TVGuide has two interviews this week with two of the most popular (and opinionated) cable news hosts on television: one with FNC’s Bill O’Reilly and one with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.
Looking back on their careers and the last decade, the two actually agree on a few things. For one, the role technology has played in altering the ways you can approach viewers.
O’Reilly says he’s tried to make his show “appointment viewing” for his audience. “No longer will people just turn the TV on and cruise around, because of the PCs,” he said. “So the competition level from the machines has changed everything.”
Olbermann says, “If you’re not introducing something of yourself and your own beliefs to what you’re doing on the air, they can replace you with, now, a decreasingly expensive computer that can just read the news for you.”
Both also admit they have been a little over-the-line at times — Olbermann says, “I really don’t understand why more people didn’t hit me in the head with a brick” in regards to some disagreements with former employers — and both agree that TV legend Tom Snyder had an impact on their work.
“Tom Snyder was a great influence on me,” said Olbermann, and O’Reilly says that “[Snyder’s] persona and the way he presented himself made an impression on me. ”