O'Reilly Obsessed With "Anti Bush Media"
Reported by Deborah - June 23, 2006 -
Bill O'Reilly devoted much of The Factor tonight condemning The New York Times and the " anti Bush" media for printing the story about bank data surveillance claiming that the paper "undermines" the war on terror. After an opening bash during his talking points and having Bill Daly, former FBI, agree with him, he had Jane Hall and Jed Babbin on for a debate. Andrew Napolitano followed to provide the legal angle. O'Reilly must have been pleased with Jed Babbin's reaction but very disappointed with Napolitano's.
6/23/06
Jed Babbin, former secty of defense for HW Bush, shared O'Reilly's outrage declaring that "The New York Times broke the law."Babbin said that Arthur Sulzberger and Bill Keller from the NYT " should be frog marched out" adding " they have chosen sides". Babbin made it clear that they have chosen to side with the terrorists and just stopped short of calling them traitors although there was no doubt about what he meant. "They believe that they know better" than our government. O'Reilly took no steps to oppose Babbin's accusations and had opened the segment condemning the "anti Bush media" who "undermine."
Jane Hall did not rush to the NYT's defense saying it was harder to defend them this time. She then tried to analyze their reasoning behind choosing to go with the story but O'Reilly broke in with,"I hate theory". O'Reilly never let Hall finish her defense adequately promising her the last word. She finally got a sentence in claiming that the Bush Administration has been trying out a lot of new things that makes it difficult for journalists. She was not given time to explain this thought.
Then Andrew Napolitano came on and disappointed O'Reilly by claiming that the leakers from the government were at fault and not the media. O'Reilly sounded annoyed that Tony Snow didn't express outrage when he explained that the White House asked the NYT not to do the story but they did it anyway. Then he revealed that there were no leakers because the WH gave the NYT all the details to report. This little detail sort of watered down the argument. Napolitano then wanted to know what all the fuss was about because every wire transaction goes the same route so there really is not big secret revealed.
O'Reilly was annoyed with Napolitano for pouring cold water on his daily dose of outrage but was still chummy since Napolitano had just returned from Gitmo. O'Reilly asked him, "They like me down there? I told them not to let you come back."
