Al Franken disembowels Bill O'Reilly

Al Franken, the alleged comedian, is a loose cannon. He had to be dragged away from Alan Colmes' table at the White House media dinner not too long ago. Apparently, Franken was offended that Colmes was too accomodating to Sean Hannity, and proceeded to bellow in drunken rage at the man.

I predict he'll be biting ears off political foes within a year.
 
I think they both looked pretty stupid in this story. Generally, public yelling matches don't make anyone look like the victor. It usually makes both parties appear like buffoons.
 
from USA TODAY:


LOS ANGELES -- Bill O'Reilly, the conservative talk show host, first decried political commentators who ''call people names.'' Then he called Al Franken, the liberal humorist, an ''idiot.''

''I can't bring people together,'' O'Reilly said. ''My job is to rattle the cages. It's to put the bad guys on alert.''

...

Franken said it's time for liberals ''to stop taking it'' and to call conservatives on their lack of civility.

That set off O'Reilly. ''You write a book called Liar, Liar and you talk about civility. Unbelievable.''

''That's not the title,'' Franken said, ''but it's close.''

As for calling Franken an idiot, O'Reilly told a reporter, ''If I said it, I misspoke.'' Then he said, ''I stand by my description.''

LINK: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030602/en_usatoday/5204299

Transcript from O'Reilly's radio show:

What this guy writes and says does not matter to me, other than, Mike, he insulted me in a forum where I was at a decided disadvantage*, you know, he went over his time limit. It was very, very sneaky, and you know, as I said at the top of the broadcast, somebody calls you a liar to your face, you don't just laugh that off. That's an insult. In the old west, that woulda got you shot. See in the old west, and I woulda loved to have been in the old west, Al and I woulda just had a little, uh, a little shootout. You know? We woulda went out, on Wilshire Avenue, and uh, six shooters, now he's a much smaller target than I am, about four foot eleven, but he's wider, and it woulda been you know, Clint Eastwood time. I woulda had the cheroot, the serape, woulda given my squint, and I woulda put a bullet right between his head. Woulda been wrong, woulda been wrong, but it was the old west, and I would not have known any better, so I wouldn't have been held accountable because I would not have known any--now I do, now in 2003 that would have been wrong.

*In other words, a forum in which O'Reilly could not shout "cut his mic! cut his mic!" [/quote]

LINK: http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2003_06_01.html#000693

Yep, O'Reilly's insane.
 
Sundog said:


By your own logic, I doubt if he was up there all that time - 35 minutes? - expressing his admiration.
No need for logic; the facts state that he wasn't up there expressing his admiration. I fail to see your point.
 
Michael Redman said:
No need for logic; the facts state that he wasn't up there expressing his admiration. I fail to see your point.

This is getting silly; we're arguing about the definition of "disemboweled".

I admit entirely a selfish, unfair joy in simply seeing someone be as rude to Bill as he routinely is to everyone else on the planet. I guess that's my point.

I meant "disemboweled" in that sense. My point was never that Franken had a lot of evidence.
 
And here I was thinking that some thought Al stuck Bill with a sharp knife, and opened him up! :p

You're right, this is silly. I have to read that book.
 
I'm gland Franken publicly exposed O'Reilly's self-inflating flasehood because I've heard Bill ramble on about his precious Peabody Award more than once -- and I don't listen to him often at all. Franken showed that 1) It wasn't a Peabody 2) Inside Edition didn't even win the award while O'Reilly was there.

Franken ran over time because he described his research on the matter, as one commentator put it, "in excruciating detail." It's the best thing to nail someone with in a public forum because it's undenaible. I'm sure Franken can easily consult the archives at FAIR and find many, many dubious claims. But this one is slam-dunk.
 
I listened to an MP3 file of this and due to the discussions, checked the time as it ran. Franken started on Bill about 13 minutes into his time. He finished at about 20. So much for "35" or "45" minutes.
 

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