O’Reilly Incorrectly Blames TVNewser for Jackson N-Word Leak…
TVNewser writes about Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on Studio B today to discuss the leak to TVNewser of Jackson using the N-word…
Then he turned his attention to the person who tipped off TVNewser. “Some weasel leaked it to the internet,” he said. “That person wants to hurt Jesse Jackson.”
And what about the setting Jackson went to give his first response to the tape?
After FNC informed Jackson of the tape last Wednesday, he decided to first go on CNN and was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer.
Said O’Reilly: “Do I care? Not really. You’ve got to understand Jesse Jackson is free to go on whatever he wants. He gets an easier ride over there, no disparagement to CNN but he does, then coming on to explain it to me. So he chose to do that.”
Smith and O’Reilly mentioned Jackson also went on CNN Election Center with Campbell Brown at 8pmET, but did not say he also called in to On the Record with Greta Van Susteren on FNC at 10pmET.
O’Reilly also rehashed the backstory of the tape, leading up to the “leak” to TVNewser today.
“Do we know who leaked it, and what’s happened to that person?” asked Smith.
“No, but I’ve got the waterboard right over here,” O’Reilly responded.
There are a couple of things wrong with O’Reilly’s version of events. First of all TVNewser wasn’t the first one to report the quote via a web site. Chickaboomer was. Second of all, this apparently didn’t get out via a leak. It was publicly reported. For a clue, the third comment on this Digg thread posted last week points the way.
Every news site is leaving off the best part, the next sentance where he says “he’s telling ***** how to behave”.
The only aired it on the radio so far I think.
The commenter doesn’t say whether he heard the Jackson audio itself or just a recitation of what Jackson said, though I suspect the latter because that video was reserved for O’Reilly’s show and I don’t recall any airings of the actual audio until O’Reilly’s program.
But it’s no coincidence that the wording he gave is word-for-word identical to the quote from the FNC transcript leaked today on TVNewser, but the same day as the Chickaboomer scoop. So I believe that means that the quote was aired, in some form, on the radio, probably the day the story broke on the 9th. If you think about it, there’s only two places it could have possibly aired on; Fox News Radio or Sean Hannity’s radio broadcast.
I don’t think it was Hannity’s show because everyone was reporting what Hannity was saying in the run up to O’Reilly’s FNC show so I don’t see how a quote like that could have been overlooked under that level of scrutiny. So that leaves Fox News Radio. Which Fox News Radio shows talked about Jackson? Anyone know? Better yet, anyone have access to the Podcasts from the 9th, the day this story broke? If so, email me and let me know if the N-word quote got dropped and by whom…
Update: To further complicate the matter Johnny Dollar referenced the quote a day earlier than Chickaboomer or the Digg commenter. I didn’t see this comment the first time through but Dollar linked to it today.
July 16, 2008 at 5:41 pm
“Some weasel leaked it to the internet,” he said. “That person wants to hurt Jesse Jackson.”
Spud, by saying “the internet”, how do you know it’s TVNewser, and NOT Chickaboomer, who O’Reilly is referring to? Or maybe some other site. He certainly was vague, IMO.
July 16, 2008 at 5:46 pm
TVNewser doesn’t seem to think so. And I tend to agree. The timing is the issue. If O’Reilly wanted to refute the other internet rumors he would have done so earlier.
July 16, 2008 at 7:40 pm
O’Reilly was just on Greta’s program, of all things! Anyway, he stated that some “weasil” within Fox News leaked the story to the “internet” (he was not any more specific than that).
He certainly had an opportunity to blame Newser, overtly or subtly, and did not do so.
July 16, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Again, look at the timing. O’Reilly had days to attack a leak to Chickaboomer and he didn’t. Suddenly it’s on TVNewser and BANG! O’Reilly is all over it, not just once, but twice?
The difference is TVNewser dropped said it was in “the transcript”. That implies it came from FNC directly. With the Chickaboomer leak it may not have come directly from FNC but from someone who heard something from someone at FNC. Or something similar.
So add it all up, and though I will admit it’s not iron clad foolproof evidence, logic dictates it was the TVNewser leak.
July 16, 2008 at 8:53 pm
And all this is so stupid. FNC should have known that something that incindiary wouldn’t remain within the News Corp. walls and should have been proactive by getting that quote out in the beginning.
Instead FNC has been in full reaction mode as the drip, drip, drip kept the story alive longer than it would have had they broadcast the N-bomb in the first place. FNC kept dancing around the issue and in the process made things worse for themselves as blogs like Gawker, Chickaboomer, and ICN kept hammering them on it. I can’t speak for the others but I would have let the N-bomb issue drop if Tabacoff hadn’t issued that non-denial denial yesterday and then O’Reilly taking to the air today in full spin mode.