# Bill O'Reilly vomits shit and lies all over Stone Phillips **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 22, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122 "2003-09-22T16:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/1 "2003-09-22T16:33:42Z")
It was almost but not quite on a par with **Tub Girl**. Last night, **Dateline’s** Stone Phillips interviewed O’Reilly, and of course the incident/ongoing dust-up between O’Reilly and Al Franken came up. O’Reilly said that if he was going to sue Franken it would have been for defamation. How did he defame you Bill? Pointing out what were obvious lies and miisstatements by you and then listing what the actual facts were is not anyone’s definition of defamation, unless you are living in the Bizzaro universe. But there were two things O’Reilly said which upset me. One was at the very end of the interview, when O’Reilly said that he should have lived in the Old West and if he had, then he would have shot Franken dead. That O’Reilly has such a level of hatred for Franken, who is merely pointing out what is and isn’t the truth, that he would murder Franken if circumstances allowed it, is frightening. The other thing that upset me was an exchange that took place wherein Stone Phillips asked O’Reilly what Franken had gotten wrong in his new book. O’Reilly then sputtered out, “Lies, lies, lies. It’s all lies.” Phillips then asked O’Reilly to give an example of one of the lies that Franken supposedly wrote. And O’Reilly’s response was----“_Um, well, I don’t have time to get into that ._” :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Let’s assume that O’reilly himself doesn’t in fact have the time to "_get into that_/ investigate Franken’s claims. Surely he could have one of his gaggle of intenrs who are at his fucking beck and call do it. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/2 "2003-09-22T16:53:31Z")
You know, I’m starting to suspect that this Bill O’Reilly fellow is not being completely honest all the time. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/3 "2003-09-22T16:57:53Z")
Is there a link, perhaps, to the transcript of the interview? ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/4 "2003-09-22T17:17:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \* > \*\*Is there a link, perhaps, to the transcript of the interview? \*\* [http://www.msnbc.com/news/969273.asp](http://www.msnbc.com/news/969273.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/5 "2003-09-22T17:19:53Z")
**Giraffe** , please allow me to congratulate you on some excellent comic timing. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/6 "2003-09-22T17:26:43Z")
And here are the excerpts mentioned in the OP: > [@](#): > > \*\*Phillips: \*\* “What’s next for you?” > > **O’Reilly:** “Death, I think. Death is pretty much next, right? Look, I’m gonna continue to do news analysis until I die. That’s it. That’s what I’m gonna do. And—” > > **Phillips:** “Is it Fox forever?” > > **O’Reilly:** “It’s Fox unless they misbehave. Do something. Fox has been so good. I mean, it’s like I worked with you at ABC and I liked it over there. I liked it. But it was very corporate. Here, it’s more the Wild West. I love the Wild West. I should have been in the Wild West. And let me tell you something, if the Wild West, if it were me and the guy who wrote that book, there’d only be one of us standing right now.” > [@](#): > > **Phillips:** “Were you in favor of the lawsuit?” > > **O’Reilly:** “I was in favor of holding him accountable. If I had been in charge of the lawsuit, I probably would have gone the defamation route. Now, I know I woulda lost, because I’m a famous guy. And famous people in America have no protection under the law.” > > **Phillips:** “Well, the standard is, is he lying about you?” > > **O’Reilly:** “Of course he is. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. He—” > > **Phillips:** “What has he said that’s inaccurate?” > > **O’Reilly:** “Well, I’m not gonna go over that. I’m not gonna— I mean, all I can tell you is that I don’t lie. Haven’t lied about anything. He says I lie. That’s not true.” ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/7 "2003-09-22T17:34:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \* > \*\*Is there a link, perhaps, to the transcript of the interview? \*\* Here ya go: [http://www.msnbc.com/news/969273.asp?cp1=1](http://www.msnbc.com/news/969273.asp?cp1=1) > [@](#): > > O’Reilly: “I was in favor of holding him accountable. If I had been in charge of the lawsuit, I probably would have gone the defamation route. Now, I know I would have lost, because I’m a famous guy. And famous people in America have no protection under the law.” > > ``` > Phillips: “Well, the standard is, is he lying about you?” > > O’Reilly: “Of course he is. