David Letterman vs. Bill O'Reilly
Tuesday January 10, 2006
David Letterman tore apart Bill O'Reilly during an interview on the "Late Show," taking the FOX News host to task over the Iraq war, Cindy Sheehan, and his obsession with the so-called war on Christmas. "I have a feeling that 60 percent of what you say is crap," the normally easygoing Letterman said.Watch a video clip or read the transcript of the priceless exchange.
What's even funnier is that back in 2001, O'Reilly wrote a column titled "The Letterman Experience," in which he praised Letterman's interviewing abilities:
"The late-night program hosted by David Letterman is the toughest interview show on television. That's because Mr. Letterman is a smart guy who can spot a phony with telescopic accuracy and expects his guests to bring something to the table. If a guest begins to sink on this show, the bottom is a long way down." Read more...
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Comments
Are you joking? Bill O Reilly was right on and David Letterman was the one who got ripped a new one.
I agree Sandy, just because the audience clapped for Dave on his own show doesn’t mean he won that debate. I’m impressed that Bill O’Reilly had that much patience with someone who either won’t answer a direct question, changes the subject, or resorts to name calling.
Except that the point he seemed to clinch dave on was a lie.
According to O’Reilly, Ansar al-Islam was a terrorist group tied to al-Qaeda who was in Iraq before the war working with Saddam Hussein. The Senate Report of Pre-War Intelligence on Iraq has concluded that Ansar al-Islam was considered a threat to the Saddam regime. They were enemies — not allies.
Letterman is a far smarter and reasonable guy. He was right on the money when he said “you’re putting words in my mouth like you’re putting artifical facts in my head”.
LETTERMAN AND COMMON SENSE PREVAIL
Sorry my mistake. my previous comments were directed to the following letterman o’reilly argument. Still Dave one this one too in my eyes.
“Still Dave one this one too in my eyes.”
That means a lot coming from someone who thinks the word “won” is spelled “one”, and doesn’t even realize it even when he uses the actual word “one” in the same sentence.
Common sense prevail, buddy.
The old David Letterman would never pretend to be smarter than he actually was. This new Letterman got stomped by O’Reilly and the Liberals are the only ones who do not believe this. I didn’t realize how uneducated and uninformed David was about politics until I watched that debate. David and Bill are friends, and it was obvious that Letterman was putting on act. “I don’t know what the answer is, but I don’t think you know either” was Letterman’s closing argument and everybody cheered. (Dave’s fans) I can not watch him anymore because he has become the phony that he used to make fun of in his younger days. WOULD ANYONE CARE TO DEBATE ME?
It is interesting to read the different opinions as to who was more sucessful in this exchange. However, the fact that “Mr. Letterman” doesn’t watch O’Rielly speaks for itself. It is comparable to Ted Turner’s interview in which Turner admited he was unaware of the killing fields that took millions of lives when the US exited Vietnam. It has been my experience that “facts” are conveniently missed or ignored if they don’t agree with an ideology. In this debate it was clear that Dave’s position was emotional and O’Rielly’s was more factual. “I could be wrong”. But I don’t think so. Letterman is politically uniformed and has in the past shown his stripe by personally attacking individuals for “entertainment”, sort of reminds one of the Roman “games”.
Is that the entire transcript?