In a segment about embattled MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir last night, Bill O’Reilly had news for Howard Kurtz: they booked him after first asking Sarah Palin, who O’Reilly revealed won’t do his program for fear of mixing it up.
“Sarah Palin won’t do this program. She won’t come on the program because she doesn’t want to mix it up. She doesn’t! She wants to give a speech, and nobody gives speeches here. Okay? So she doesn’t come on,” O’Reilly said. “We invited her on tonight. You’re here instead. But I don’t begrudge Sarah Palin that. She can come on. She doesn’t come on, she does come on, whatever she wants to do. Okay? Fine.”
Palin’s PAC has sent a letter to MSNBC president Phil Griffin and NBC News president Deborah Turness asking whether Bashir will be disciplined. She has also cancelled an upcoming interview with Matt Lauer. Bashir made the vile comments Friday, apologized Monday, and has hosted every day since.
The calls for Bashir to be punished have been the loudest on Fox News. Kurtz appeared twice on Fox news yesterday and wrote about it on FoxNews.com. Sean Hannity talked about it with Ann Coulter and put it to his audience, asking whether Bashir should be punished.
O’Reilly and Hannity clips after the jump…