O’Reilly returns Olbermann fire…
TVNewser notes O’Reilly’s attack on Olbermann last night and asks the following…
Is Bill O’Reilly feeling threatened by Keith Olbermann?
No. He’s just responding to the repeated shots that Olbermann has taken at him and what better way than to point out Countdown’s and MSNBC’s relatively weak ratings compared to O’Reilly’s and FNC’s…
Keith being a former sports guy should know the term. “Scoreboard, b****”
over/under on when Olbermann sends off an email to Cablenewser? By 5 p.m.
Comment by Ripclawe — December 22, 2005 @ 1:35 pm
I am not surprised O’Reilly shot back at Dopeyman….Mr. Bill has a short fuse for those whom he regards as “pinheads”…..Dopeyman reminds me of the little kid that will say or do anything for the slightest bit of attention….Poor fella……….
Comment by JR — December 22, 2005 @ 1:40 pm
Keith Olberman seems to have to say really mean things about other people to feel good about himself. I am no O’Rielly fan (although I do agree with a lot of his views) but the ratings speak for themselves. Keith O. is sort of an ignorant jerk, in my opinion and ceases to be funny.
Comment by Sophia — December 22, 2005 @ 2:27 pm
It is remarkable that O’Reilly will NOT give Keith the benefit of publicity in any way! He has NEVER referred to Olbermann by name; instead, he refers only to MSNBC, “the competition”, etc.
Keith should just knock it off on the O’Reilly bashing. Both programs have been on a while now, and O’Reilly’s got his fans; Olbermann, his (albeit far fewer in number). I doubt whether there’s much chance of Keith garnering any of O’Reilly’s audience, so he should just stop it already and quit giving O’Reilly more publicity!
Comment by Missy — December 22, 2005 @ 2:42 pm
Ah the Fox fan club is out in force. How sweet. The most interesting piece of that TVN piece was O’Reilly’s resolutions to “to report better, write better, interview better, and interrupt less,” admitting “that last one may be dicey”. Considerng that O’Reilly can’t write, report, or interview to save his life that’s quite the undertaking. But hey, at least he admits it.
Comment by Mia2 — December 22, 2005 @ 3:02 pm
only took him a little over a hour and a half this time.
“Update: 12:47pm: Olbermann responds via e-mail: “About big ratings, as they say, 800 billion flies can’t be wrong.”
so bitter..
Comment by Ripclawe — December 22, 2005 @ 3:45 pm
“over/under on when Olbermann sends off an email to Cablenewser? By 5 p.m.”
I LOL when I read that, since KO had ALREADY sent a snarky email to TVN (it was up by 12:47 pm).
Through all of Keith’s 48 on-air jabs at O’Reilly, I don’t recall TVN ever suggesting that Keith was “feeling threatened” by Mr Bill.
Comment by johnny dollar — December 22, 2005 @ 3:46 pm
Keith - the perfect storm of stupidity. “Can’t write, report, or interview,” and when is he going to admit it?
He doesn’t bring facts and reason to the debate. All he can do to get attention is have puppet shows and throw papers. I wonder if he writes on his tablet in crayon.
Comment by Cara — December 22, 2005 @ 3:49 pm
I really have no problem with the bashing. I happen to think that O’Reilly is a self righteous hypocrit, and deserves every
“worse person in the world” award he gets.
Olbermann has also given himself the award when mistakes are made on his program.
Comment by BlogThat — December 22, 2005 @ 6:50 pm
You have to feel sorry for Keith Olbermann. It’s interesting to me that he reads these blogs, but so incredibly sad that he actually responds to them. I do hope he has a nice holiday, though. He’ll probably spend it with his hand puppets, responding to comments on blogs.
Oh the sadness of it all.
Comment by Jake — December 22, 2005 @ 6:50 pm
Olbermann is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards in radio and television broadcasting, including the 1995 Cable Ace Award for Best Sportscaster, 11 Golden Mike Awards for excellence in television and radio, and four Sports Emmy Awards. Olbermann also received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the events of 9/11.
In addition to his extensive broadcasting experience, Olbermann has written for dozens of publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated and Playboy. His first book, “The Major League Coaches,” was published when he was 14. Olbermann received a bachelor’s of science degree in communications arts from Cornell University. He lives in New York City.
That is from his bio. Doesn’t sound like someone who “writes on tablets in crayon.”
Comment by BlogThat — December 22, 2005 @ 6:52 pm
Most of those awards are for sports or writing….The problem I have with him is he sucks as a personality. When Alison Stewart hosts his show, I actually watch sometimes. But, first sign of him and i’m out!
