Cable News Wars: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Edition

By Jordan Chariton 

O'Reilly Hayes

The prisoner exchange bringing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl home for five Taliban members has dominated cable news all week, and last night, it sparked a new round in the cable news wars.

“Ms. Costello [Carol] has an absolute responsibility to know what she’s talking about when she does an interview…she obviously doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Bill O’Reilly said after airing parts of CNN’s Costello interviewing Rolling Stone writer Matthew Farwell. “Bill O’Reilly, the most dangerous thing that guy has ever done is walk across the street in New York to buy a burger,” Farwell said in response to a question about O’Reilly’s criticism of Bergdahl’s father, Bob.

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“That guy is either uninformed, or a liar,” O’Reilly responded, adding his reporting career speaks for itself. On Costello, O’Reilly added: “She has an ethical obligation as a journalist to challenge that kind of stuff.”

Meanwhile, O’Reilly’s 8pmET counterpart Chris Hayes, took issue with his coverage: “Blatant Islamophobia here is eclipsed only by the sheer ridiculousness of the argument,” Hayes said after airing clips of O’Reilly criticizing Bob Bergdahl for appearing at the White House in a full beard, looking like a Muslim.

Hayes then sarcastically asked if we should be worried about other full-bearded men, rolling a montage that included the cast of Duck Dynasty, ZZ Top, Forrest Gump, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus. On the latter two, Hayes suggested: “Someone needs to look into the guy [O’Reilly] who wrote two sympathetic books about them.”

“I’ll be waiting for the Factor investigation,” Hayes concluded.

WATCH:


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