O’Reilly vs. NBC…
The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes about the O’Reilly vs. NBC feud, though to be honest it has sort of mushroomed into an FNC vs. NBC feud; Fox and Friends brought the subject up again this morning. Kurtz does break some new ground in the Olbermann/O’Reilly feud though…
Several times over the last year, according to three sources who asked not to be identified because they were describing private conversations, O’Reilly’s agent called Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC’s television group, urging him to tell his MSNBC commentators to back off. O’Reilly also posted an online petition demanding that NBC dump Olbermann.
In an interview, Olbermann says O’Reilly’s latest offensive “reeks a little bit of an attempt to get some attention,” though the former sportscaster admits he started the feud as a way of raising his profile.
Olbermann has, for once, limited his on-air comments about O’Reilly. “Something sent him over the edge, I don’t know what. Other than the sandbagging and bullying of Andrea Mitchell, it’s kind of laughable. . . . There’s no point in having a fight with someone who looks like an idiot.”
Spud, as you know, that last sentence cannot go unchallenged.
O’Reilly is not an idiot just because KO says so. But as long as people in the MSM keep citing his quotes as if he’s some type of authority, they give him credibility. As do you by perpetuating these statements.
I am ashamed that I myself keep responding, but this type of thing should not go unchallenged. Further, O’Reilly did NOT attack Andrea Mitchell; she was unable to give an answer to a very simple and direct question.
Comment by Missy — January 15, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Missy, even O’Reilly said he was hard on Mitchell at the end of the interview. So you’re going to have a hard time arguing that he wasn’t.
Comment by Spud — January 15, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Olberman calling O’Reilly an idiot after his pathological obession with him to raise his miserable ratings? What a pitiful way for a punky lout to make excuses for behavior that has kept him at the bottom despite his buffoonery and maniacal ranting. It’s obvious he needs a lot of therapy, and I don’t mean PT either.
Comment by RGL — January 15, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
O’Reilly isn’t a cake walk either… you say that just because Olbermann says he is an idiot… doesn’t mean he is… well what about when O’Reilly goes on and tells people to boycott sponsors of a show because “he” doesn’t like the content… does that make him any better? Or does the magic FOX double standard reveal itself again in that only THEIR commentators and pundits are the only ones allowed to do it?
Comment by ? — January 15, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
“O’Reilly also posted an online petition demanding that NBC dump Olbermann.”
Somebody please enlighten me. I was an O’Reilly Premium Member and still visit the website everyday (to see the agenda for the Radio and TV Factor). Unless this is in reference to Bill trying to get Phil Donahue back on MSNBC, I have never seen an online petiton that specifically mentions Olbermann.
Comment by Ira — January 15, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Whatever O’Reilly has going on with NBC, it is justified.
Any who heard Chris Matthews this morning on the TODAY show, would agree that this guy has crossed the line and NBC supports it.
Matthews said that the President might cross the borders into Iran because, “Who knows what evil lurks?” He was referring to “what evil lurks in the heart” of the President.
Will no one shut this guy up?
Comment by cella — January 15, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
BORs successful duping of his nightly audience certainly cannot be considered idiotic. Nor can the ambushing and lecturing of unprepared guests for the entertainment of his viewers. Bor is a genius in the same way Jerry Springer is.
Comment by elmonica — January 15, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Ira, just because O’Reilly doesn’t specifically mention Olbermann by name does not mean he isn’t talking about Olbermann. Everybody knows that petition was about Olbermann. To suggest otherwise is Clintonian “what the definition of is is” arguing…
Comment by Spud — January 15, 2007 @ 2:33 pm
“There’s no point in having a fight with someone who looks like an idiot.”
That is the pot calling the kettle black.
Comment by jerziegrl — January 15, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
And I believe BOR may have learned his lesson during his lawsuit against Franken. By naming Franken directly, and by tying AF to him, it helped make that “Liars” book a NYT Bestseller.
Comment by eddiebear — January 15, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
However, the Donahue/Olbermann petition was way over a year ago.
Comment by erljr — January 15, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
Didn’t BOR’s crusade against NBC begin when NBC had the audacity to refer to events in Iraq as a civil war?
Bill needs to give John Bolton a little reminder that if he has aspirations to work as a Fox analyst he needs to stick to the administrations’ talking points.
See Clip
here
Comment by elmonica — January 15, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
I sure hope Wordpress releases a preview feature soon.
See link
here
Comment by elmonica — January 15, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
Yep, I heard O’Reilly (on his radio show) admit to being too hard on Mitchell. He sounded really sorry about it.
I agree O’Reilly is not an idiot just because KO says so. And I doubt others (who think O’Reilly is an idiot) think so just because KO said so. More than likely it’s one of the more outrageous things O’Reilly himself has said that cause people to think he’s an idiot.
Keep in mind though, O’Reilly’s not above calling people idiots either. Al Franken is but one he’s called an idiot. I guess it would be safe to say Franken’s not an idiot just because O’Reilly says he is?
Overall, name calling is something both O’Reilly and KO should stop doing.
Comment by STP — January 15, 2007 @ 4:11 pm
I’m still confused. Where is this petition? I just searched the O’Reilly website and haven’t seen any petition…
Is this it? http://www.billoreilly.com/pg/jsp/general/mediadef.jsp;jsessionid=036248550863058CB4963F435F01A39A
If that’s it… I don’t know if that can really be called a petition… I think people need to be given the option sign their name to make it a petition… this is just a list.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 15, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
The petetion:
here
Comment by elmonica — January 15, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Nope, that his enemies list, this is the petition.
