O’Reilly vs. Olbermann: Escalation?

In a must read, the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes about how bad things have gotten in the O’Reilly/Olbermann feud and how its escalated far beyond just Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly.

The sniping between O’Reilly and Olbermann initially seemed like good entertainment. But NBC News President Steve Capus grew alarmed when O’Reilly began saying that NBC correspondent Richard Engel was taking an antiwar position in his reporting from Iraq and that the network wasn’t recognizing the early success of President Bush’s surge.

“It is one thing to have corporate jousting between Keith and O’Reilly,” Capus said. “When it becomes an over-the-top, inaccurate distortion and gross misrepresentation of the job being performed by Richard Engel, then I’m going to be concerned and feel the need to act.”

Early last year, the sources say, Capus called Ailes to say that O’Reilly had gone over the line with reckless attacks on Engel. But, the sources recounted, Ailes said he agreed that NBC was against the war and had aligned itself with Olbermann’s mockery. Capus, he said, had the power to shut down the situation by telling Olbermann to back off.

The conversation grew tense as Capus asked whether Ailes was threatening him with retaliation by O’Reilly and News Corp. if Olbermann kept up his criticism. Ailes kept returning to highly personal comments by Olbermann, whom he referred to with an expletive, and the impasse remained. The sources declined to be identified furnishing details of private conversations.

In last summer’s conversation between Ailes and Zucker — the two men have known each other since Zucker tapped him as a commentator for the “Today” show in the early 1990s — the onetime Republican consultant asked whether NBC still cared about the truth. Olbermann had inaccurately called Ailes “the lead political consultant for Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign.” Ailes worked for Giuliani’s New York mayoral campaign in 1989, but no evidence has surfaced that he played a role in the presidential bid.

Zucker did nothing as a result of the call. “I have never asked Keith Olbermann to tone anything down,” he said in a brief interview.

The problem for NBC is that Bill O’Reilly has become as adept and skilled at distorting and misrepresenting NBC and GE as Keith Olbermann is at distorting and misrepresenting O’Reilly and Fox. It was all fine and dandy for NBC when it was just O’Reilly and anything Murdoch getting beat up. But now that it’s a two way street, NBC is whining.

Look, you guys (NBC and Olbermann) started this, what did you expect? That FNC and O’Reilly would just roll over? Shrivel up and blow away? Of course not. After years of abuse O’Reilly has learned from the master and follows the Olbermann playbook and he’s now giving as good as he gets. Of course it’s all because of what Olbermann has done over the years. Everyone knows that. But if NBC and GE think that dismissing it or complaining about how “unfair” it is will make a difference and go whining to Howard Kurtz, they haven’t been paying attention to the rules of this feud because complaining about how “unfair” it is is what FNC and O’Reilly have been doing and it got them nowhere.

The only way this stops is when Olbermann and O’Reilly both stop. Since NBC apparently doesn’t want to do anything about Olbermann stopping, it should expect more of the same from O’Reilly. Whining to Kurtz in The Post won’t do anything except further embolden O’Reilly…and they should know that. After all it was O’Reilly’s whining that emboldened Olbermann.