Comment by Terance — December 22, 2005 @ 7:17 pm
Since we are talking about bios for both fellas, here is a little piece of Mr. O’Reilly’s…..
“Both of O’Reilly’s non-fiction books, The O’Reilly Factor, and The No Spin Zone have each reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list. His novel Those Who Trespass has been optioned for the screen by Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions”
I will stack Mr. Bills bio against Dopeymans anytime..Any idiot can write about sports….
Comment by JR — December 22, 2005 @ 8:00 pm
Actually he won the Murrow’s for his coverage of 9/11. What interests me is the intense hatred that the right-wingnuts here have for Olbermann. You know if his show is just so bad and his ratings so awful–how do you even know who he is? And why do you hate him so? Surely it’s not because he’s a threat of some kind to your beloved Faux is it? Or could it be that you know darn well he’s got the credentials that the frauds at Faux so sadly lack? Read it and weep people–he’s got a book deal. I can’t wait to see him blast away at the idiots on parade that is Fox News. Oh–and “any idiot can write sports?” How about any idiot can shoot fish in a barrel. That’s what Fox does. And not even particularly well. You people are always good for a laugh. I gotta tell you.
Comment by Mia2 — December 22, 2005 @ 8:13 pm
I’m still laughing at the irony of a “Faux News” channel employee referring to anyone a “notorious smear merchant”!
Comment by Becky in Ohio — December 22, 2005 @ 8:23 pm
Dear Mia2,
Talk about hate…The reason we keep hearing about Dopeyman is because of this board and of course idiots like you who defend Dopeyman and attack Fox News. Are you related to Dopeyman? Certainly no one in thier right mind other than his momma would defend him so strongly. check the ratings and book sales…I bet Dopies book is in the 1/2 price book stores in record time…Sounds like the perfect gift for all of us that need something to keep our tables from rocking……
Comment by JR — December 22, 2005 @ 8:41 pm
Lost in all of the unfunny name calling from Mia2 and Becky in Ohio is what O’Reilly actually said: that the ratings for his 4am ET airing often beats Olbermann’s 8pm prime time showing. That is downright embarrassing to both MSNBC and Olbermann and provides no lead-in audience for Rita Cosby, Scarborough or Tucker Carlson.
You have to wonder how much longer MSNBC will go with KO’s non-existant ratings.
Comment by Ira — December 22, 2005 @ 9:30 pm
If you check the ratings, (don’t bother I’ll do it for you) you will see that Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Hardball with Chris Matthews are consistantly the #1 shows for MSNBC. Usually Countdown with KO builds on the leadin that Hardball provides. It is not an irregular that both Countdown with KO and Hardball beat CNN in the vaunted 25-54 demos, when CNN is pulling in nearly double their total viewers. In fact Countdown has one of the most enviable viewing demographics on cable. The audience is young and highly educated. Contrast that with “The O’Reilly Factor” where the audience tends to be the inverse.
Comment by BlogThat — December 22, 2005 @ 10:09 pm
Ira, Keith often has the highest ratings on msnbc, usually his show or Hardball is first. I’m sure the three you mentioned will be out soon enough for losing his audience though, which has increased significantly in the demo, in one of the most competitive time slots.
Ratings from last Friday indicate a performance of 161,000 viewers for Keith to O’Reilly’s 315,000 in the demo, both defeating Zahn’s 125,000. Perhaps this is why Bill has finally decided to take some shots at him. Whereas, only a couple of months ago Keith’s total audience on Friday Oct. 7 was 222,000 compared to Friday Dec 22’s total of 364,000.
It’s obvious looking down a list of ratings overtime, his show is picking up viewers, his audience across the week is now consistently over 350K, showing 364K Monday, 405K Tuesday, and 384K Wednesday.
FNC people are obviously afraid that Keith is the leader at msnbc, the conservatives there are failing, and CNN, HLN, and msnbc are starting to tear into the ratings, especially the demo.
Keith Olbermann is an excellent journalist and one can at least find fascinating stories on his show that one cannot find elsewhere. The only contribution O’Reilly has given is entertainment and seeking out his personal agenda.
Comment by AnonymousHere — December 22, 2005 @ 10:17 pm
Woops! It looks like BlogThat beat me to it, but I’ll also add that it’s pretty sad that people won’t check their facts before they come on here and blast away at whatever. I don’t think it’s fair for people to make up stuff to fit their agenda of what they have to say.
