Bill O'Reilly Weighs In on Potential Rosie/MSNBC Deal

With news of a possible Rosie O’Donnell show on MSNBC, Bill O’Reilly, a frequent critic of both, predictably led the November 6 "O’Reilly Factor" with his take.

O’Reilly rehashed Rosie O’Donnell’s most inflammatory comments. Among them were her famous "fire can’t melt steel" September 11 conspiracy theory, calling terrorists "mothers and fathers," implying the British-Iranian hostage crisis was a "Gulf of Tonkin" hoax, comparing "radical Christianity" to radical Islam, smearing volunteer soldiers, and suggesting that the Americans are the real terrorists.

O’Reilly also dispelled the false "New York Times" story that "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (O’Reilly only said "MSNBC" without mentioning Olbermann by name) is competitive with "The O’Reilly Factor." In fact, "The Factor" dominates the 8:00 PM slot dwarfing "Countdown."

Bill O’Reilly also poked fun at NBC’s hard left turn noting "it is not true that Sean Penn will be co-anchoring the NBC ‘Nightly News’...that Hugo Chavez will become their chief foreign correspondent."

The entire transcript is below.:

BILL O’REILLY: NBC News wants to hire Rosie O’Donnell. That is the subject of this evening’s Talking Points Memo. Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, Brokaw, and now Rosie. As Talking Points has been telling you for more than a year, the president of NBC, Jeff Zucker, is desperate. NBC is collapsing in the ratings on almost all fronts. And now Mr. Zucker has turned to Rosie O’Donnell to prop up MSNBC. Just think about this, NBC News, once a prestigious operation, with hundreds of excellent news people, now wants this.

ROSIE O’DONNELL: Do you want to know why we go into Iran? For the money! That’s why we were doing...

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Do you believe that the government had anything to do with the attack on 9-11? Do you believe in a conspiracy in terms of the attack of 9-11?

O’DONNELL: No, but I do believe that for the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics for the World Trade Center Tower Seven, Building Seven, which collapsed in on itself. It is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved.

O’DONNELL: Don’t fear the terrorists they’re mothers and fathers.

O’DONNELL: But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines, who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say, Gulf of Tonkin, google it.

O’DONNELL: Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam [applause] in a country like America-

O’DONNELL: We have more convicted felons in the Army because we’re allowing them to get through.

O’DONNELL: 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?

O’REILLY: We are of course! Americans are the terrorists! So how bad are things at MSNBC? Listen to one of their show presenters.

TUCKER CARLSON: That does it for us. Thank you for watching us, as always, and we mean that sincerely to all eight of you. We’ll be back Monday. Up next, "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. Have a great weekend!

O’REILLY: Well, at least Carlson is honest, which is more than you can say for "The New York Times." It’s TV reporter Jacques Steinberg actually wrote an article that says MSNBC is competitive with "The Factor" at 8 PM. Now, Mr. Steinberg knows that is not true. He knows that’s a lie, but he wrote it anyway. Here is the truth. In October, MSNBC had no overall ratings growth at 8 PM, none. In the past five weeks, "The Factor" has beaten them by 225 percent in total audience and 100 percent in the key demo. Margins of victory rarely come bigger than that. Again, Steinberg knows the score, but chose to deceive the public. Disgraceful! This is the same thing "The New York Times" did with the far left radio network "Air America." The paper ran 20 favorable pieces on those loons, many of them saying how well they were doing. Then, presto! Air America declares bankruptcy! Who knew?

"The Factor" contacted Tom Brokaw today for a comment on Rosie. Mr. Brokaw had nothing to say. Tim Russert, nothing to say. Brian Williams, nothing to say.

But in the interest of truth, I am now going to dispel some rumors. It is not true, that Sean Penn will be co-anchoring the NBC "Nightly News." That is false. It also not true that Hugo Chavez will become their chief foreign correspondent. Apparently, he is unavailable for that position. And it is certainly not true that Barney Frank will be doing weather on the "Today" show. Not going to happen even if Rosie signs on.

Now all of this madness is the responsibility of this guy, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, which owns NBC. Mr. Immelt also had no comment on Rosie O’Donnell. But GE stockholders should have a comment. On Immelt’s watch, the NBC Network is in dire trouble.

Summing up, Talking Points was spot on when we told you that NBC News had embraced the radical left agenda in pursuit of ratings. There is no doubt any longer.