Exclusive. Barry Nolan goes berserk; attacks readers, attorney & memory of character actor David Dukes; claims to own Truth; misses point

Former tabloid television host Barry Nolan has come out of the woodwork kicking and screaming as he takes on Tabloid Baby readers mano-a-mano in an attempt to explain his headline-grabbing stunt aimed at denying former tabloid television host and current cable news titan Billy O’Reilly a local Emmy.

The actor and radio quiz show panelist made national headlines Friday when he used a gossip column in a Boston tabloid newspaper to launch a vicious personal attack against O’Reilly, who’s set to receive a local Emmy honor for rising so far above his roots as a local TV newsman.

Barry, was quoted as being “appalled, just appalled” that the locals would honor “a mental case,” and said he would make a statement by bringing O’Reilly’s comic foil Keith Olbermann to the ceremony as his "date."

After we suggested that Barry should “get a grip” (after all, local Emmys aren’t exactly hometown Nobel Peace Prizes-- they’re self-promoting sops divvied up among the competitors each year-- even Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns has a NYC news Emmy honor in a box somewhere), and that despite our animus toward O’Reilly (see Marvin Kitman’s O’Reilly bio, The Man Who Would Not Shut Up), Barry's use of Olbermann, an actual mental case, as his punchline, blew the joke, Barry attacked Burt!

He called his former producer a liar, and, what’s worse, actually accused him of “getting sober”!

Now Barry is taking on our readers, and again he appears to be missing the point, continuing to insist that he doesn’t want to give Olbermann an award, even though no one-- not us, not a reader— has suggested he did!

Barry vs. “Tom”: “Grab your ankles”
Last night, Barry got a bit condescending with a thoughtful reader:

Tom said...Barry, what does bringing Olby to the event prove? Sure, he'll be pissed, but you're a grown man, and by all accounts so is Olby.

And please explain how and why you believe the left wing media reports the truth, where as the right wing media does not.

Do you really think the schlock that comes from that former sportscaster who lies on a regular basis, smears those that dare disagree with him, never deviates from his regular guest list cause he can't stand to have people on his show who don't preach to his choir, and throws softballs to Dems and doesn't have the balls to go toe to toe with anyone is legitimate journalism???

You're a legitimate journalist right? And you believe Olby to be the same?

Hey, at least you'll never be WPITW, along with Bin Laden.

Barry responded:
I will type it again slowly so maybe you can read it: I do not suggest that Olberman is worthy of an award - or is an example of someone NATAS should give a award to. Nor is O'Reilly. It is an award that is meant to recognize high standards - and both personal and professional integrity. I grew up in the 60's. If you thought something morally wrong was being perpetrated - you protested (bringing Olberman ((sic))) you didn't just bend over and grab your ankles and say "yes sir may I have another".

What O'Reilly calls the "left wing" media - what other people call the news - gets things factually correct - whereas Falafel Boy is challenged that way. Read (this) for instance, summed up in Wikipedia thusly:

A poll conducted between June and September of 2003 asked people whether they thought WMD had been discovered in Iraq since the war ended. They were also asked which media sources they relied upon. Those who obtained their news primarily from Fox News were three times as likely to believe that evidence confirming WMD had been discovered in Iraq than those who relied on PBS and NPR for their news, and one third more likely than those who primarily watched CBS.

Spend 10 minutes on Google - there are abundant examples of O'Reilly getting it wrong while insisting he is right, bullying, bloviating, threatening. The wrong guy to give an award to unless perhaps you are David Dukes.*

*We’ll give Barry a break on that last point, and assume he got the name wrong,” and actually means “David Duke,” the former Ku Klux Klan wizard. David Dukes is the late character actor.

David Dukes, late actor; David Duke, racist

Barry vs. The “O’Reilly fanboys”

This morning, Barry twice responded to a group of commenters, one of whom who suggested that he is a “pompous ---hole” and a “motherf-cker” who should be sued because of what he wrote about us.

Barry said...
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.
Then Barry said...
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.

Don’t worry, Barry, were not going to sue you. Sticks and stones and all that. We’re tabloid. We welcome and encourage the free exchange of ideas from everyone.

But we do gather from your comments that after your return to Boston from Hollywood, marriage to a documentarian and college professor (mazel tov), move to public radio, the flaunting of the Mensa membership card and use of words like “thusly,” that you’ve become something of an elitist and are somewhat ashamed of your own tabloid past (Editor’s note: Barry’s lasting contribution to the genre is the Hard Copy-derived Paramount VHS docudrama alleging that Marilyn Monroe died from a suppository force-rammed up her butt— and yes, Barry read Burt’s words on that one). And you’re falling into O'Reilly's trap of applying the tactics he attributes to pointy-headed liberals, in effect becoming hoist by your own noisy petard by using personal attacks against those who disagree with you ("Got sober"??).

The bottom line is, if you'll read more slowly, you'll see that most of us don’t disagree with you about O’Reilly. We just view him as an entertainer, like you are. We give “the public” more credit than you do. And by standing on your soapbox, throwing around weighted words like “truth” and silly phrases like “I’m appalled,” “I grew up in the 60s,” and “Perhaps you should nurture in yourself some regard for facts, truth and decency,” (sheesh...) well, we think you’re taking the local news Emmys, and yourself, a tad too seriously and that you need to get a grip.