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Best of the Olbermann-O'Reilly Feud
Now that the Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly feud is over, The Daily Beast looks back at some of our favorite moments from the epic cable-newser snipefest.
Xtra Insight: Plus, The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove on the Olbermann-O'Reilly sham truce.
Factor Flashback: Bill Demands Olbermann Out, Donahue In
In February 2006, O’Reilly started a petition to get MSNBC to bring back his old timeslot rival, Phil Donahue, and kick Olbermann to the curb. He couched his request in concern for the network, saying Olbermann’s ratings were worse than Donahue’s at his lowest.
The Falafel-Guy Fatwa: Olbermann Fires Back, Sings
Olbermann countered that his ratings might be lower, but the median age of his viewers was lower as well, an important fact considering television advertisers covet younger demographics. “Be concerned about the odds of your viewers living into next week,” Olbermann cautioned.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day: Bill Whips Out His Measuring Stick
Ratings were clearly a sticking point for the hosts. In October 2008, O’Reilly took umbrage with a New York Times article that suggested MSNBC was a competitor for Fox News. “You gonna print that last night, I beat their gutter-snipe at 8 by two million viewers?” O’Reilly asked, referring to his timeslot rival Olbermann. He went on to suggest the Nielsen ratings themselves were being tampered with by NBC sympathizers.
Oddball: Olbermann Whips Out His Own Stick
“Bill-o the Clown has jumped the shark tank that is delusional paranoia,” Olbermann said in his rebuttal. Countering O’Reilly’s argument that the Nielsen ratings had suspiciously odd swings in numbers that were unprecedented in the television business, Keith had his own explanation for the numerical variances: “Um, it’s ‘cause you suck.”
Talking Points Memo: O’Reilly Calls Olbermann a Meanie
In November 2008, CBS Sunday Morning’s Harry Smith interviewed O’Reilly. When asked about Olbermann, an unusually docile, almost vulnerable O’Reilly responded, “They’re just in it to hurt people…The meanness of the discourse in general bothers me.”
Special Comment: Olbermann Quarantines O’Reilly
After Dr. George Tiller’s murder in June 2009, some said O’Reilly’s criticism of the doctor helped incite the violent act. For his part, Olbermann vowed to “quarantine” his coverage of O’Reilly, retiring his graphics, funny voices, and jokes used to mock O’Reilly. “This is serious. Serious as death. Serious as George Tiller’s death,” he said. The self-imposed embargo did not last long, however, casting doubt on the permanence of this network-induced truce, as well.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
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Are you kidding me ? TDB how about when Billo said that the kidnapped and raped kid wanted to be kidnapped ?
Here is Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. read it & weep.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=105764
I cannot understand why the coment was removed - i was not the author. One reason I have a problem with O'Reilly is that too much of his commentary seems to be unscripted and off-the-cuff. This is the reason for so many of his comments exceed any sense of decency or thoughtfulness. Olbermann seems highly scripted - his comments on the excesses of the Bush years upset people who thought that everything was fine because they votes for that corrupt dolt.
Olbermann's only comeback- "It's because you suck." He will never have as many viewers as O'Reilly not only because he is unlikable but because his arguments have no basis.
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Or that Bill Orally is a bald faced liar who wouldn't recognize the truth if it bit him in the ass.
People watch O'Reilly because ignorance is bliss. And most are happier than a pig in shit when watching his show
Im no fan of Oreilly, but Olbermann is an egomaniac who's personal attacks against anyone who doesn't step in line with the Obama mantra borders on the insane.
I will give Oreilly one huge pat on the back. He is the only one in the media, on either side, who has criticized the oil industry giants about how they need to help the country and stop price grabbing/controlling.
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O'Reilly may be strident at times, but Olberman personifies the definition of a dufus. Its been 2313 days since the airways have been soiled with his blathering daily delusional diatribes. I only wish that Ben Afflect could have made as many appearances as Olberman on SNL as Tina Fey did re Palin. That would have been "priceless" as he was spot on.
Really, now! Who really cares about these two people as anything but cheap entertainment?
Agreed. Neither is an actual newanchor. Both get paid to make editorial comments about news reports. Both play to their viewers (which is fine). I will say that O'Reilly's ratings are higher because of demographics. Olbermann squashes him with online followers, again due to demographics.
I think Obama has started a new trend!
Please explain.
Kiss and make up.
I'm actually sorry to see the feud go. I think a lot of media feuds are made-up and dumb, but I liked this one. As a liberal who gets shouted down by conservatives all the time and has for years, I always there was something great about Keith Olbermann fighting back. He always kept swinging...and I liked him for it.
NBC has caved to the extremists of FOX. To give the GE execs some cover they've thrown out the only comment -- gentle or harsh -- exposing the lies, racism and exteme madness of the right wing's worst elements. "Peace in our time." Who will call out the lies? The cowards at NBC need to be knowing that the Fox bandits have won: While Olbermann assails the liars, they only have to make things a teeny bit uncomfortable for the bosses and they run up the white flag. We've seen this before. NBC = No Balls Company.
The reason there are wild swings in the ratings is no one can stand to listen to either of these clowns for more than a few minutes, even after switching between them. Bill'O has turned into a real blowhard!
Come on these aren't Olbermann's best takedown of Oreally,
bring out Malmedy, Andrea Macris, Falafel, or do it live.....
Those are good and as to the KO haters who deride hime calling people names Billo's pinheads ring a bell?
And as to KO's supposed lies name one?
Meanwhile Wikipedia has an entire page entitled Billo controversies involving his lies, falafels, meltdowns.
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Read Glenn Greenwald's piece on this in Salon to see what's really going on. It's GE protecting itself.
That's why I think either antitrust or FCC investigation of this is necessary. If there isn't a law against this, there should be.
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I think one of Olbermanns best was calling Billo, " The Frank Burns of cable news".
It is simply absurd to equate Keith Olbermann to Bill O'Reilly. While Olbermann's outrage may seem strident at times, at least his passion is based on reality and common sense. And to claim he is some kind of Obama mouthpiece ignores the fact that anyone who watches the show has seen KO bash BHO plenty of times. O'Reilly is the "no-spin" clown who repeatedly abuses and shouts down his guests if they don't toe the party line of a "news" organization which is a cruel joke to all but the most ignorant of viewers...
Wow, this feud and racism over in the same week!
I don't watch Olberman, but O'Reilly truly makes me sick. I just cannot stomach the guy. He's dishonest, arrogant, obnoxious. They should have posted the one where O'Relliy goes off on his producer, yelling "f... you" and "f... this," and "f.... that," for about three minutes. Real classy guy.
I do not watch either of them. I had started to watch Olberman because I am politically liberal, but all the stupid tit for tat over O'Reilly and then his own unbalanced reporting just turned me off. These spin artists are just irritating and boring and we just end up running around in circles and get nothing accomplished as a society because of this hate crap.
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This is the first time I've been on this site. I'll go back to reading the newspapers and watching Jim Lehrer and the BBC, although I do like to watch Obermann from time to time. So many of you would do well to do a bit of reading of history as well as of newspapers. Those of you who are young and are fans of people like Bill O'Reilly are sad cases. If you cannot be a bit idealistic in your youth, God help you as you age. Plus ca change.
KO is the delivers the knock out, and well BO delivers the BO.
Thank you.
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