Keith Olbermann, Jay Leno, and AIG

Keith Olbermann made a fool of himself when he was chatting with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show last night.

He said that American International Group is not an American company.

Wrong.



Transcript

KEITH OLBERMANN: The group that screwed the company into the ground, these guys are getting the bonuses. They're getting a million dollars each or more, on top of which they're based in London, most of them. So we are giving, we have given bailout money to people who caused the need for the bailout. We're giving them bonuses for screwing up the company and the economy, and they're not even in this country.

JAY LENO: Can I ask you a dumb question? Is this... It's called American Insurance Group. Is that the name?

OLBERMANN: I believe that's it, yes.

LENO: Is this even an American company, or is this one of those phony things when you're chopping down trees, you call yourself 'The Evergreen Preservation Society'?

OLBERMANN: It's a brand name.

LENO: I mean, is it even American at all?

OLBERMANN: It probably was at some point, but you know, when they went... when you go to initials, as you know, usually it's a sign something has changed. Going by your initials, it's like, you don't really want to be identified as the company anymore.

Good grief. Olbermann doesn't even know the NAME of the company.

It's American INTERNATIONAL Group, not American INSURANCE Group.

It's an American company based in New York.