O'Reilly Chickened Out of Debate With Clooney

[stewert]

Just as I thought O'Reilly is the real coward. I was flipping through the channels the other night and I saw George Clooney on the Dan Abrams show. Dan asked Clooney about his feud with O'Reilly, at one point he mentioned having a debate with O'Reilly. Clooney said he agreed to debate O'Reilly on the Charlie Rose show on PBS, Rose had it all set up, they just needed O'Reilly to agree to a time and a date.

Big bad Billy O'Reilly said NO, his excuse was that Rupert Murdoch would not let him do it. What a load of bullshit, he had a debate with Paul Krugman on the Tim Russert show on CNBC, Murdoch did not seem to care about that. So the king of calling people cowards is afraid to debate George Clooney, and he is the one who said Clooney is afraid to debate him. He also said Clooney is afraid to go on the Factor, when Clooney has said he will debate O'Reilly anywhere but on his show.

On top of that Dan Abrams offered to host the debate on his show, he said he called O'Reilly and asked him if he would debate Clooney on his show and O'Reilly said no again.

So the big bad Billy O'Reilly is the real coward, he knows Clooney is smart and well informed, and he knows Clooney would wipe the floor with him in a debate. That is the real reason he will not debate George Clooney, it has nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch, O'Reilly is just a coward who is afraid to debate a well informed liberal.

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Partial transcript:

ABRAMS: What is with you and Bill O‘Reilly? Really seems like Bill O‘Reilly gets under your skin and I see interviews with you...

CLOONEY: (INAUDIBLE)

ABRAMS: ... a third of them, Bill O‘Reilly‘s name is brought up.

CLOONEY: But I don‘t—you know I don‘t start by bringing up his name, you know usually. It‘s usually—you know look, I just did a film about broadcast journalism and so everyone brought it up.

ABRAMS: But don‘t you sort of by taking him on, and you have in the past, don‘t you...

CLOONEY: Make him more famous?

ABRAMS: Yes. I mean...

(CROSSTALK)

ABRAMS: ... George Clooney is a pretty famous guy.

CLOONEY: I never once after gone at him when he said things about me. That wasn‘t the issue. I‘ve gone at him when the people that I‘ve asked to stick their neck out, you know that work on a telethon, for instance, who did everything right, are suddenly being vilified by something that isn‘t true. They‘re made-up facts. It‘s then my job to defend them since I was the one who brought them in.

ABRAMS: Isn‘t that the bait—I mean isn‘t that the bait to get Clooney?

CLOONEY: Yes, but I don‘t go on his show. He kept saying come on my show and debate the 9/11 issue, which of course he made up. He made it up out of whole cloth. He still to this day says you know we got it right and the Red Cross changed their ways. We weren‘t the Red Cross. We‘re the United Way. I mean literally he gets the facts wrong.

ABRAMS: But he drives you nuts, doesn‘t he?

CLOONEY: Well he drives me nuts because it‘s irresponsible. That‘s irresponsible and it hurt us because people canceled their checks you know during the telethon. It makes a difference and it hurt us and it hurt the credibility of the United Way and it hurt who I‘m on the board of.

So yes, those things got under my skin a little bit. But, in general, you know I said if it‘s only because—why are you doing this? Matt Lauer asks why are you doing this? He goes because I want to—you know because I care about the people and he wanted me to debate him.

And I said if it‘s just about caring about the people I‘ll debate you on any other show but yours, period. I‘d debate him right here, right now...

ABRAMS: Well I will let him know that he‘s invited...

CLOONEY: And we‘ve had that conversation and he said I‘ll debate you on Charlie Rose and then we had a—you know he had a conversation with Charlie a couple of weeks ago and said Rupert Murdoch won‘t let me and I think well that‘s interesting because you can go on any other show and talk about your book or do anything else.

