In light of the revelation that ABC News anchor Charles Gibson had not even heard of the recently revealed evidence of corruption by ACORN, comedian and FNC contributor Dennis Miller zinged Gibson as he alluded to the fact that the ABC anchor had famously quizzed Sarah Palin on her knowledge of the Bush doctrine during the 2008 campaign, but himself is now failing the test of keeping abreast of newsworthy current events.
During his regular "Miller Time" appearance on FNC's The O'Reilly Factor on Tuesday, when host O'Reilly brought up the tapes showing ACORN employees giving advice on how to break the law to those they believed to be a pimp and underage prostitute, Miller brought up Gibson's embarrassing lack of knowledge of the scandal. Miller: "Before I go on, did you hear Charlie Gibson today? He had not heard of this at all." After he and O'Reilly both praised Gibson as a good man, Miller continued: "He's got to wake up, though. He's got to pay attention to the story and not put it off on the cables. If he paid attention to this like he accuses Palin of paying attention to the Bush doctrine, he would have known about it."
Referring to ACORN, he later added: "These people have to be brought down. I think these two kids deserve Pulitzers, quite frankly."
Below is a transcript of portions of the Tuesday, September 15, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
BILL O'REILLY: In the "Miller Time" segment tonight, let's get right to it, because we have lots to talk about. Our pal and radio superstar Dennis Miller joins us from Los Angeles. He will be in Chicago this coming Thursday to host a benefit for USA Cares, which helps military families in need. Very nice thing to do, Miller. So I hope everybody comes out in Chicago and, you know, helps out that fine organization. All right. At the top of the program, we laid out the ACORN debacle. Eighty-three to seven in the Senate. The seven senators said, you know, we don't really care what ACORN does. We want to still give them taxpayer money. What say you?
DENNIS MILLER: Well, I'll say you laid them out. You didn't leave much left.
O'REILLY: No.
MILLER: You went after that like a flock of seagulls on a dream sickle, for God's sake. Before I go on, did you hear Charlie Gibson today? He had not heard of this at all.
O'REILLY: Well, I know. We used the sound bite. Charlie, somehow he missed it. But look, the network news, you know how disengaged they are.
MILLER: Charlie.
O'REILLY: Look, Charlie is a good guy, and he's a good newsman.
MILLER: Yes, great guy. He's got to wake up, though. He's got to pay attention to the story and not put it off on the cables. If he paid attention to this like he accuses Palin of paying attention to the Bush doctrine, he would have known about it.
O'REILLY: Now, ACORN itself, there are two schools of thought: that it's an organization that is a criminal enterprise, or that it's an organization that does some good and has some rogue elements in it. You say?
MILLER: Well, you tell me. It looks like a grift organization to me, and this kid's evidently got more tapes he's going to roll out. It would appear that every office so far is a different office. I think it's like a competition between each of them, who's grifting the system more. And therefore, I'm proposing a new reality game show to see which of the offices is most effective at gaming the system. We'll have judges and call it "American Idle," spelled I-D-L-E. And this way we can fix -- Simon can come in, maybe Paula, if she needs the job. And pick which of the ACORN offices is doing the most to, you know, take the government money. It's unbelievable.
O'REILLY: It is unbelievable.
MILLER: We're talking about underage hookers, Bill, and nobody's blinking an eye.
O'REILLY: Nobody.
MILLER: I mean, these people have to be brought down. I think these two kids deserve Pulitzers, quite frankly.
O'REILLY: Well, they'll never get them. They're going to -- you know, the Maryland authorities said they might even arrest them. And we are politely suggesting the Maryland attorney general not do that and the Baltimore authorities cease and desist, or there is going to be trouble. Because as you said, these guys, these two -- these two -- the feds won't investigate. We've got Louisiana investigating Buddy Caldwell down there, but the feds won't investigate. They know, Holder knows, but he's not going to investigate because it's a Democratic machine element, ACORN. So these two kids take it upon themselves to go around -- now the one thing that -- that Hill pointed out that's accurate is that they went to a bunch of other ACORN agencies that didn't do that kind of stuff. So we have to be fair. We have to mention that. But my question now is does this hurt President Obama? Obama has got some ties to ACORN because ACORN supported him, and he said nice
things about them. But does it hurt him?
MILLER: Sure it does. Just the fact that he's uttered the name ACORN and in a way that wasn't disparaging somewhere over the course of the campaign. This looks really bad. And Marc Lamont Hill can talk about the ones who didn't do it. But I'm talking about there's three -- now there's rumored to be six or seven. If you get seven of these offices to do this, if you prosecute these kids instead of ACORN, the Maryland A.G. is going to have a fecal storm come down on him that he is not going to believe.
O'REILLY: No, that's right. I mean, it will be tens of thousands of people demonstrating in Maryland, that's for sure. And talking about demonstrating, in D.C. over the weekend, as you know, there was 75,000 showed up. They called it a fiscal conservative rally. There was some anti-Obama stuff in it. We covered it, I think, pretty fairly. What's your impression of it?
MILLER: Well, listen, the Nazi stuff has got to stop on both sides. Unless somebody has systematically liquidated six million of their fellow human beings, you got to quit tossing the Nazi thing around. Because both sides are going to use it to make the other side look like lunatics. And you know, there's some bad signs there. But I don't know. God, I watched these G-7 summits. There's kids throwing people through the window. There's always a few bad eggs at these. By and large when I look at these people, you know who they remind me of? Me. I'm a square. I look at most of them, I think, "Yes, I can understand siding with you." They look like squares to me, and I feel like a square. At least fiscally, too. Certain things, defending the country. There are other things I'm a libertarian about. But Bill, the simple fact is, if 80 to 85 percent of this country likes their health care -- if you asked 80 to 85 percent in this country if they liked themselves, they wouldn't say no. To think that 80 to 85 percent like their health care, and they're not going to try to fix the 15, but rather try to fix the 85, it's just mindless. Everything the government touches goes wrong. I don't want them anywhere near it. I'm not paranoid. I've just seen a long track record of ineptitude. Stay away from the money.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, I think that the protests are from people who are genuinely of the direction the country is going in. Now here's the question. Are you fearful, Miller, of the country, or are, you know, people whipping up the fear in a way that's irrational? Are you, Dennis Miller, fearful of the direction of the country?
MILLER: I'd have to say that, when I hear there's a group who consider themselves to be patriotic taking photos of interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to turn them over to the enemy-
O'REILLY: John Adams Project.
MILLER: Yes, I'd have to say part of me is fearful to this country.
O'REILLY: Yes.
MILLER: That's crazy.
O'REILLY: It is, and Holder better get on that.
