Bill O’Reilly Defends Lou Dobbs’ Right To “Stir The Pot” For Ratings

Fox News’ top-rated anchor Bill O’Reilly has never shied away from talking about the competition. So when the Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter asking CNN to fire Lou Dobbs over his birther discussions, O’Reilly invited the SPLC’s President Richard Cohen on to talk about the story.

O’Reilly found a way to jump to Dobbs’ defense – it’s about ratings.

O’Reilly, who knows nothing about doing segments for ratings, thought the SPLC lawsuit was blowing the situation out of proportion:

I don’t know why you guys are overreacting to this…Mr. Dobbs is trying to get ratings, trying to be provocative. He said three times he believes President Obama is a U.S. citizen, he’s just using this to stir the pot and get viewers, so why are you overreacting?

Later, said O’Reilly, “It’s not an excuse it’s an explanation.”

At the end it sounds like they’re making a $10,000 bet (for charity) over whether Dobbs will be fired by CNN, with O’Reilly convinced he’s sticking around for awhile. Well – we’ll see if he’s right soon enough.

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