<snip>

ABRAMS: We called the O‘Reilly show and passed along the offer to have him debate on this program. You know shocker (INAUDIBLE) going to happen.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10337000/

[Benhurst]

1. Why am I not surprised? NT

[liveoaktx]

10. VIDEO on CanOFun

Clooney on Abrams Report-second night

First night

[RagingInMiami]

2. Does anyone have a contact e-mail for O'Reilly?

I would love to e-mail him and rag on him about this. It would be great if we all can send him e-mails calling him a coward. That should rile him up.

[stewert]

4. Contact........

[e-mail]

[RagingInMiami]

19. Thanks, just sent an e-mail calling him a pussy

[Mutley]

5. here ya go...

[e-mail]

:D I love emailing Loofah man.

[RagingInMiami]

20. Thanks, just sent him an e-mail

[ComerPerro]

3. That's how conservatives frame things

They somehow imagine it to be a fair debate if its done on their turf, by their rules, with them having all the control.

"Cut his mike!"...

:puke:

But OhReally says crap like this all the time, "I've invited (insert any name) on my show to debate me and he/she won't come on."


Bill - Its not because they are intimidated or afraid of you.

Its because you have no credibility. None. At all. Your show is a joke. That's why people don't come on it.


By OhReally's logic, I could argue that Bill is afraid to debate me, because he won't come to my house and debate on camera...

[Loonman]

6. Blowhard coward

What a milquetoast O'Reilly is.

[Ernesto]

7. He always does......

His "tough guy" mode of operation is to tell his ignorant fans that he will bravely take on anybody who challenges his lies. He, as a matter of fact, never, ever gets around to the actual debate.
Big Bill is a mythical "John Wayne/ Walking Tall" character for his pathetic followers. His popularity speaks volumes about the collective psyche of freepers.

[wixomblues]

8. Wuss.

[Loonman]

9. O'Reilly can't control the mike on someone else's show

That's what these coward pieces of shit rely on, blocking people from rebutting their lies.

[Vidar]

11. The"cut & run" man.

[DS1]

12. They aren't debates anymore - They're shouting competitions

[Marr]

13. Rupert Murdoch wont *let* him...?

What the fuck? Isn't that the same guy who endlessly rants about George Soros as being some kind of political puppet master? My god. What a fucking wimp.

[FreedomAngel82]

23. Cop-out

He can be so mean to poor Jermey Glick but he can't debate a real man like George Clooney. Bill O'Reilly is nothing more than a little boy scared trapped in an adult figured body.

[bumblebee1]

14. Maybe Bill O'Reilly is fearful

that Mr "Movie Star" George Clooney will hand him his ass.

[stewert]

15. I am Guessing........

I am guessing that O'Reilly saw Clooney on a few shows talking about his movie, politics, etc. and he saw how smart, well spoken, and well informed Clooney actually is, so O'Reilly said exit stage left, and he backed out of the debate. I would bet that O'Reilly never says a word about Clooney again in the hopes that Clooney will just stop talking about him.

O'Reilly wants no part of Clooney, he may be a raving lunatic, but even he knows Clooney would calmly clean his clock in a debate on a neutral show.

[maxsolomon]

16. Murdoch might NOT let him

Possible that Murdoch actually doesn't want his franchise propagandist exposed intellectually & won't allow him to bloviate in an uncontrolled forum against an unintimidated opponent. He was willing to shell out the $ to make his sexual harassment suit go away. If he's going to protect that investment, he needs to make sure O'really isn't exposed as the fascist fraud he is.

How old is Murdoch anyway? Can't he hurry up & shed this mortal coil?

[EFerrari]

17. Too late!

[Peter Frank]

18. K & R... nt

[tabasco]

21. Krugman embarassed O'Dumbass so badly.

Falafel-boy wants no repeat of that.

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Bill O'Reilly is a total loser

He can't even debate people without controlling it on his show. Remember Donahue? Oh that was beautiful! He also won't debate David Brock.