Comment by AnonymousHere — December 22, 2005 @ 10:20 pm
How interesting. When the numbers are bad, Keith dismisses them as unimportant with wisecracks about “800 billion flies”. And two minutes later, they’ll turn around and go wild with PR and ads about “we beat CNN!!”. Well, which is it?
Comment by johnny dollar — December 22, 2005 @ 10:54 pm
Keith beating Zahn in the vaunted 25-54 demo is a blip here and there. look at yesterday’s ratings in the 24-54.
“8pm: O’Reilly: 450,000 / Zahn: 181,000 / Countdown: 125,000 / Grace: 151,000 /”
To say Olbermann is not bitter is to forget his potshots at Nancy Grace when she debuted and vaulted past him in the ratings. Its a nice spin you put on the ratings,but he is just a never was/never will be.
Comment by Ripclawe — December 22, 2005 @ 10:55 pm
To be fair, Olby wasn’t on yesterday so that number is misleading.
Comment by johnny dollar — December 22, 2005 @ 11:29 pm
Just pulled up the chart from November. Countdown had an average of 163,000 in the demo. Nancy Grace had 154,000 in the demo. Countdown was the #1 show on MSNBC average about 450,000 viewers a night in November.
Comment by BlogThat — December 23, 2005 @ 12:04 am
Thank you, BlogThat. What all the people who can’t come up with a better way to put Keith down than to call him “Dopeyman” (childish) and keep pointing to O’Reilly’s ratings and book sales can’t seem to understand is this:
1.As long as there are way more households that can pick up Fox News than can pick up MSNBC at all, there will be a big gap in the ratings between O’Reilly and Olbermann. That has nothing to do with the quality of what Olbermann’s offering. You can’t watch what your cable network doesn’t offer you.
2. If more people could get MSNBC, we might just see that gap close considerably as people were exposed to an intelligent alternative to O’Reilly’s idiocies.
3. Keith’s enemies keep going on about how bitter and sad his life must be, but I don’t see someone who’s bitter and sad at all. Instead, I see someone who’s laughing and having a lot of fun as O’Reilly’s targets hit the guy where he lives. And with the kind of work he’s done in his career, both in news and sports (and anyone who thinks sportswriting is easy should try it sometime), he need justify his accomplishments to no one.
4. Both Bill and Keith’s detractors/Bill’s fans like to imply that Keith is a meaningless gnat who is nothing compared to Bill and whose existence bothers him and them not a whit because he is so pathetic. But why is it then that whenever he takes a good potshot at Bill, both Bill and the Fox fans get their knickers in such a knot? Why do they then have to spend all those posts explaining about how it doesn’t really matter, Keith is but a bug on Bill’s windshield? Methinks they doth protest too much. Naah, Keith’s getting attention for his smarts, while Bill is busy losing the War on the War on Christmas…
The REAL reason Bill won’t mention Keith’s name is this: Like the characters in a Harry Potter book who won’t say Voldemort’s name aloud, he’s afraid of the guy.
Comment by tanne — December 23, 2005 @ 7:19 am
Right on, Tanne! As I said in my email to Mr. O’Reilly, quantity and quality aren’t necessarily related. McDonald’s has served billions, but a big mac will never be filet mignon!
Comment by Becky in Ohio — December 23, 2005 @ 7:47 am
I read in USA Today this week that FOX News was in the top five for all of cable television, not just cable news, but all of cable tv, among giants like TNT and ESPN. MSNBC and all other cable news networks were no where to be found. The idea that MSNBC may matter to many people outside of these blogs is amusing at best.
Comment by Jake — December 23, 2005 @ 12:38 pm
tanne: Can you please provide statistics that show that FNC is in more homes than MSNBC? For years it was Fox playing catchup to both CNN and MSNBC. Im my travels, I still find my hotels that carry MSNBC than Fox.
And who are Keith’s “enemies?” I happen to think that K.O. is a very talented guy. With his fanatical love of baseball, he is better suited in sports as a modern day “Howard Cosell.” In fact, I was dismayed when the plug was pulled on his Sunday night Fox Sports Net show a few years ago. It was the last viable adult alternative to the inane ESPN Sportscenter.
Comment by Ira — December 23, 2005 @ 1:14 pm
The latest stats I saw indicate that FNC is available to 85 million homes, MSNBC to 83.5 million. I don’t think that accounts for the big gap in ratings between O’Reilly and Olbermann!
Comment by johnny dollar — December 23, 2005 @ 4:02 pm
I thought that MSNBC’s carriage was around 85 million and that FNC’s was around 90 million.
Comment by BlogThat — December 23, 2005 @ 6:06 pm