# Letterman smacks down O'Reilly **URL:** \ **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:** 5
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/81 "2006-01-05T23:11:52Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#): > > Not for those with critical thinking skills. Who make up, what, about 10% of the population? In fact, O’Reilly said on his own show that it was because so many people do get their information about the world from “entertainment” shows Like Letterman, Leno, and _The Daily Show_, that he went on Letterman. Based on all the damage control he did last night, I don’t think it panned out the way he had hoped. ---
**Author:** ![Wash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@Wash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wash)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/82 "2006-01-06T11:17:34Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#): > > Not for those with critical thinking skills. Well it ought to work just fine for O’Reilly’s target audience then… ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/83 "2006-01-06T11:42:58Z")
> [@Commasense](#): > > O’Reilly didn’t say anything even remotely funny. In fairness to the douchebag O’Reilly, people are blind to humor when something pisses them off — e.g., if I poke fun at you, it’s funny; if you poke fun at me, it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Exploding\_Kitchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Exploding\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exploding_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/84 "2006-01-06T12:00:10Z")
The liberal in me loved seeing O’Reilly’s impotent rage about the War on Christmas cimply get shrugged off like it deserves. The part of me who tunes in to the Late Show for a laugh…felt slightly uncomfortable watching the whole thing, and that part is only slightly comforted by the fact that Bill did bring it upon himself by bringing up his pet topic (with paper proof, so you know it was planned). Given that O’Reilly did bring it up and push the issue, I say Letterman did the correct thing by taking the conversation political on his own terms. However, had Letterman brought it up and simply skewered O’Reilly, I wouldn’t have appreciated that. ---
**Author:** ![Simes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Simes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simes)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/85 "2006-01-06T14:59:45Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Okay, wait a minute. You don’t have a Murdoch-owned right-wing nutjob network over there? How the hell is that fair? He belongs to you. I really think you guys need to take him back. Well he _can’t_ own a free to air television network. He does have a large slice of the print media here (Fairfax having the rest, regarded as leftist by those on the right) And he does have SKYNews Australia on cable, I watch that now and again and it seems rather balanced. Not to mention FOXTEL (a pay tv content monopoly) which is in bed with the half government owned Telstra (phone company) The law here is that no one person (or corporation) can own both a TV station and a newspaper in the same city. For how long this lasts is another question. Given that the late Kerry Packer had been eyeing off Fairfax for many many years, there’s debate as to weather his son will concentrate on media as much as his father or more on the gaming side of the business ---
**Author:** ![Simes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Simes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simes)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/86 "2006-01-06T15:12:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Dude, have you forgotten who O’Reilly works for? Yeah that American Rupert Murdoch lol (well he gave up his Australian citizenship for an American one, so he could buy 20th Century Fox) Not many Australian’s I know would consider him Australian anymore. Although his son recently moved back here to Sydney. Knowing what I do about him, the only position I would share with him is his apparent hatred of the Royal Family (roll on the republic!) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/87 "2006-01-06T15:33:49Z")
> [@Simes](#): > > (well he gave up his Australian citizenship for an American one, so he could buy 20th Century Fox) Nitpick: It wasn’t so he could buy 20th Century Fox, which is a movie studio. There are no laws restricting ownership of a movie studio based on citizenship. However, there are (or were?) laws restricting ownership of local television stations on the basis of citizenship. Murdoch wanted to buy what was then the MetroMedia chain of 12 local television stations (which included WXIX in Cincinnati) and formed the basis of what became the Fox Television Network. Five of these stations (WNEW New York (now WNYW), KTTV Los Angeles, WFLD Chicago, WTTG Washington, and KRIV Houston) are currently owned by Fox and one of the others (WXIX Cincinnati) is a Fox affiliate owned by an independent chain. Two of them (WCVB Boston and KMBC Kansas City) are now ABC-affiliated Hearst stations. KNEW (now KMTP) San Francisco is an independent station. KRLD Dallas (now KDAF) is a WB affiliate owned by the Tribune Co. WTCN Minneapolis (now KARE) is an NBC affiliate owned by Gannett. KOVR Sacramento is owned by CBS. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/88 "2006-01-06T17:35:49Z")
Can someone post here if someone else covers this? I’m hoping Jon Stewart will, but part of me says the he probably won’t talk about it because it deals with letterman. Those guys rarely talk about each other. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/89 "2006-01-06T18:01:57Z")
[I wonder if O’Reilly has changed his mind about Letterman.](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21855) > [@](#): > > That’s because Mr. Letterman is a smart guy who can spot a phony with telescopic accuracy and expects his guests to bring something to the table. If a guest begins to sink on this show, the bottom is a long way down. > > A big part of doing well on the Letterman show is the audience. A guest not only has to win over the host, but also the people who are sitting a few yards away. It is not a tough crowd, most are happy to be seeing Dave in person, but they are listening. And you better have something to say. I’m not a big fan of Letterman, but that windbag O’Reilly definitely needs deflating. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/90 "2006-01-06T18:22:10Z")
