Yesterday Pat Sajak claimed to have discovered Keith Olbermann the same way he discovered the greatest American since Benjamin Franklin and the fair market price for a vowel ($250). Now the MSNBC host is hitting back. In a statement sent to The Atlantic Wire, Olbermann refutes Sajak's claim that his 1989 appearance on The Pat Sajak Show constituted his first exposure to a national audience. He does, however, take some responsibility for the program's notoriously low quality. Writes Olbermann:

Pat Sajak has made a claim picked up pretty widely - Hollywood Reporter, Daily News, etc - that he "introduced me to America."

He didn't.

I started on CNN the same year he started on "Wheel" (1981) and by the time I guested on his show in 1989, I'd already spent three years as a national sports correspondent for CNN, had a feature done on me by The Today Show (1986), been on the CBS Evening News (1988), and begun guest-hosting on ESPN (1989).

I think if he needs to apologize for anything it needs to be that talk show. When he was canceled, he was replaced by a crime-and-skin series called "Silk Stalkings," for God's sake. Obviously we guests must've really stunk.

Don't forget this cringe-inducing monologue, Keith.

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Ray Gustini