New Yorker author Hendrick Hertzberg's made a powerful enemy: Bill O'Reilly! O'Reilly selected Hertzberg for the honor of an ambush by that smug "producer" who ambushes people mostly because Hertzberg wrote something mildly critical of O'Reilly that was easy to take out of context and also in terms of imaginary powerful "liberal elitists" to battle, you can't do better than a political writer for The New Yorker. The sadly anti-climactic video of the ambush, attached.

♦ Newsday is slashing 100 jobs. [Newsday]
♦ More on the cutbacks at CNBC and some cost-cutting measures at OK! [NYP]
♦ Bill O'Reilly is giving up his syndicated radio show. [NYDN]
♦ The New Yorker's Rick Hertzberg was ambushed by Bill O'Reilly operatives outside his apartment building. Confusion and hilarity ensues. [HuffPo]
♦ Oprah Winfrey was named the most powerful woman in entertainment as part of the Hollywood Reporter's "Power 100" issue. [THR]
♦ Neal Boulton, the attention-seeking former editor of Men's Fitness, is writing a book about life as a bisexual. [P6]
♦ Lauren Zalaznick says that NBC is not interesting in selling iVillage. [WWD]
♦ George Rush and Joanna Molloy are stepping down as daily gossips for the Daily News, but they'll stay on with the paper with a Sunday column. [NYDN]

Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews are both famous cable news shouty persons, yes, but beyond that how much do they have in common? Both cling to a Northeastern Working-Class Catholicism that colors their broadcast personae even though they've both been rich and famous long enough to leave most of the lessons behind besides the strict moralism. But Matthews is an old Democrat working for liberal-leaning MSNBC, and O'Reilly is a culture war conservative with GOP in-house propaganda machine Fox. One more thing they share: they're not particularly liked by their peers! Matthews is seen as an overenthusiastic, affection-starved dog, at least if last April's devastating Times Magazine profile is to be believed. O'Reilly is just seen as a dick, if Michael Wolff is to be believed.

Fox 5 reporter Arnold Diaz paid a visit to Dick Fuld's house in Greenwich clad in a faux leather trench coat as part of one of his "Shame on You" segments this week. It's not quite as satisfying as Diaz's encounter with Martha Stewart a couple of weeks ago, and, unfortunately, he doesn't get a chance to pester Fuld personally like one of Bill O'Reilly's operatives managed to do with ex-Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal a month ago. On the plus side, though, he does get chewed out by a Eastern European man (Fuld's butler, perhaps?), and the police eventually turn up and force Diaz off the property. Video of the encounter is here. [Dealbreaker]

Bill O'Reilly, to paraphrase Jon Stewart, never gets out of his limo. The Fox News conservopundit loves to sit behind his desk and say crazy things about liberal enclaves that he never visits like Greenwich Village and San Francisco and then goes home to Manhasset on Long Island, where he lives. And, well, it's kind of hilarious! Recently Bill was on The Daily Show and warned us about all the liberal jive-talkers living in the Village, as if Bob Dylan were still roaming the streets. And then just this week he sent some "reporters" to gay, reefery San Francisco to find out what the secular, progressive city has spiraled into. And it's not pretty! Hobos smoking funny-smelling cigarettes everywhere. Hobos of all sorts! Young street punks, 60's washouts, black people. They're all shambling around, scaring people with babies with their open-mindedness and crazy un-Christian idea of not judging people. And, um, we were just there. It ain't that way. It all seems pretty nice to us. With fancy condos and well-heeled folks and hipster coffee shops out the wazoo. Though, I guess that's probably equally terrifying to the suburban boy. Watch his Greenwich Village stereotyping and San Francisco bashing (it's srsly hilarious) above.

Fox News would like you to get to know its angry shouting heads a little bit better. Perhaps you'd like to know what sort of pants Sean Hannity doesn't wear on camera? Or the worst of Greta Van Susteren's college grades? Or who Bill O'Reilly has beaten to death with his bare hands? The name of Shep Smith's favorite piano bar? As TVNewser discovered, you can answer a disconcertingly high percentage of these questions on the"Fun Facts" section of Fox News' new Facebook page. All the disturbing profiles are after the jump. (Actually, Shep's is more immaculate than disturbing, but then that's about what you'd expect from the anchor, right?)

Even moreso than the Times, Fox News can't seem to let go of trite and clichéd red state-blue state dichotomies, even in the face of Barack Obama's bountiful harvest of "red" electoral votes. Exhibit A: Bill O'Reilly warning Daily Show host Jon Stewart not to visit the "center-right" South on pain of death, and criticizing his "Greenwich Village... crew." We wouldn't be speaking in some kind of code here, would we Bill? And your viewers are used to you referring to them as a bunch of bloodthirsty animals? Ah right, they get the "joke." (Click the thumbnail to watch.)

For those wondering what you can expect in the lame duck months before Fox News Channel has an Obama presidency to complain about, wonder no longer. While some are dealing with the loss by going rogue, in this sterling clip from last night's The O'Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller and his friend 'Billy' have a good laugh over liberal women still jealous of Sarah Palin's "non-neurotic" Alaskan sex life. It harkens us back to the glory days of conservative talk radio, when Rush Limbaugh spent most of every day saying incredibly offensive things about Hillary. Click for the video.

