Saturday, April 12, 2008

Barry Nolan responds to Tabloid Baby re: O'Reilly

Yesterday we suggested that former tabloid television host Barry Nolan's campaign to deny a Boston Emmy honor to tabloid television host Bill O'Reilly was unfair, and that his description of O'Reilly as a "mental case" was misguided, especially in light of Barry's praise of actual mental case Keith Olbermann.

Barry must have Googled himself, for he responds this morning:

Dear Burt;

While you always had quite a flair for the dramatic, you never had much regard for the truth.

The issue for me with NATAS is simply what it says to students and journalists everywhere - when you give an award to someone like O'Reilly who mangles the truth on a daily basis. You and your pals would tell them; lie, bully people, conflate the facts, call people names like "wetbacks" on TV, sexually harrass your staff, and maybe one day you too will be honored. I do not suggest that they give an award of any kind to Olberman (sic).

Apparently you can't be bothered to read anything carefully. Maybe that is why you, like O'Reilly make half your crap up.

Glad to hear you finally got sober.

Barry Nolan

Hey! Who said Burt got sober? (And open Tabloid Baby to page 348 -- Chapter 28, "Where's The Bag, Mr. Kardashian?"-- to find out what happened to Barry the last time he played the "drinking card" against his mentors.)

And by the way, what did we get wrong? Here's the original article:

BOSTONHERALD.COM
Inside Track

Barry Nolan pleads: Give Bill the boot!

By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Friday, April 11, 2008


CN8
’s
Barry Nolan says Fox News bigfoot Bill O’Reilly is “a mental case,” and Nolan’s crazy mad that the local Emmy Awards will honor Mr. No Spin Zone at their 31st annual back-slapfest next month.

“I am appalled, just appalled,” Nolan told the Track. “He inflates and constantly mangles the truth . . . and his frequent target is the ‘left-leaning’ media - the ones who do report the news fairly. And those are the same people who will be sitting in the room honoring him.”

Nolan, citing an Indiana University study that claims O’Reilly - a former Channel 7 anchor - calls a person or group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds on average, has been busy ringing up local TV types to get their support for his “Rescind O’Reilly” effort. He claims former WBZ anchor Liz Walker is on board.

“I hope people will express their displeasure to the board of governors and they’ll rescind their decision,” he said. “It’s morally unacceptable.”

That’s not happening, said Boston/New England Emmy Awards cheese
Tim Egan.

The local awards gurus think O’Reilly’s career is something to be celebrated since he came from the Boston market then made a name for himself nationally with “Inside Edition” and the FOX News Channel.

“You may not agree with him, but you can’t say he hasn’t increased the political conversation in this country with his style of broadcasting,” Egan said.

But Nolan insists that O’Reilly is “a mental case” who shouldn’t be held up as an example of journalistic integrity to budding TV journos from Boston University and Emerson College.

“This is who you should aspire to be like? Is this what we’re telling them?” he fumed.

Despite his reservations about his fellow Boston TV veteran, Nolan claims he will go to the May 10 shindig at the Marriott Copley Place to support his CN8 comrades. But since his wife will be out of town, Barry has invited O’Reilly’s nemesis, MSNBC yakker
Keith Olbermann, as his date.

Oh, this should be good!

The pair of cable channel blowhards have been sparring since 2003, when Keith fired the first salvo by comparing O’Reilly to
Sen. Joe McCarthy.

We called Bill O’Reilly’s office for comment. But he was unavailable to rant.


Be sure to catch Barry Nolan on National Public Radio's witty and entertaining "Says You" (like, Barry, a show of "words and whimsy, bluff and bluster")-- which is one of our favorite radio shows.

14 comments:

  1. What a pompous ASSHOLE.

    Nolan libeled you at least four times in that public comment. You should sue the motherfucker.

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  2. wasnt nolan the host of hard copy AND extra?
    pot meet kettle.

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  3. Not too crazy about O'Reilly. (If it weren't so hot I'd peel me-self off the tiles and write all the reasons.)

    Definitely can't STAND Olbermann. Absolutely the most obnoxious and pompous brat-caster picking up a paycheck today. A real shame he's kept his job (/this time). Hell, he's been riding Bill's coat-tails for awhile. Same old same.

    As for Barry Nolan? Nice to meet you.

    .

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  4. Let me get this straight.

    This guy calls you a liar but he made millions of dollars reading and selling your lies on national television.

    Nice.

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  5. Now Barry, Tabloid Baby is the most honest book I've ever read. And after cracking open my copy and reading page 348 (and page 349), I can surmise why you're so defensive. The truth can hurt.

    Burt entertains and enlightens by celebrating his tabloid past with a nod and a wink. He doesn't try distance himself from it.

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  6. Who the hell is Barry Nolan?

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  7. In chapter 3 of his book “Kids Are Americans Too,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly wrote that “the Constitution guarantees all of us, in a famous phrase, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’” On the Jan. 2 edition of his show, O’Reilly read a letter from Courtney Yong, a young girl from San Francisco, who pointed out that the “famous phrase” actually came from the Declaration of Independence, rather than the Constitution. Despite clearly having made an error in his book, O’Reilly refused to admit that he made any mistake

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  8. To give himself a semblance of credibility, he repeatedly claimed he won a Peabody Award. The fact is, he did not. His old show, Inside Edition, won the much less prestigious Polk Award – after O’Reilly left the show.

    Just of late, he has wrongly claimed that US soldiers massacred Nazi soldiers after the battle of Malmedy. When in fact it was the Nazi who massacred our GI’s.

    O’Reilly had to settle the sexual harassment suit against him for an estimated $10 million. And need I remind you that the priggish moralist was the married father of two at the time of his great Falafel exploits.

    So is this the caliber of man that you and your fawning O’Reilly Fanboys would give an award? The man you would set as an example for your children to follow? And you suggest that I should get a grip? Perhaps you should nurture in yourself some regard for facts, truth and decency. And as for the dipstick lawyer who wrote in suggesting you have been libeled? Bring it on. The truth will be an adequate defense.

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  9. Dipstick?

    Mr. Nolan, would you please extend the courtesy of giving me the phone number of your attorney?

    He, and you, can expect a call during the workweek.

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  10. Dear Attorney:

    Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

    Dipstick -noun -

    2. Slang. fool; jerk.

    Sue me you dipstick.

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  11. he gets all his ammo from wikipedia.
    ha.ha.ha.

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  12. LESS NAME CALLING, MORE FAIRNESS, BARRY NOLAN.

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  13. That's actually sick that Dildo O'Reilly screwed up the DOI and Constitution. And that his editor didn't even catch the mistake.

    But Barry, slugging people with their old vodka bottle is low.

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  14. Why would he want to give an award to Olberman?
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