This is classic. Reader Pieter B. found this and left it in a comment. Bill O'Reilly is whining like a schoolgirl over Letterman telling him he's full of crap the other night. But here's what O'Reilly was saying back in 2001 about Letterman:
The late-night program hosted by David Letterman is the toughest interview show on television.
That's because Mr. Letterman is a smart guy who can spot a phony with telescopic accuracy and expects his guests to bring something to the table. If a guest begins to sink on this show, the bottom is a long way down.
Hilarious.
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This would be part, I suppose, of the ~ 40% that O'Reilly says isn't crap. IMHO, tho, Letterman let's people who don't 'bring something to the table' off fairly easily these days (moreso than in his NBC days, where thin skinned celebs with underdeveloped senses of the ironic definitely feared to tread). Letterman's been a kinder, gentler version of himself for a few years now, reserving his now legendary ability to make people look foolish for those who really, really deserve it.
O'Reilly includes some phony self-deprecation in his usual schtick, but behind that is a true inability to laugh at himself. It's amazing to me how mediocre media talents like O'Reilly (or Limbaugh, who was similarly skewered once on Letterman) can't take jokes at their own expense, while more respectable members of the MSM can suffer foolish pranks with equanimity.
"It's amazing to me how mediocre media talents like O'Reilly (or Limbaugh, who was similarly skewered once on Letterman) can't take jokes at their own expense, while more respectable members of the MSM can suffer foolish pranks with equanimity."
That's because when you have no skills to speak of other than flapping your mouth telling someone how great you are, anything that punctures the belief that you aren't so great hurts you personally. If you have actual skills, you can take jabs at your ego without deflating completely.
Speaking of wingnuts...apparently Pat Robertson is speaking out for God again.
Robertson: Sharon punished for dividing Israel
The Rev. Pat Robertson said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being punished by God for dividing the Land of Israel. Robertson, speaking on the "700 Club" on Thursday, suggested Sharon, who is currently in an induced coma, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by an Israeli extremist in 1995, were being treated with enmity by God for dividing Israel. "He was dividing God's land," Robertson said. "And I would say, Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, This land belongs to me. You better leave it alone."
Damn, Ed, you nearly made me blush. I have to give the credit for that to mediamatters.org; that's where I found the link.
Should it be relevant that, in this case, O'Reilly was indeed totally wrong? His example of the alternate "Silent Night" lyrics was completely bogus.
Nah. Not relevant. With O'Reilly, it never is.
"Should it be relevant that, in this case, O'Reilly was indeed totally wrong?"
Isn't that a given?
Also in that mediamatters article is a link to a Washington post piece that gives the history of the "Silent Night" lyric change. What I didn't know before reading that particular article was that the author, a choir director, is choir director at the church that Ron and Nancy Reagan attended for years.
If O'Reilly fell down in a forest and there was no one to hear him, would he still be wrong?
Ed, The media is playing that Letterman show to the hilt. I saw it again today on Good Morning America show. Being a Hoosier myself needless to say I was pleased to see David Letterman tell it like it is. He pulls no punches!
After this lastest statement from Pat Robertson about how Sharon the Israeli Prime Minister deserved the massive stroke he suffered, I wish Letterman would have him on his show too.