Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right - Al Franken [26]
I tried to calm him down. “Bill, Lisa had nothing to do with the photo.”
“This is what I look like.”
“I know, I know.”
“I’ve never looked like that.”
“Bill, Bill. This is a preliminary cover.” I explained that, in fact, I had wanted to have the photo doctored to take out the splotches. I’d even wanted them to retouch my photo. “Look,” I said, “I want them to take about forty pounds off my ass.” I thought that might lighten the mood.2
No sale. “I don’t look like that. This is what I look like.” Point. Point.
“Bill, we’d love to have a picture of you from The Factor. Something of you lying. Anything with your mouth open would work.” Again, trying to lighten the mood. But I wasn’t getting through.
By then the moderator of our panel, Pat Schroeder, was summoning us to the event, where seven hundred of America’s best—our nation’s booksellers—sat waiting for what promised to be a high-minded and civilized exchange of contrasting views between two men and a woman of letters.
Molly went first and enchanted us all with her tart Texas wit. Next up, O’Reilly. After talking about his book for about five minutes, he began to talk about mine. Seeking to contrast his style with my own, he said, “I don’t call people names . . . I don’t call anybody a liar. I’m not doing that. I’m trying to elevate the discourse . . . I don’t call people big, fat idiots.”
Nobody missed the reference to my book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.
Then it was my turn. Like the other panelists, I spent the first part of my allotted time describing my book in general terms. Then I got to O’Reilly. I felt a certain obligation to explain why a fellow panelist’s face was on the cover of a book whose title included the words, “lies,” “lying,” and “liars.”
So, I told a little story.
A couple of years ago, I was watching Bill O’Reilly on C-SPAN. He was being interviewed in front of an audience about his book The No Spin Zone. The interviewer reached back a few years into O’Reilly’s career. “Now, you were the host of Inside Edition. That was kind of a tabloid show.” (I’m paraphrasing here—I don’t have this one on tape.)
“Tabloid show?!” O’Reilly was indignant. “We won two Peabodys!”
“Well, still. It was a tabloid show.”
“I beg your pardon, but the Peabody is only the most prestigious award in journalism,” O’Reilly answered with great umbrage.
“But you have to admit, Inside Edition was something of a tabloid show.”
“So you want us to give the Peabodys back?” O’Reilly smirked. “We won two Peabodys, the most prestigious award in journalism.”
Watching at home, I knew O’Reilly was right about one thing: The George Foster Peabody award is the most prestigious in broadcast journalism. But what on earth could Inside Edition have won a Peabody for? For its “Swimsuits: How Bare Is Too Bare?” story? Or maybe its three-part series on the father of Madonna’s first baby, Carlos Leon?
So I went to my Nexis, and put in “Peabody Award” and “Inside Edition.” I did get three hits.
They were all Bill O’Reilly claiming that Inside Edition had won a Peabody. Or two. If you read these O’Reilly Factor excerpts closely, you’ll see an interesting progression.
August 30, 1999:
O’REILLY: I anchored a program called Inside Edition, which has won a Peabody Award.
May 8, 2000:
O’REILLY: Well, all I’ve got to say to that is Inside Edition has won, I—I believe two Peabody awards, the highest journalism award in the country.
May 19, 2000 (with guest Arthel Neville):
NEVILLE: You hosted Inside Edition . . .
O’REILLY: Correct.
NEVILLE: Which is considered a tabloid show.
O’REILLY: By whom?
NEVILLE: By many people.
O’REILLY: Does that mean . . .
NEVILLE: And even you . . .
O’REILLY: . . . we throw the Peabody Awards back? . . . We won Peabody Awards.
Next I went to the Peabody website, which lists all their winners throughout the years. No Inside Edition. Still, to be thorough, I called the Peabody people, and asked the woman on the other end of the line, “Yeah, did, by any chance, the show Inside Edition