POLITICAL THRILLA
By JOHN MAINELLI
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June 2, 2003 -- TEMPERS flared over the weekend in a face-
to-face, TV showdown between Fox News Channel's Bill
O'Reilly and political humorist Al Franken.
A visibly shaken O'Reilly appeared to have been caught off
guard by a blistering attack by Franken in the midst of a
usually sedate booksellers' luncheon in Los Angeles on
Saturday.
Franken, author of the forthcoming book "Lies and the Lying
Liars Who Tell Them," accused O'Reilly - at length - of
puffing up his credentials as the former host of the TV
news magazine "Inside Edition."
O'Reilly sat stone-faced during a detailed attack on his
credibility - then exploded into a verbal free-for-all with
Franken that was as surprising as it was intense.
"This guy accuses me of being a liar, ladies and gentlemen,
on national television," O'Reilly told the audience.
"He's a vicious - and that's with a capital V - a person
who's blinded by ideology.
"All he's got in six-and-a-half years is that I misspoke,
that I labeled a Polk Award a Peabody," said O'Reilly,
referring to evidence that he had claimed "Inside Edition"
has won two Peabody Awards, TV journalism's equivalent of
the Pulitzer Prize.
In fact, it was the slightly-less prestigious Polk the show
had won.
When Franken tried to interrupt, O'Reilly went ballistic.
"Hey, shut up! You had your 35 minutes - shut up!" he
shouted, visibly furious.
"We're supposed to be on here for 15 minutes - this idiot
goes 35."
"This isn't your show, Bill," Franken shot back.
Both men were pitching their upcoming books to booksellers
at their annual convention. The panel was broadcast live on
C-SPAN2, the public-affairs channel.
The subtitle of Franken's new book, due out this fall, is
"A Fair and Balanced View of the Right" - an obvious dig at
Fox News Channel's slogan.
The dustjacket of Franken's book features a photo of
O'Reilly between the words "Lies" and "Lying."
According to co-panelist Molly Ivins, during a C-SPAN2
call-in show, "It was the first time [O'Reilly] had seen
the cover and he was teed off to the max."
O'Reilly bolted from the stage before the event concluded
and made a beeline for a group of fans - far from Franken.
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