# Letterman smacks down O'Reilly
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 4, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354 "2006-01-04T05:28:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/1 "2006-01-04T05:28:18Z")
When I heard that Bill O’Reilly was a guest tonight, I was afraid that Dave was just going to lob softballs at him. After all, he’s no Al Franken or Keith Olbermann.
But in his own inimitable way, Dave really socked it to O’Reilly. They talked about the “Banning Christmas” nonsense, and Dave essentially pooh-poohed the whole business, saying he thought there was no threat, and that O’Reilly was just making it all up.
Then they got onto politics, and O’Reilly mentioned Cindy Sheehan, slightingly, of course. Dave asked him if he had ever lost a family member in armed conflict. O’Reilly said no, and Dave said, “So you can hardly speak for her can you?” Big applause.
The discussion went on a bit, and toward the end, Dave said, “I’m not smart enough to debate you point by point, but I have the feeling that about 60% of what you say is crap.”
It was just great. Thanks, Dave, for helping take this blowhard down another notch or two.
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### Author:  [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/2 "2006-01-04T05:40:26Z")
And I just became a Letterman fan. Well, I haven’t watched a network late show in years, but next time the Colbert Report is a repeat and I don’t feel like falling asleep/staring into space for awhile I’ll totally tune in.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/3 "2006-01-04T05:44:58Z")
[You can see a clip of it on _The Late Show_ site.](http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/#) Wonder what made Dave decide to go after O’Reilly?
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/4 "2006-01-04T05:51:58Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> [You can see a clip of it on _The Late Show_ site.](http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/#) Wonder what made Dave decide to go after O’Reilly?
This is just my theory but the last time O’ Reilly was on Letterman, he was promoting his book of ethics and morals for kids. From what I recall about the appearance, Dave went fairly easy on O’ Reilly. However, not long after that, O’ Reilly became embroiled in an embarassing sexual harassment suit (real good lesson for the kids there!). I think Dave didn’t want O’Reilly to totally get away with his bullshiat a second time.
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### Author:  [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/5 "2006-01-04T05:53:41Z")
LOL!
Saw the clip. That was great! Dave just ripped O’Reilly a new one.
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### Author:  [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/6 "2006-01-04T05:54:21Z")
Dang, that was entertaining. I’m guessing the political content this thread is shortly to acquire is going to send us Pitward, though.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/7 "2006-01-04T05:58:44Z")
Thanks for the link to the clip, that the feistiest I’ve seen Dave in years.
Jim
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/8 "2006-01-04T06:06:21Z")
Did he really call British intel M16 😕
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/9 "2006-01-04T06:14:20Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#):
>
> Did he really call British intel M16 😕
Yes. Yes, he did. He actually said Em-One-Six. (Instead of Em-Eye-Six.)
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/10 "2006-01-04T07:19:30Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> Wonder what made Dave decide to go after O’Reilly?
Who needs a reason? 🙂
(Hey, let’s declare a national “Smack-Down Bill O’Reilly Day,” while we’re at it… 😃 )
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/11 "2006-01-04T07:24:44Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> Yes. Yes, he did. He actually said Em-One-Six. (Instead of Em-Eye-Six.)
And remember O’Reilly’s a “jurnulist”, so obviously the rest of the world must have been getting it wrong!
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/12 "2006-01-04T07:50:07Z")
There are a lot of people on both the left & right who ‘blowharder’ than O’Reilly. For the most part I find him to be fairly moderate.
I’ve been a big Letterman fan since his morning show in 1980 and Dave is the most apolitical man in show business. Ten years ago he had James Carvelle on and treated him much the same, basically laughing at some of the explanations he gave for things. Same for when Rush Limbaugh was on…
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/13 "2006-01-04T08:04:10Z")
Kick ass! I stopped watching Letterman back in the eighties, but this sounded like it was worth checking out. Flipped over to CBS just in time to hear Dave say “We’ll be right back with Bill O’Reilly.”
Thanks for the East Coast heads-up, **commasense**.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/14 "2006-01-04T08:33:49Z")
Erm, that was good TV, indeed.
What is particularly galling is that even today O’Reilly is sticking to his “War on Christmas” story. Has he no shame? It’s one thing to utter bollocks, get called on it, and then drop it.
