Bill O'Reilly

If you watched Bill O'Reilly on Oprah or the David Letterman Show, you don't need me to help you decide if he bested his detractors or not.

On Oprah, it seemed pretty obvious that some of the people in the audience were intentionally planted there to challenge Bill. I suppose that's okay. After all, nothing on TV is left to chance, and a good back-and-forth debate with prepared audience members is better than simply leaving the content of the show to chance.

Letterman was true to form...making criticisms of Bill without being able to back them up, e.g., "no I didn't read your book" and "no I don't watch your show." I'm sure he was at least briefed by staffers - remember, nothing is left to chance.

But to make such statements is an admission that he had no way of being honestly critical of O'Reilly.

What gets me is how the shows were reported on CNN.

Now CNN is a natural competitor of Fox News Channel, but they shouldn't let that interfere with honest reporting....but you know CNN. The way they edited the O'Reilly-Letterman exchange was obviously intended to make Letterman appear to have really put O'Reilly down.

In other words, CNN was dishonest in it's reporting of the facts.....nothing new for CNN, though, as we have seen many times - yes, MANY times over it's 25 year history. I can't help but wonder if the news director at CNN is Baghdad Bob (Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi Information Minister), famous for his official reports of imaginary Iraqi army victories against the Americans.

My own opinion of O'Reilly's new book, Culture Warrior?......I think he comes across as preachy and pedantic to the point of talking down to his readers. Yeah, he's something of a stuffed shirt. Also, I think he sensationalizes his talking points, although they are (in my opinion) valid points, nonetheless.