Being repeatedly exposed as factually incorrect or as a hypocrite doesn't seem to have hurt Bill O'Reilly's ratings. But a few more descriptions of him as a creepy stalker might do the trick.
Every economic apocalypse needs a good crypto-fascist representative of the working man to drum up popular outrage. Last time around, it was Father Charles Coughlin. Who's going to answer the call now?
Whoopi Goldberg's chat with Bill O'Reilly tonight was bizarre. O'Reilly told the black, female, comedian that he had risen from the "bottom rung" just like her. But that's not what angered her.
Here's a great clip from tonight's Daily Show, showing Bill O'Reilly condemning paparazzi as the "scum of the Earth" for privacy invasion, then dispatching his Fox News camera goons to people's homes.
He might be the worst person in the world, but we don't actually recommend physically assaulting disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld. But Bill O'Reilly is ready to pummel him—and it appears to be personal, too. The Fox News blowhard says he lost a bundle as a Lehman shareholder, and he'd now like to "know where [Fuld] lives so I can go beat him up." (The clip is above.) We'll help you out just this once, Bill. It's 37.4 miles from your house in Manhasset to Dick's home in Greenwich and it'll take you about 54 minutes. Here are the driving directions.
When Bill O'Reilly's producers sought to ambush dim-bulb celebrities at the Inauguration festivities, they settled upon Jessica Alba as a potential target. Alba, however, was having none of it.
After his chat tonight with Bill O'Reilly, Christopher Hitchens asked for a second date: "We've barely got our trousers off," he said. The hawkish former Trotskyite had certainly pushed O'Reilly's buttons.
Ha ha, dig CNN golden boy Anderson Cooper's subtle dig at competitor Rachel Maddow's show in the LA Times today: He thinks she's great, he just finds her show boring and cliché. Oh, OK!
• Conservative radio is expecting a big boost once Obama takes office. Also, Fred Thompson, not Rudy Giuliani, will take over Bill O'Reilly's slot. [NYT]
• Publishers don't seem to be very interested in Laura Bush's memoir. [NYer]
• After a three-day blackout, China has unblocked the Times' website. [NYT]
• Is Chris Matthews running for office or sticking with NBC? [THR]
• The AP's list of top 10 news stories of 2008. [AP]
• Politico's list of the top 10 media blunders of 2008. [Politico]
• A list of the biggest media losers of 2008. [Business Sheet]
• Rudy Giuliani is reportedly in negotiations to take over Bill O'Reilly's syndicated radio show when he steps down early next year. Whether Rudy could handle sitting still for three hours a day and what effect this would have on his rumored plans to run for office, remain unclear. [P6]
• Jennifer Aniston is "bizarrely obsessed" with Angelina Jolie, says OK! The proof: She wore a dress that was "almost an exact copy" of something Angie once wore, and she can't stop talking about the couple to friends. [OK!]
• Madonna now says the financial details her publicist Liz Rosenberg released last week concerning her divorce settlement with Guy Ritchie were "misleading and inaccurate." [People, Mirror]
• Anderson Cooper was supposedly spotted shopping for sweaters with a "young Frenchman" at Barneys Co-Op. Wait, what happened to Julio? [P6]
The only people who can get jobs in media now are small children who can sound and vaguely look like obnoxious TV personalities, while swearing. Lil' Gordon Ramsay will go far.
