'09
Sometimes I feel a little badly for Bill O’Reilly. For my steady eight o’clock news diet, I always tune in to Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, and Keith’s continuous mocking of O’Reilly is both hilarious and uncomfortable. Just last night, Olbermann was having a field day with O’Reilly’s “war” against Spain’s efforts to try several neoconservatives for war crimes, as well as O’Reilly’s “war” against UPS. UPS recently dropped their advertising on O’Reilly’s show over concerns that O’Reilly was and is a serious whackjob that UPS doesn’t want to have anything to do with.
Olbermann’s daily vendetta isn’t the only thing O’Reilly has to worry about. Bill appeared on David Letterman’s The Late Show last night, and it was clear that David still isn’t pulling his punches on O’Reilly. I have to give O’Reilly a little credit though – even though Letterman has famously mocked and belittled him before, O’Reilly showed he has a pretty good sense of humor. The Huffington Post has the story on what went down:
David Letterman, who infamously told Bill O’Reilly in 2006 that “about 60 percent of what you say is crap,” had his old bête noire back on his show on Tuesday night.
At the start of the show, Letterman couldn’t help lashing into the Fox News host, saying “I wish I was smart enough to make him look ridiculous… He’s going to come out here all puffed up.”
From practically the moment O’Reilly sat down, the sparks flew along with some surprising topics upon which they agreed.
“I think of you as a goon,” Letterman point-blank told O’Reilly. Then, holding up the cover of O’Reilly’s book, “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity,” which has a photo of O’Reilly as a boy, Letterman quipped, “I look at that and I see this sweet, adorable kid… I have a sweet adorable kid and I wonder, ‘What if he too becomes a goon?’”
And Letterman launched into O’Reilly positions, such as his boycott of Sean Penn movies, giving him the ultimate back-handed compliment: “You’re too smart to believe what you say.”
When Letterman focused on Rush Limbaugh, implying that he’s the face of the Republican party, O’Reilly alluded to the radio host’s power, saying that “I don’t think any Republicans or conservatives want to offend the man.” And he strove to distinguish himself from Limbaugh and fellow Fox News personality Glenn Beck by claiming that he’s a journalist: “I got a degree, I paid a lot of money for… I went out, covered stories… those guys are basically entertainers… we give information”.
O’Reilly also revealed that former Vice President Dick Cheney refused to come on his program, adding that he doesn’t like Cheney: “We asked him a million times… he wouldn’t come on.”
And he laughed about the famous video of him cursing out his staff – “I have so much better stuff than that… Irish guys curse. That’s in the DNA… We’re loud and say bad words.”
From The Huffington Post
I’ll give credit to O’Reilly for some things – he doesn’t just read off Republican talking points, and he was never just a vessel for the Bush Administration, though their ideologies often lined up. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that O’Reilly isn’t even close to being the worst “television personality” on Fox News. I save that honor for batsh-t insane Glenn Beck, whose apocalyptic rantings and honest-to-goodness calls for violent domestic insurrection scare the hell out of me. Next to Beck, O’Reilly seems like an almost honorable journalist. Until Olbermann replays that clip of O’Reilly saying that a murdered rape victim deserved it because of what she was wearing.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Bill O'Reilly, David Letterman
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18 Responses to “David Letterman calls Bill O’Reilly a ‘goon’”
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I caught it last night and I thought he did just fine.
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I still prefer to call him a thug or a bully. Goon has too much 40′s kitsch to it.
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I’d call him a bigot douchebag but thats just me.
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I’d second those names.
I’ve had the misfortune of catching his show several times, and sorry, he deserves the crap he gets, because he dishes it out just as bad if not worse sometimes. The man says some of the most racist things on television. He’s completely asinine.
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Letterman was funny- in the ’80′s. he has become a stiff suit and left-wing hack since he moved to 11:30.
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Hypocrite, Obnoxius, Ridiculous, Annoying, I could go on & on…
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I didn’t see the show. I have never watched O’Reilly, so I haven no opinion on him.
I have always found David Letterman to be a smug, arrogant, offensive jerk. The show is all about him and even his guests are just there so he can make himself look amusing and superior at their expense.
Frankly, I’d rather watch Ellen than either of these guys.
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Whenever I see Bill O’Reilly being interviewed on lighter fare (The View, Letterman etc) he usually comes across as being ok, with a good sense of humour and likeable.
Then he transforms for his show……
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I do agree that Letterman can get annoying at times. I hate it when he or any other talk show host, just won’t let their guest talk. Thats why Stephen Colbert and Conan annoy me. I watch(ed) their shows but not everyday.
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Uh-Irish guys cuss?? That’s his excuse? I’m all Irish baby and we might like our beer, but no one in my family has ever acted like that. Jack ass.
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Letterman can do no wrong! He doesn’t suck celeb butt like Leno… just calls it like it is.
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I like Letterman. He’s been on the air for ages and is as old as Methuselah so he no longer has to kiss the feet of his guests. I prefer his style of goofing on morons (i.e. Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag, Paris Hilton and others) and even messing around with people who aren’t really morons (i.e. Bill O’Reilly). It’s certainly better than the sycophantic fawning that the daytime shows do. Ick.
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Fuck it, we’ll do it live!
Rallying cry of all unprepared media professionals.
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Uh, hold the front page! Breaking news!
‘Satirist/comedian calls bigoted prick nasty name’
That’s official then – the world’s gone mad.
Next thing you know Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are gonna be playing the Glenn Beck crying clip (‘I’m sorry, I just love my country’) over and over ad infinitum…oh wait…
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I think Letterman’s still got it. Nice work with this jerk.
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He is a fake. He is disgusting and uses ideals and morality to fit the soap scripts for his show. He is a liar and nearly worthless as a piece of humanity. The worth being the same found in people on life support or in human embryos. Just a whisper of worth. He started all news commentary bullshit.
He is a good politician himself. You should check out his interview with a former mentor/instructor at his alma mater. I can’t remember what it was, but he completely dismantles this CNN salad days professor by using many of the techniques used on cable news today in his interview. The old guy isn’t equipped to handle him. Many of the students there thought he did just fine, and his lack of integrity is seductive.
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Calling him a “goon” is being nice. I can think of more colorful words to describe that idiot O’Reilly.
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My fellow on Orkut shared this link and I’m not dissapointed that I came here.
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