Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly issued a somewhat scathing assessment of his talking head competition, putting liberal Sen. Al Franken in the same boat as conservative Rush Limbaugh and dismissing them as partisan hacks or scaremongers.
“I’m not Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken, where everything has to fit into my worldview,” Mr. O’Reilly said at a New York City event earlier this week, Breitbart reported. “I’m a fact-based guy. A lot of people don’t understand that.”
Mr. O’Reilly also went on to suggest several of his Fox News colleagues were less than unbiased when it came to speaking of the Obama administration.
Geraldo Rivera asked Mr. O’Reilly if he thought Fox News treated Mr. Obama’s White House fairly during reporting, the Daily Beast said.
And Mr. O’Reilly’s response: “It depends on the hour. If you watch ’Fox & Friends,’ [Steve] Doocy is an Obama-basher. He bashes Obama like clockwork. But the other two — Elizabeth [Hasselbeck] and Brian [Kilmeade] — they’d rather whip up a soufflé.”
He then assessed Fox’s morning hosts Bill Hemmer and Jenna Lee as having “no ideology,” before adding: “Then at 3, Shepard Smith is a liberal.”
Neal Cavuto, Fox News senior vice president and managing editor, hosts “a business show … [and is] not an Obama fan,” Mr. O’Reilly said, the Daily Beast said.
Mr. O’Reilly also criticized other outside news contributors.
On MSNBC, he said: “They’ve radicalized themselves … I get a headache. Al Sharpton is giving me a headache. [But CNN], they’re good at what they do, covering the news. But they don’t have any flamboyant, obnoxious people. … Wolf Blitzer looks like a U-boat commander. You expect the periscope to come down,” the Daily Beast reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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