Hah, adorable Congressman Barney Frank was on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me. They quizzed him on Bill O'Reilly's amazingly titled new memoir, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity. If you like being a smug liberal, you'll love this link to a public radio broadcast. [NPR]

Who's the big winner of this election, besides whoever got laid in exchange for their ticket to last night's Obama rally? Bill O'Reilly, of course! Loud Fox asshole and bold fresh piece of humanity O'Reilly lays out his strategy: "We are going to be the watchdogs. We don't know what Obama is going to do. It's my job to explain every move he makes, but I'm not going to nitpick him." I guess he's now like Keith Olbermann, and vice versa! There are some benefits to being in the opposition party. (He said this to TMZ, btw. Bill, why do you talk to TMZ but not to us? We won't nitpick you.) [TMZ]

The list of election '08 losers is a long one: There's John McCain, of course, who will die angry and bitter, notwithstanding his rather gracious concession speech last night. Steve Schmidt, McCain's chief strategist, will probably have trouble finding a Little League team to advise, unless he manages to redeem himself somehow. From Republicans on the Hill to GOP strategists to snowmobile and hunting enthusiasts, plenty of people will feel the cold wind of electoral defeat for a long time to come. After the jump, a roundup of New York City's nine biggest losers.

Nine days ago, Bill O'Reilly landed himself a big raise when he signed a new four-year contract with Fox News worth an estimated $10-12 million a year. So how did he repay this act of generosity on Fox News' part? He devoted a segment of his show to saluting his boss, Fox News chief Roger Ailes, for his charity work. Last night, the "Patriot" part of O'Reilly's "Pinheads & Patriots" segment plugged Ailes' work supporting wounded Navy SEALS. "He's been a quiet, longtime supporter of this very fine charity," O'Reilly says. "And for that he is a patriot." Such a kiss-ass, no? But we're guessing this is what you have to do to when you're making all that money and your ratings are on the decline.

This is a really subtle joke, right, Fox production team? Or is it just our birthday? [CityFile, Related]

See also: The Worst Fact-Checking Team In Newspapers [Gawker]

Allow me to construct a sports metaphor (UPDATE: Which I see the NYT also used in its lead sentence, DAMMIT. Oh well, forge ahead) that would sound stale to serious sports fans, but which I believe will sound fresh and insightful here, where we have only seven (7) total sports fan readers: Fox News is the New York Yankees. MSNBC is the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees throw huge contracts at aging veteran superstars, trading away their young players for big-name talent that tends to quickly prove to be over-the-hill. Tampa Bay had a string of bad years but stuck to its strategy of focusing on affordable young talent, nurturing them, and building from within. Now, Tampa Bay is in the World Series. The Yankees are sitting at home. My, this metaphor just gets more and more awesome: Fox just signed Bill O'Reilly, the most predictable shouting head on television, to a new four-year, $40 million contract. They just "lured" Glenn Beck from CNN (if you consider him a man who needs "luring") with a multimillion-dollar contract. Other Fox News names like Shep Smith and Sean Hannity get paid huge salaries to stay on. Meanwhile, MSNBC's new star Rachel Maddow came out of nowhere, in cable news terms. She was with Air America not too long ago, for fuck's sake, which is definitely the minor leagues. MSNBC took a chance on her, got her on air, saw how well she did, and then took the leap to giving her her own show. Which has paid off. The best part? They are probably paying her—in cable news terms, again—peanuts. Where are Fox News' Maddows? Where is the young talent that they nurture and build into a star while still paying them the wages of a rookie? These things are important. The economy is shit, advertising revenue is dicey, and homegrown stars are the wave of the future. I'm taking bets on Tampa Bay. Get at me, O'Reilly.

• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes can't stop buying their East Village neighbors' apartments. There are two flats for staff alone. One's a gym. Everything's on a different floor. Insane. Sounds like them! [P6]

♦ Bill O'Reilly has signed a new four-year contract with Fox News worth $10-12 million a year. There is good news, though: His radio show may be coming to an end. [NYDN]
♦ More bad news for Harvey Weinstein: A handful of senior execs at The Weinstein Co. have announced their departures. [THR]
♦ How are monthly business magazines keeping up with the financial crisis? They're not, really. [NYO]
♦ The offices of the New York Times received an envelope this morning containing a "white granular substance." [Radar]

"Fox is expected to formally announce the four-year deal today, and the decision by O'Reilly — who will be paid more than $10 million a year — was not unexpected... The O'Reilly Factor has been the top-rated program in cable news for nearly eight years." [Washington Post]

Bill O'Reilly cares really, really deeply about the little people, especially the unfortunate folks who have lost their homes during the mortgage meltdown. That's why he says he now plans to track down the perpetrators of these outrageous crimes "one by one." Last night's target: Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, who was evidently leaving his apartment building on Park Avenue when an O'Reilly operative ambushed him and trailed him a few blocks, all the while asking him questions about the $161 million he made last year and whether or not he felt bad for Merrill investors and employees. O'Neal kept his mouth shut the entire time, which didn't exactly make for thrilling television. Hopefully the lack of drama won't deter O'Reilly hooligans from camping outside Dick Fuld's house in Greenwich or bumrushing Jimmy Cayne at his weekly bridge game.

Hey look! That little Bill O'Reilly-impesonating kid is back! This time he's bellowing at my poor bloated Masshole homeboy Barney Frank. The sheer rage that this little fellow is able to tap into is a bit disturbing. Does the wee ankle-biter know what he's parodying, I mean really? Taking on the living, breathing, wall-rattling avatar of right wing dimbulbery is a pretty heady task for a nine year old. Soldier on, brave spirit. And eat your vegetables.