Bob Garfield of On the Media weighs in on the day that Terri Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air, made Fox News' Bill O'Reilly cry like a little girl:
if I were face to face with him, it would be hard for me to resist what Gross could not resist … because O'Reilly is such a disgrace, such a mockery of Fox News Channel's claim to fairness and balance. So yes, Terry Gross lost her cool and played right into Bill O'Reilly's hands by failing to let judgment override her contempt. It was egg on her face and on NPR's. I only wish it could have been egg on mine, because to take a crack at this bellicose Humpty Dumpty, I'd happily wear an entire omelette.
Terry Gross, by the way, is a winner of the prestigious Peabody Award. Bill O'Reilly is not, although he's indicated otherwise in the past.
Some others who have received this honor that has eluded O'Reilly: Spike Lee, Matt Groening, Katie Couric, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
In the award's 63 years, nearly every TV news network has been recognized for some aspect of its reporting: ABC, NBC, CBS, the CBC, the BBC, ESPN. But not FOX News.
O'Reilly used to work for the syndicated news tabloid show Inside Edition. As he likes to point out, that show won a George Polk Award (after he left). Neither Bill O'Reilly nor FOX News has ever won a Polk.
NPR, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and the BBC all have a shelf-load of Polk Awards. FOX News doesn't have even one. Some other winners: Bill Moyers, William Greider, Pacifica Radio, Guam Cable Television.
Maybe next year, Bill.
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