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. He—” > > Phillips: “What has he said that’s inaccurate?” > > O’Reilly: “Well, I’m not gonna go over that. I’m not gonna— I mean, all I can tell you is that I don’t lie. Haven’t lied about anything. He says I lie. That’s not true.” > > ``` As I recall from the CSPAN meltdown this summer, Franken had O’Reilly pretty well pinned down for claiming his old show won a Peabody, when the show in fact won a (still quite prestigious) Polk award–the year after O’Reilly left [Inside Edition](http://azplace.net/index.php?itemid=22). In the CSPAN fiasco, Franken cut rather pointedly asked something very much like, “don’t you think it’s strange that you misreported a journalism award?” In all fairness, however, I think it’s quite possible that it was simply a mistake on O’Reilly’s part. And, I think it’s quite possible that the award was given for the previous year’s work–when O’Reilly would have been on the show. I don’t think I would have called it a lie–to begin with–but since then the guy has been wiggling like a worm in a glass of lemon juice every time he’s asked about it. What’s keeping the dude from saying, “yeah, I fucked up–so what?” Franken has either found O’Reilly’s last nerve by “unfairly” questioning his credibility, or the two are having a little bit of fun promoting each others’ books. Or maybe both… ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/8 "2003-09-22T17:35:06Z")
So let me get this straight. One news guy from NBC walks over to Fox and interviews one of THEIR “comentators”? Was it such a fucking slow news day that the talking heads have to interview OTHER talking heads? Why the fuck is NBC giving air time to one of FOXs’ blabbermouths? So they can appear “Fair and Balanced” too? Whole world of news out there, and this is what we get. Good Sweet Christ, Edward R. Murrow must be fucking spinning in his grave at about 1,000,000 rpms right now. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/9 "2003-09-22T17:51:13Z")
> [@](#): > > One was at the very end of the interview, when O’Reilly said that he should have lived in the Old West and if he had, then he would have shot Franken dead. Hyperbole. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Phillips then asked O’Reilly to give an example of one of the lies that Franken supposedly wrote. > > And O’Reilly’s response was----“Um, well, I don’t have time to get into that .” So he couldn’t think of a specific quote off the top of his head. Can YOU? ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/10 "2003-09-22T17:53:16Z")
O’Reilly isn’t just one of Fox News’s “commentators”. He’s the host of _The O’Reilly Factor_ which is the number one show on any cable news channel right now. As cited in the interview, he was recently named the second most powerful person in TV news. I think those are good reasons to interview O’Reilly. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Belanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jay\_Belanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Belanger)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/11 "2003-09-22T18:21:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\*As I recall from the CSPAN meltdown this summer, Franken had O’Reilly pretty well pinned down for claiming his old show won a Peabody, when the show in fact won a (still quite prestigious) Polk award–the year after O’Reilly left > > … > > In all fairness, however, I think it’s quite possible that it was simply a mistake on O’Reilly’s part.\*\* It may well have been, but the point that he, Al Franken, was making was how poorly O’Reilly (O’Lie-ly) handled his mistake. Rather than say “Oops, I mis-spoke, here are the real facts …” he began to deny having ever made the mistake, etc. I’ve seen the O’Reilly Factor once, and decided I could better spend my time doing something else, but I’ve heard he has criticized people for not admitting their mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/12 "2003-09-22T18:39:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\*So he couldn’t think of a specific quote off the top of his head. Can YOU? \*\* From the transcript, it didn’t appear that he said anything about not remembering. He said: > [@](#): > > Well, I’m not gonna go over that. I’m not gonna— I mean, all I can tell you is that I don’t lie. Haven’t lied about anything. He says I lie. That’s not true. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/13 "2003-09-22T18:44:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > > So he couldn’t think of a specific quote off the top of his head. Can YOU? **SPOOFE** , if someone wrote a scathing book calling me a liar and I told an interviewer that if _I_ were the one suing them it would be for defamation, you can be absolutely certain that I’d know _exactly_ what “lies” the author wrote about me that constitute said defamation and I’d be ready at a moment’s notice to refute them point by point. Wouldn’t YOU? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/14 "2003-09-22T18:49:04Z")