You noticed the date on that piece, right? That was not about this week’s appearance, but one in February 2001. Or am I being whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/91 "2006-01-06T18:26:38Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > You noticed the date on that piece, right? That was not about this week’s appearance, but one in February 2001. > > Or am I being whooshed? Of course I noticed the date- but I don’t think it’s that important. Here you get a guy saying how astute Letterman is and how he can spot a phony, and then he himself is cut to shreds by Letterman. Doesn’t matter to me if it was a month before his last appearance or 5 years, either Bill was terribly wrong about Dave in 2001 or Bill is indeed a phony. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/92 "2006-01-06T18:33:57Z")
Okay. I didn’t get your point first time around. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/93 "2006-01-06T18:47:31Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Can someone post here if someone else covers this? I’m hoping Jon Stewart will, but part of me says the he probably won’t talk about it because it deals with letterman. Those guys rarely talk about each other. I would have expected Olbermann to mention it on _Countdown_, but the WV mining disaster and Sharon’s health took over that night’s show, and he didn’t do any of the lighter stuff. Neither Keith nor Jon has said anything about it so far. Keith might do something tonight, but if he doesn’t it’s probably slipped off the scope. The 24-hour news cycle just rolls on. The O’Reilly interview probably isn’t anything _The Daily Show_ could really use. But I don’t think there’s any ill will between Jon and Dave (except that there seems to be a “rule” that no one appears on TDS before Letterman. E.g., Pierce Brosnan was on TDS last night and Letterman on Wednesday). Jon’s been a guest on _The Late Show_ quite recently and he and Dave were quite complimentary of one another. And apparently Jon praised Letterman at a recent awards show. Does anyone know what he said? I only heard about it second-hand. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/94 "2006-01-06T19:17:36Z")
> [@Birdmonster](#): > > The most infuriating thing about all this is that I want to not care about O’Reilly. I really do. And yet, here I am, reading this whole thread, listening to Letterman (for chissakes) just to watch him get verbally bitch-slapped. The man is an evil genius. O’Reilly, or Letterman? ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/95 "2006-01-06T19:27:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > O’Reilly, or Letterman? O’Reilly is the evil genius. Letterman is comedic pap, nine times out of ten. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/96 "2006-01-06T19:33:16Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Can’t we just keep politics out of entertainment and vice versa. 😛😛😛 Yeah, like **that’s** gonna happen!! What’s wrong with politics in entertainment? Political humor is an America tradition going back to Ben Franklin. As for vice-versa – what’s wrong with politics being entertaining, or with entertainment giving rise to political “issues” (e.g., the Dan Quayle-_Murphy Brown_ flap)? At least that gets people to pay attention to it! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/97 "2006-01-06T19:51:12Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > I think it’s highly impolite to invite a guest on your show and then skewer him. . . . I vaguely recall O’Reilly doing it to a guest, too, but I can’t recall the specifics so shame on him, too. I don’t remember his name, but there was a young man whose father was killed in the World Trade Center and who, yet, was vocally opposed to the Iraq war. O’Reilly, knowing this, invited him on his show and, when the boy simply gave his previously stated opinions in a sober and measured way, tore him a new one and cut his mike. (How O’Reilly had expected that interview to go is anybody’s guess.) You can see the whole exchange in the documentary _Outfoxed._ You can also read about it i Al Franken’s _Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them._ According to Franken, at the commercial break an aide had to tell the kid get to get out of the building and be quick about it; O’Reilly was so worked up they were afraid he would actually assault him. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/98 "2006-01-06T19:55:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I don’t remember his name, but there was a young man whose father was killed in the World Trade Center and who, yet, was vocally opposed to the Iraq war. O’Reilly, knowing this, invited him on his show and, when the boy simply gave his previously stated opinions in a sober and measured way, tore him a new one and cut his mike. (How O’Reilly had expected that interview to go is anybody’s guess.) You can see the whole exchange in the documentary _Outfoxed._ You can also read about it i Al Franken’s _Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them._ According to Franken, at the commercial break an aide had to tell the kid get to get out of the building and be quick about it; O’Reilly was so worked up they were afraid he would actually assault him. The transcript: [here](http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/transcripts/oreillyglick.htm) The guest: Jeremy Glick The site I linked from is obviously one-sided, but the transcript is ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/99 "2006-01-06T19:59:37Z")
…meaning I found it in many spots on the god-ternet. In case that wasn’t clear. Which it probably was. Shut up, birdmonster ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354/100 "2006-01-06T22:04:36Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > And apparently Jon praised Letterman at a recent awards show. Does anyone know what he said? I only heard about it second-hand. > [@](#): > > “The way that he (Letterman) feels about Johnny Carson is the way all of us, the comedians of our era, feel about him,” Stewart said. [http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/entries/2005/09/19/more\_emmy\_mulling\_the\_morning\_after\_.html](http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/entries/2005/09/19/more_emmy_mulling_the_morning_after_.html) [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117929358?categoryid=1682&cs=1](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117929358?categoryid=1682&cs=1) …it was quite a touching moment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letterman-smacks-down-oreilly/338354.md?page=6)