It’s another thing to stubbornly keep repeating baseless crap. I’m sure he’s gotten plenty of mail filling him in on the “RED AND GREEN BANNED!” non-event, but he still characterizes it as “kids being told not to bring red and green” to the party. And by now _somebody_ has to have told him that “Cold in the Night” lyric is from a [Christmas play](http://delrich.home.mindspring.com/tree.html) that is Christian enough to have been performed in Christian churches for the last twenty years without anyone accusing them of being less Christian.
[One example](http://texnews.com/religion97/local121397.html).
> [@](#):
>
> A Christmas musical/drama, “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift,” will be presented by the Children’s Church at 10:35 a.m. Sunday at Bethel Temple Christian Center, 3101 N. 12th.
>
> The musical, written by Ann Lambert and Dwight Elrich, stresses that everyone has something special to offer.
OMG! Churches are part of the conspiracy to take the Christ out of Christmas! _Where does it end?_ I can trust _only_ Bill O’Reilly.
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/15 "2006-01-04T13:24:47Z")
I’m watching (well, listening. Can’t watch and type after all.) this right now. I like how Dave just blew him off about this whole “war on christmas” thing. The Cindy Sheehan bit just came up. Nice moment.
It’s good to see people playing hard ball with O’Reilly. He’s gotten away with his crap for too long.
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### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/16 "2006-01-04T13:33:17Z")
Yeah,
I saw a clip of it. The thing is that Falafel can’t really do much when he’s not on his own show. He can’t cut people’s mics when he gets mad at them. Have you ever seen that showdown he had with Al Franken on CSpan. It was quite funny actually. But he’s also probably a bit afraid of Letterman. A lot of people watch him and he also has the reputation for being intimidating. I watched that, and it was nice to see Falafel knocked down a few pegs.
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/17 "2006-01-04T15:07:07Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> Wonder what made Dave decide to go after O’Reilly?
Probably the same instinct that made him ask Rush “Aren’t you just a gas bag full of hot air?” when he had Rush on his show.
(Dave’s quote is from memory, and so it may not be 100% accurate … but that’s the gist of what he said.)
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### Author:  [@Simes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simes)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/18 "2006-01-04T15:18:41Z")
I just saw the interview here. When I saw that he’d be on I was thinking it was going to be like when Dave has any other “news” (although the crap O’Reily peddles can loosely fit into that I guess) talk about the events of the week whatever.
As soon as Dave replied back to the “erosion” of Christmas bullshit - that it’s nothing. I twigged and yeah watched it unfold, I guess we got an insight into some of Dave’s opinons on things, maybe there’s some truth behind the gags in the monolouges, not just taking the piss because it’s in the morning papers.
Longtime fan of Letterman, since channel 9 started to broadcast it into Australia way back in the early 90’s. Much rather his show over Leno’s anyday.
I loved the short bit between dickhead and Eric Bana (go aussie!) when they came back from the break, Dave to Paul “How did that go Paul?” Paul “Interesting television” Dave “Apparently during that, the cat dialled 911” (the nights running gag was a cat by a phone in the greenroom. trying to re enact what happened last week somewhere, the gag before dickhead was that the cat dialled for a dominos pizza)
All in all, great to see someone _finally_ bringing this idiot into check. I guess I’m lucky coz whenever I flick on RepublicanTV (Foxnews) and see him being an ass I can simply dismiss it as “American shit, no affect on me” although there might be an aussie version of him pop up one of these days (heaven forbid)
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### Author:  [@Simes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simes)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/19 "2006-01-04T15:21:49Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#):
>
> Yeah,
>
> I saw a clip of it. The thing is that Falafel can’t really do much when he’s not on his own show. He can’t cut people’s mics when he gets mad at them. Have you ever seen that showdown he had with Al Franken on CSpan. It was quite funny actually. But he’s also probably a bit afraid of Letterman. A lot of people watch him and he also has the reputation for being intimidating. I watched that, and it was nice to see Falafel knocked down a few pegs.
I noticed that towards the end, shithead tried to take control, I’m thinking “mate, it’s not even your show and you’re trying to lecture the host?”
typical facist i guess…
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### Author:  [@Simes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simes)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/20 "2006-01-04T15:24:56Z")
Did O’Reily have his cheer squad email him trying to repair the damage to the ego that launched a thousand air strikes? Or was it on too late for the evangelical set?
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