Did anyone see this a couple of nights ago...?
Al
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Letterman rips O'Reilly a new one
Posted Jan 4th 2006 1:13PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: CBS, Late Night, TV Royalty, OpEd, Music/Variety/Game Show
Letterman gives O'Reilly a smackdown
(UPDATE: You can see the entire interview here, or at Crooks and Liars.)
You've got to hand it to David Letterman: when he's engaged and interested in the person he's interviewing, he can be one of the toughest in the business, even tougher on his guests than those who consider themselves "hard news" people (are you taking notes, Tim Russert?).
Take, for instance, Dave's smackdown of Bill O'Reilly last night. You can see a clip of it on the Late Show web site. After Dave greeted Bill with a pleasant "How was your holiday?", Bill responded smugly, "I had a nice winter solstice." This must have set Dave off, because he spent the first half of the interview listening to then dismissing O'Reilly's crusade against the "War on Christmas," voicing most Americans' opinion on this non-story: "I ignore stuff like that, it doesn't really affect me, I go ahead and do what I want." Then, as O'Reilly went point-by-point through each town that has nuttily legislated against even secular Christmas displays, Dave exasperatedly asked him, "Isn't this the kind of thing where every once in 20 years, someone says, 'we have to put diapers on the horses,' and that's all there is to it?"
Dave then changed the subject to the Bush Administration. While both agreed that the U.S. should stay in Iraq until the job is done, Dave would have none of O'Reilly's complaints against protester Cindy Sheehan, who considered Iraqi insurgents to be "freedom fighters." When he asked Bill if a member of his family ever died in combat, Bill said no, to which Dave replied, "Then you can hardly speak for her, can you?" Dave continued to fight O'Reilly on the topic, saying "I'm very concerned with people like yourself that don't have anything but endless sympathy for someone like Cindy Sheehan." Letterman's kicker came a few moments later, when he said, "I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling that 60% of what you say is crap."
DAMN! Dave really gave it to Bill all throughout the segment. But the surprising thing was that Bill didn't fight back all that much when Dave called him on his B.S., which is something that O'Reilly does to his guests all the time. O'Reilly was visibly agitated during interview, bobbing his leg up and down as things deteriorated. Looks like Bill can dish it out but can't take it.
Crooks and Liars will have the full interview up at some time today. If they or someone else puts it up, I'll provide the link. |
