Humiliation! Boston University bigwig bitchslaps Barry Nolan; calls Bill O'Reilly "an evenhanded journalist" who deserves local Emmy honor

"Bill O’Reilly was then
and continues to be
a remarkably evenhanded journalist
of whom we at BU
continue to be proud.
He is a credit to our school
and a worthy mentor to students."

Yeah, we'll run a few more items on our former colleague, the former tabloid television host Barry Nolan (we used to put words in his mouth, made him look authoritative and made him rich) and his misguided campaign to deny tabloid television superstar Bill O'Reilly a local Emmy in Boston. He hasn't apologized for calling Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns a liar and accusing him of being a teetotaler, so we figure he knows he deserves it.

But what showed up in the Boston Herald today (that's the paper with the gossip column in which radio quiz show panelist and Mensa member Barry first spouted off) really takes the cake. See, according to the Herald,

"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."

Today, the Herald prints a letter from John Silber, president emeritus of Boston University:

O’Reilly worthy of honor

I was surprised about Barry Nolan’s outburst and his effort to organize a movement demanding that the honor planned for Bill O’Reilly at next month’s local Emmy Awards be rescinded (“Barry Nolan pleads: Give Bill the boot!” April 11). Nolan even stoops to suggest that Bill O’Reilly is a mental case.

I weigh in on this issue because five years ago as chancellor of Boston University I was pleased following the vote of the BU alumni board to present O’Reilly our Distinguished Alumnus Award. Had there been any truth to the allegations of Nolan, we would never have considered it.

Bill O’Reilly was then and continues to be a remarkably evenhanded journalist of whom we at BU continue to be proud. He is a credit to our school and a worthy mentor to students.

John Silber
President Emeritus
Boston University

Barry continues to come under withering attack from his fellow Bostonians, who are flooding the Herald website with attacks, joining him in name-calling, labelling Barry, among other things, a "jealous arrogant loser," "pinhead," "clueless... moonbat" and "crazy," and suggest, among other things, that "Mr. Nolan better stop looking in the mirror at his hairdo and start searching the world around him for the real truth."

No wonder he doesn't have time to spar with our readers.