ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann is now apologizing for unleashing thousands of his social media followers in an attack on a Mississippi hunter who bagged a rare turkey with all-white plumage.
The ESPN sportscaster took to his Twitter account to apologize “unreservedly” for a previous tweet attacking Hunter Waltman, of Kiln, Mississippi, after the Mississippi Clarion Ledger reported his rare harvest.
“I am an opponent of trophy hunting and remain so, but nobody should feel threatened. This was anything but my intent, so I unreservedly apologize to Mr. Waltman for this tweet,” Olbermann tweeted on Wednesday evening.
The one-time MSNBC bomb-thrower also deleted his earlier tweet attacking Mr. Waltman where he called the man a series of vicious names.
After the Ledger published its news story about Waltman’s hunt, Olbermann tweeted a full-frontal attack on the man.
“It be rare and beautiful so me should kill it,” Olbermann tweeted, adding, “This pea-brained scumbag identifies himself as Hunter Waltman, and we should do our best to make sure the rest of his life is a living hell. And the nitwit clown who wrote this fawning piece should be fired.”
The editor in chief of the Ledger quickly came to the defense of his paper and reporter and slammed Olbermann for goading thousands of his social media followers to go on the attack against the hunter.
“What was I thinking?” Ledger editor in chief Sam Hall said on his own Twitter feed in reply to Olbermann’s accusations. “I guess I should have fired our outdoors writer for writing about a hunter killing an unusual turkey during turkey hunting season.”
Olbermann’s apology may have been sparked by his place of employment. According to Fox News, ESPN said “We have spoken to him about not making personal attacks.” After that, Olbermann issued his apology.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.