“Don’t Use That Tone With Me:” “I Would Have Slapped” Terry Moran, O’Reilly Says

Last night on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill replayed Terry Moran’s question for WH press secretary Scott McClellan:

With respect, who made you the editor of “Newsweek”? Do you think it’s appropriate for you at that podium speaking with the authority of the president of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print?

O’Reilly responded: “Now that was an ABC News correspondent. I would have slapped him. If I were McClellan, I would have went down and whacked him. All right? Don’t use that tone with me. O’Reilly says the elite media are “lashing out” because they are “rapidly losing power and influence.” “They’re rallying around a common theme — the Bush administration’s bad for America.” Here are the rest of his Talking Points…

> And: “You just know that Terry wouldn’t have tacked on ‘with respect’ unless he really didn’t mean it,” FishBowlDC snarks.

> Update: 3:48pm: An e-mailer says: “If O’Reilly were a real journalist — which he’s not — he, too, would take umbrage on beating on Newsweek like a straw horse. but, of course, he’s not: he’s blindly defensive and in the pocket of the administration.”