johnny dollar's archive: july-aug 2008

Keith Olbermann's slander of Bill O'Reilly was first reported by Olbermann Watch and this site. It was further advanced by TV Newser, who pointed out additional errors in Keith's "reporting". But on his Thursday night show, Olbermann ignored journalistic ethics and refused to correct his smear. Instead, he turned his fire on O'Reilly again, doubling down with a new, and dubious, tirade.

In comments first reported here, Bill O'Reilly talked about how NBC had offered him more money than Fox, but he chose to stay with FNC. This was too much for Olbermann:

I checked with the relevant bosses...

The "relevant bosses"? No names? Nobody willing to go on the record to back up Olbermann on this?

...whose memory of this was like mine, sometime in 1999, more likely 2000 or 2001...

Um, do you think you could vague that up a little, Keith?

...NBC made an informal overture to O‘Reilly, like if you ever want to leave, let us know. No offer, no money figure, no ton, and now he thinks we attack him every day because he wouldn‘t come work here.

Aha, did you catch that last bit? O'Reilly never said that! But that's a handy way for Keith to divert from what has to be an embarrassing fact: NBC wanted to hire Bill O'Reilly.

How much credibility should we give Keith's claim that there was never a money figure involved? How much credibility should we give anything Olbermann says about Fox News? He was just caught in a whopper about Bill O'Reilly and won't even air a correction. And it's not like this is something new. The falsehoods and outright lies Keith Olbermann has spewed about FNC are legion. Here are just a few, with documentation linked:

• Olbermann lies about Liz Claman and Alexis Glick.
  
• Falsely asserts a Bin Laden tape was leaked to Fox.
  
• Ignoring video, insists O'Reilly ordered Jane Hall's mic cut off.
  
• Calls O'Reilly "liar" based on disingenuous blog posting.
  
• Fabricates and rewrites an O'Reilly interview with Nancy Soderberg.
  
• Concocts Fox "report" out of thin air.
  
• Invents nonexistent Fox News "quote" and imaginary "fervor".
  
• Falsifies his own words to justify lying about John Gibson.
  
• Attacks Brit Hume by taking quote about one event and attaching it to a different one.
  
• Repeatedly lies about nonexistent "doctoring" of Fox transcript.
  
• Slams O'Reilly for something he never said.
  
• Lifts unverified blog story on O'Reilly comment, errors and all.
  

Whom to believe? Bill O'Reilly, who has gone on the record about the money NBC offered? (And not for the first time, either.) Or Keith Olbermann, who after a career of false smears tries to manufacture credibility for his latest attack by citing the flimsiest corroboration possible: anonymous sources?!?

A good reporter may encounter a tip, or two, or five, in a day’s time. He has to check them all out before publishing or reporting. --Keith Olbermann fox news bor ko