Candid criticism, or sour grapes towards a guy who's lapping MSNBC in the ratings? In any case, David Shuster and the rest of the Morning Joe crew took out after Bill O'Reilly this morning in the wake of the incident in which the Factor host was, shall we say, energetic in his efforts to speak with Barack Obama at a NH campaign event this weekend. Shuster called O'Reilly a "jerk" and "such a buffoon." Read accounts of the incident here, here and here.

View video here.

Here is the way O'Reilly himself described the matter in a phone interview [FNC video here] with FNC's Brian Wilson:

BILL O'REILLY: We went over to the [Obama] Nashua event that Major Garrett just described and it was a big zoo, thousands of people there. And we set up our camera to try to get a question to Senator Obama. So a big guy comes over, about 6'8" according to the press reports, and he stands right in front of the Factor camera. So I asked him, fairly nicely, "you're blocking our shot, sir, you're going to have to move a little bit." And the cameraman that I had actually moved away from him. He moved right in front of the cameraman again, to block our shot. So I had to, um, gently remove him from that position, Brian [Wilson]."

BRIAN WILSON: There are reports there was a scuffle. Was there a scuffle?

O'REILLY: No. No scuffle at all. I just, ah, removed him from in front of the camera.

WILSON: We heard reports there may have been profanities uttered. Were there any profanities uttered?

O'REILLY: I might have called him an SOB. Possible [chuckles]. But nothing more than that.

WILSON: And there's also a report that the Secret Service had to restrain you. Did that happen?

O'REILLY: That's absolutely ridiculous. Because ten seconds after I gently removed the man from in front of our camera, I actually spoke to Barack Obama. And the Secret Service guys let me right by, and we had a nice little chat, which you'll hear on the Factor Monday night.

We'll be interested to get more of Bill's take on things on this evening's Factor. But in the meantime, Shuster left no doubt where he stands.

DAVID SHUSTER: I don't know if this is the time to talk about Bill O'Reilly but I've got a lot of things I want to say.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Get it out, David. It's OK, he's been troubled by it --

SHUSTER: Bill O'Reilly is a jerk, and that was proven this weekend. There was Bill O'Reilly at a Barack Obama event -- and look, I'm all for putting the microphone in the face of somebody you want to talk to. Bill O'Reilly shoved a guy, shoved a guy who was working for Barack Obama happened to be standing in a certain spot, and there's Bill O'Reilly saying "nobody gets in the way of the Factor's cameras."

So he pushes the guy. Obama doesn't know what's going on. Obama comes up. And what does Bill O'Reilly do? Does he ask some tough, penetrating question or some scandal he wants to follow? No. "Will you come on my show." Give me a break.

BRZEZINSKI: What-t-t-t?

SHUSTER: Give me a break. What a jerk. What a jerk. Fox News ought to be so embarrassed with this guy. I mean he shows up on the last weekend before New Hampshire. He pushes a guy. I mean --

JOE SCARBOROUGH: He also did the same thing to Hillary Clinton.

BRZEZINSKI: He's a cartoon character.

SHUSTER: He's a buffoon. He's such a buffoon. And everybody knows it.

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.