “I guess I should have fired our outdoors writer for writing about a hunter killing an unusual turkey during turkey hunting season.”

It was not long before thousands of Olbermann’s rabid, left-wing social media followers began to harass both the hunter and the Clarion-Ledger for the turkey story.

Soon, Hall was back on Twitter to slam Olbermann for being “recklessly irresponsible” for sending his one million followers on the attack over the hunting story.

“Keith Olbermann‘s tweet was recklessly irresponsible,” Hall wrote. “Someone with his following needs to understand the possible impact of his words. Telling over 1 million people to make someone’s life a living hell could have seriously dangerous consequences.”

In yet another Tweet, Hall noted that refusing to write the hunting story would have been grounds for firing. “In our newsroom, that would be a fireable offense, not writing a story about a hunter bagging a turkey,” he said.

Amusingly, the Washington Free Beacon found that Olbermann was once a pitchman for fast food chain Boston Market and was part of a campaign to sell the restaurant’s turkey sandwiches.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.