Comment by Steve — January 15, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
oops, elmonica beat me to it.
Comment by Steve — January 15, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
Here’s O’Reilly’s letter/petition to MSNMC in which he made sure to not mention KO by name (like we didn’t see through that). We used to be able to see the comments left by the petition signers. I read them until O’Reilly.com fixed it so you couldn’t read the comments anymore. My guess is they did that because it backfired on them. It was getting so most of the comments were mocking O’Reilly (and I have to admit, some of them were very funny). Even Olbermann signed it. In the end it became a joke.
http://billoreilly.com/petitions/viewpetition?petitionID=45714
And, in turn, this petition was spawned: http://www.petitiononline.com/0donahue/petition.html
Comment by STP — January 15, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
Thank you both for that. I now see why I didn’t see it the first time.
But I’m still confused about something. Why is this a news issue to Mr. Kurtz? The date on the petition is Feb. 22, 2006… that’s almost a year ago! Kurtz makes this sounds like this is a new thing… but it isn’t. It’s not even part of this new round of O’Reilly v. MSNBC. It’s disingenuous for Kurtz to include this in his article without clarifying.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 15, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
I like that FNC calls out NBC for their Democratic biases. Since so many in the MSM have criticized FNC for a conservative bias, it’s good that FNC has gone on the offense. To this day, I remember Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric essentially cheerleading for Democrats in the early 90’s on the “Today” show. (although I have mellowed in my 40’s and actually like Couric on the CBS Evening News)
However, calling someone an “idiot” or a “lunatic” crosses a line to me. Both O’Reilly and Olbermann have gotten out of hand. Discuss why you think the opponent’s arguments and/or reporting are wrong or biased but don’t call names. It’s rude, ugly, and unprofessional to me.
Comment by Scott — January 15, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
It’s ridiculous to accuse O’Reilly of “sandbagging” and being hard on Andrea Mitchell. I watched that interview, and he told her repeatedly that he had no problem with her, she’s fair & balanced, and that he was sorry for being a little hard on her.
Exactly how could he “sandbag” her? She was brought on to discuss the issue of NBC being biased toward the libs. She knew that. I doubt she thought they would discuss the weather.
Another instance of KO creating his own story out of thin air.
Comment by Big Red — January 15, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
Forgive me for not remembering the source, but someone today opined that Andrea looked like a deer in the headlights when O’Reilly asked her that question. And it was also thought that because she’s so entrenched in liberal terrirory, she may not actually realize that her peers are in fact liberal!
Comment by Missy — January 15, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Missy, I’ve often thought that myself. I think that recently there’s been such a mingling of fact and opinion, that some people can’t discern the difference… neither party is imune. Some people spout off opinion, which they feel is fact, but other people detect as bias. I don’t know if Andrea is like that or not… but a good deal of people at MS/NBC certainly suffer from this.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 15, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
“Exactly how could he “sandbag” her? She was brought on to discuss the issue of NBC being biased toward the libs. She knew that. I doubt she thought they would discuss the weather.”
Big Red, Andrea Mitchell was booked on the program to talk about her book not to discuss the issue of NBC being biased towards the libs.
Comment by Anon — January 15, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Anon- How do you know that? That night wasn’t the first night Bill had talked about NBC’s bias… he didn’t spring it on her last minute… the segment was even previewed as “We talk to Andrea Mitchell about bias at NBC”… hard to make the argument that she did’t know beforehand.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 15, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
Anon..seriously. She wanted on The Factor and thought it would a softball interview to promote her book!?! It ain’t Oprah. And your source for this is what? Olbermann?
Comment by Big Red — January 15, 2007 @ 10:55 pm
Read it a few places and before you decide they must have been liberal sites, one site was definitely not a liberal site. It were applauding O’Reilly for taking the opportunity to confront her about NBC bias while she on The Factor to discuss her new book.
Comment by Anon — January 15, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
Sites such as……???
Comment by Big Red — January 16, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Gotta agree with Big Red with this, Anon… what are these sites you speak of? Gimme a link or something!
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 16, 2007 @ 12:34 am
As an aside more than being plain liberal, most of the MSM are just populist in that they just sway in the direction of the wind magnifying the stories for effect.
Controversy is what sells, so if the Bush war is unpopular then it in the publishers interest to side with the majority i.e. the opposition in criticizing it.
Have you forgotten how Clinton was riled and ridiculed for his misdemeanor?
There are but a handful that clearly sit in the left shade on principle NYT is definitely one and there are quite a few more, but not as many as BOR tries to portray.
To the topic KO is just what he accuses BOR to be a chauvinistic, jingoistic, egotistic commentator.
Comment by Macjoubert — January 16, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
For the people who wanted links, sorry cleared my history and can’t remember off hand where I read it all. Don’t have the time or the inclination to go back and search just to prove I’m not lying! Seems to me ( but can’t be sure) that the conservative site may have been NewsBusters but couldn’t swear to it.
Comment by Anon — January 16, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
You’re right, Anon, Newsbusters did indeed say it. They would hardly be considered a liberal site.
Comment by STP — January 16, 2007 @ 3:29 pm