Howard Kurtz Takes Bill O'Reilly's Side in Lincoln Book Battle With Washington Post

A rather extraordinary thing happened Sunday.

CNN's Howard Kurtz actually took Bill O'Reilly's side in the Lincoln book dispute the Fox News host is having with Kurtz's former employer the Washington Post (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST OF RELIABLE SOURCES: Now, you may be aware that Bill O'Reilly wasn't too pleased when The Washington Post ran a story headlined "Ford's Theater Bans O'Reilly's Lincoln Book for Errors" and quoted experts as saying the book "Killing Lincoln" had plenty of mistakes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: In 325 pages there are four minor misstatements, all of which have been corrected. There are also two typeset errors, one involving a date. Now, that's a pretty good record, even for nitpickers who want to hurt the book. We well understand our enemies are full of rage about success. We also know the media lies at will these days with little accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Well, I don't know about the rage and the lies, but the mistakes were pretty minor, and The Post had to run a correction. The book is available in the Ford's Theater gift shop, but not in its basement book shop.

So, I have to side with O'Reilly on this one, he got a bum rap.

Was that a pig that just flew by my window?

Makes you wonder if Kurtz made a bet with someone and was required to defend a Fox commentator on national television if he lost.