Over GE Criticism, Mainstream Media Gangs Up On O'Reilly

'ASSAULT' AND FLATTERY

Renewed O'Reilly Media Focus Likely To Bolster His Position







For their ability to twist and contort reality, you've got to give our mainstream media friends credit. It's a skill they've had years to hone to perfection.

Take the ongoing battle between MSNBC and the FOX News Channel: a fight first picked by Keith Olbermann against Bill O'Reilly in the name of ratings has now been portrayed as an "assault" by the latter.


(Image: David A Lunde)


But the swarm of Internet attention given to today's front- page Washington Post splash on O'Reilly's crusade against MSNBC parent company General Electric is unlikely to damage the FOX News Channel host. Instead, this latest attempt to portray him as a bully could lead to little more than higher ratings.

Since his attention- generating interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton, O'Reilly's foes have seemed particularly focused on bringing down the top- rated cable talker. That's what makes the timing of this piece particularly strange.


O'Reilly's real stroke of genius was in shifting the battle away from the low- rated Olbermann and toward GE's international track record, particularly its apparent economic support of Iran's repressive regime. By going after GE's corporate suits, he's chosen a far more appealing target.

The problem with Howard Kurtz's WaPo piece is that we really aren't given a real indication as to why O'Reilly is on the wrong track with his GE/ Iran criticism. In fact, Kurtz's own information backs that of the O'Reilly Factor host.

Instead, the focus is on the left's new theory that Bill merely serves as a proxy for Rupert Murdoch:

Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News star, is mounting an extraordinary televised assault on the chief executive of General Electric, calling him a "pinhead" and a "despicable human being" who bears responsibility for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.

On the surface, O'Reilly's charges revolve around GE's history of doing business with Iran. But the attacks grow out of an increasingly bitter feud between O'Reilly and the company's high-profile subsidiary, NBC, one that has triggered back-channel discussions involving News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker and General Electric's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt.

Ailes called Zucker on his cellphone last summer, clearly agitated over a slam against him by MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. According to sources familiar with the conversation, Ailes warned that if Olbermann didn't stop such attacks against Fox, he would unleash O'Reilly against NBC and would use the New York Post as well.

Both Fox and the Post are owned by Murdoch, who complained about Olbermann's conduct in separate calls to Zucker and Immelt.

The high-level appeals failed, and O'Reilly has escalated his criticism of GE in recent weeks, declaring, "If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt."

GE has long had a corporate presence in Iran, which U.S. officials say is providing weapons and training for Shiite militias in the Iraq conflict. Under growing criticism from the public and its own shareholders, GE announced in 2005 that it would accept no new business in Iran and would wind down existing contracts, which mostly involved sales of oil, gas and energy and health-care equipment. The remaining work, valued at less than $50 million, amounts to less than .01 percent of GE's income, and the company says the final four contracts will expire within weeks.

As for Murdoch's supposed direct involvement, the only real evidence of this is a telephone call he made to NBC regarding an O'Reilly stalker:

Murdoch's call to Zucker, which was polite in tone, involved a request that Olbermann not air video from a Daily Kos blogger who had made a scene at O'Reilly's Long Island home. That, Murdoch said, should be off limits.

Activist Mike Stark had confronted O'Reilly when he was retrieving his newspaper, planted derogatory signs on his street and distributed derogatory material to neighbors. Olbermann says the only time he ever talked to Stark was to interview him about a stunt in which he called O'Reilly's radio show and mentioned Olbermann's name.

Olbermann says that NBC Senior Vice President Phil Griffin called to ask him to exercise restraint but that he had already decided to criticize Stark for going to O'Reilly's home. He told viewers, "with great regret," that Stark's behavior was "not acceptable."

He and NBC are fair game for O'Reilly, Olbermann says, but "when you start accusing a corporation of murdering Americans, with the thinnest and most ridiculous arguments behind it," it is unfair to GE employees.

While O'Reilly is cheered by conservatives and Olbermann is a hero on the left, their dispute is more personal than ideological. Fox staffers say they don't share O'Reilly's obsession with Olbermann, noting that the "O'Reilly Factor" audience of 2.5 million viewers is 2 1/2 times the size of Olbermann's. "Countdown," however, has become increasingly competitive among younger viewers.

Hey, if Olbermann is such a "hero" to the left, then why don't they watch his show?


The other key allegation is that News Corporation's New York Post is also being used by FOX News Channel managment as a weapon in this battle, but again, the evidence comes up short.

However, some FOX critics are pointing to today's Post, where a critical Olbermann item appears in the Page Six section:

May 19, 2008 -- IS Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's top-rated anchor, on the verge of yet another professional meltdown? His feuding with "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is nothing new. But now we're told notoriously odd Olbermann is lashing out at the rest of his network's talking heads. During West Virginia primary coverage the other night, Olbermann began pounding the table when lead White House reporter David Gregory didn't wrap his segment quickly enough to satisfy him.

Olbermann recently encouraged management to oust the cable channel's lone conservative, Tucker Carlson, and it's also no secret among producers that Olbermann refuses to introduce Dan Abrams' show, which follows his own. Olbermann walked out of MSNBC years ago in a huff after also blowing up at ESPN, so TV insiders are curious if this recent behavior is a sign that history will repeat itself. MSNBC did not respond to our calls and e-mails seeking comment.

But does this mean criticism of MSNBC should be off-limits at the Post? Prohibiting discussion of topics based on corporate edicts would be just as alarming as solid evidence the paper is being used as a weapon against an enemy.

In the end, Murdoch conspiracy theorists are going to believe what they want and Olbermann's ratings will remain in the tank, despite the support his media friends provide nearly every day.

But what is new here is the prominence given to a story that in the past was confined to media- watching circles. For Bill O'Reilly, it's front- page flattery.


ALSO: New Neville Chamberlain fallout- MSNBC's David Shuster can't pronounce his name properly!

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