MSNBC's Peter Alexander claimed this afternoon that magazine publisher Cathy Areu declined an interview with Bill O'Reilly: "Areu said thanks but no thanks to Fox. Saying she wanted to appear right here on MSNBC. We don't blame her."
But there she was, in the first interview segment on Friday night's Factor: Cathy Areu, responding to O'Reilly's questions on her claim on the Headline News show Showbiz Tonight that Palin was "Larry the Cable Guy minus the class and intelligence." O'Reilly pressed her to explain herself:
O'REILLY: What's your primary beef? I mean, the Larry the Cable Guy without the class, that's pretty harsh.
AREU: She can take it.
O'REILLY: What's your primary beef?
AREU: She can take it.
O'REILLY. She can take it. She's a big girl. She's made a lot of money. But still, it's pretty harsh, so just explain to the audience how you arrived at that conclusion.
AREU: I really arrived at it because I feel she does present herself as Larry the Cable Guy. I'm your next-door neighbor. I'm your Sarah Sixpack. I can drink beer with you. And I don't believe she is. I believe she eats caviar and drinks champagne. I don't believe she's a neighborhood Larry the Cable Guy.
O'Reilly pressed Areu to acknowledge that she and Palin are alike in that they both became successful from middle-class beginnings, and O'Reilly insisted that he knows Palin, and she is no diva.
How did MSNBC end up so wrong in claiming she'd turned Fox down? Why would Areu pull a fast one on MSNBC and then shuttle right over to Fox? Whatever the reason, MSNBC has some Friday-night egg on their faces.
