Bernie Goldberg Weighs In On Bill O’Reilly’s Beef With Ellen Barkin: It’s Not Important
You may recall that, last week, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly took on HLN’s Joy Behar for having enabled her guest, actress Ellen Barkin, to have shared false information about terrible things O’Reilly had supposedly said about her on his show. At the time, O’Reilly called Barkin’s statements “a flat-out lie” and said HLN and its parent network have a duty to “challenge statements that are provocative, like that one.”
RELATED: Bill O’Reilly Takes On ‘Blatant Lies’ About Him Made On HLN’s Joy Behar Show
Last night, O’Reilly invited Fox News contributor Bernie Goldberg to discuss who, exactly, should be held responsible when guests lie on television:
Here’s my rule of thumb, Bill. If Ellen Barkin — or, for that matter, Henry Kissinger or Stephen Hawking — if anybody went on a cable program and said, “The other night I heard Bill O’Reilly say that President Obama is a communist spy, he’s a Manchurian candidate and he oughtta be impeached,” then everybody involved needs to apologize. Because that kind of slander cannot stand.
The person who said it would have to apologize, the person who let it go by without challenge would have to apologize, and the network. Some executive at the network would have to come forward and apologize. Because that kind of accusation is important. But when a celebrity makes a dopey comment, as celebrities have a tendency to do, on a silly little cable TV show, that’s not important.
“It is to you,” he conceded, when O’Reilly began to protest.
“Let me challenge that,” said the host. “I don’t care what they say about me. My problem in this country isn’t with people who watch me every night; it’s with people who don’t watch me and don’t know and hear thirdhand from people like that.”
“That’s a bit of a problem. But since we’re the dominant, number one program,” he added, “it’s not much of one.” He made sure to add that Behar’s show was being canceled because she “didn’t get very good ratings.”
“That’s a shame,” said Goldberg.
Have a look at the segment, courtesy of Fox News:
