O’Reilly, Goldberg Defend Bob Costas from Conservative Critics over NBC Putin Coverage

NBC and Bob Costas came under fire for a glowing profile of Vladimir Putin on the first night of the 2014 Olympic Games. But as far as Bernie Goldberg is concerned, it’s such an overblown non-story. O’Reilly eased up on Costas, saying it was probably just a hastily-written script instead of something created with a clear agenda in mind, but Goldberg was just out-and-out flabbergasted at how “ridiculous” the whole thing is.

RELATED: Conservatives Unfairly Attacking NBC’s Olympics Commentary

Goldberg cited a number of quotes from Costas bashing Putin during the Olympics on the air, and so determined that rather than being borne out of genuine outrage, the whole thing’s been terribly overblown by conservative news outlets.

“[This is about] a constant need for a supply of bad guys and controversies, and the controversies can’t be small controversies, because that’s not interesting enough, so every little thing has to become a big controversy because that’s good for business.”

He reminded O’Reilly of the freakout over President Obama shaking Raul Castro‘s hand and said it just adds to the “depressing puzzle” of the right’s “constant need for controversy.”

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

[photo via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!