I’m with you all the way, **Jay Belanger**. I guess what perplexes me is that O’Reilly _continues_ to freak out over this, now that the facts are–I think–no longer in dispute. Why? Al Franken scratches O’Reilly’s belly and the world chuckles when O’Reilly’s leg twitches–again and again. It makes me think about O’Reilly in a strange way–is he playing along with Franken in order to boost his own book, or did someone drop Woody Allen’s neurotic brain into [Zbignew Brzezinski](http://www.washspkrs.com/images/speakers/z_brzezinski.jpg)’s body? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/15 "2003-09-22T18:53:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > **Hyperbole. :rolleyes:** Stupid hyperbole…and it’s not the first time he’s regaled a television audience with this particular little snuff fantasy. Personally, I wonder what makes him so sure that he would be the winner in any real physical confrontation with Franken. > [@](#): > > \*\*So he couldn’t think of a specific quote off the top of his head. Can YOU? \*\* He wasn’t asked for a quote, he was asked for an example of something Franken had said that wasn’t true. That’s a fair question to ask considering O’Reilly had just accused Franken of lying in his book. If you’re going to call someone a liar in a public interview you should be prepared to back it up. In answer to your final question, no, I can’t think of anything Franken said about O’Reilly that wasn’t true. Can you? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/16 "2003-09-22T19:02:50Z")
> [@](#): > > From the transcript, it didn’t appear that he said anything about not remembering. I will conceed that point. Instead, it looks like he preferred not to get involved in that entanglement. > [@](#): > > Stupid hyperbole How so? He compared ABC to Fox with a very interesting analogy. He disliked ABC’s corporate nature, he likes Fox’s wild west nature. What’s so stupid about it, aside from the fact that it came from someone that committed the most heinous crime of not falling in line with the worldview of the Great Thinker Diogenes? > [@](#): > > He wasn’t asked for a quote, he was asked for an example of something Franken had said that wasn’t true. Granted. He chose discretion rather than foolishly shooting his mouth off. Try it sometime, Dio. > [@](#): > > In answer to your final question, no, I can’t think of anything Franken said about O’Reilly that wasn’t true. Can you? Why is it that I’m always being asked to prove something I never contended? You might as well ask me to prove that gay people are all pedophiles or that the US never landed on the moon. In fact, I ask - nay, DEMAND! - that you prove that Gandhi raped goats! PROVE IT! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/17 "2003-09-22T19:05:16Z")
BTW, I wonder if we should just make a Bill O’Reilly sticky thread for the pit to save us the trouble of writing new OPs everytime he says something rant-worthy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/18 "2003-09-22T19:11:04Z")
As far as I’m concerned, Stone Phillips deserves no better. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/19 "2003-09-22T19:11:58Z")
I’m curious, has O’Reilly been documented as not telling the truth? Something from Franken’s book perhaps? I’m interested in the root of the hatred for him. -Bruce\_Daddy, who usually doesn’t click on O’Reilly Pit threads. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122/20 "2003-09-22T19:15:47Z")
> [@](#): > > How so? He compared ABC to Fox with a very interesting analogy. He disliked ABC’s corporate nature, he likes Fox’s wild west nature. What’s so stupid about it, aside from the fact that it came from someone that committed the most heinous crime of not falling in line with the worldview of the Great Thinker Diogenes? He said if it was still the wild west he would have murdered Al Franken. He has said the same thing in some detail on his own show. In fact he explicitly said that if it was still the 0ld west he would have shot Franken “between his head” [sic] for calling him a liar. That’s not an analogy about Fox it’s a stupid, macho murder fantasy. > [@](#): > > Granted. He chose discretion rather than foolishly shooting his mouth off. Try it sometime, Dio. No, he shot his mouth off first and then punked out when he was asked to support it. He accused Franken of defaming him in his book and then refused to cite an example. Failure to cite is a pittable offense around here, especially as it pertains to ad hominem attacks. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-vomits-shit-and-lies-all-over-stone-phillips/203122.md?page=2)