After Bill O’Reilly picked up on former Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry‘s Technology Review missive against NBC, and NBC responded strongly against the piece, Hockenberry wrote a blog post on Technology Review today that updated the situation. He describes his conversation with the O’Reilly Factor producer and again lets loose a barrage of attacks on NBC.
Hockenberry says since the article was published, he has gotten many positive responses from people within the industry. “There were numerous people who contacted me from within the networks who assured me that their experience was even worse than what I had described,” he wrote.
Hockenberry writes that the FNC producer who contacted him discussed the idea that O’Reilly has an “interest in keeping a watchful eye” on MSNBC. He quotes the producer as saying, “The way MSNBC has acted makes the whole profession look bad.”
He ends the post with a direct response to NBC’s official comment regarding the original article, which said Hockenberry was “out of touch with reality.” He took the word “reality” and launched into a biting response. He said:
Hearing O’Reilly quote NBC about my departure from reality made me proud. As painful as it was to have been axed after nine years of service at NBC, I felt quite happy and a bit relieved to have left this network ‘reality.’ For that I owe NBC a debt of gratitude, but I suspect the network brass is too busy figuring out such urgent matters as how to make the Golden Globe Awards a ‘news event’ despite the writer’s strike, or picking which bimbos will open suitcases on Deal or No Deal, to accept my thanks.
Related: Gail Shister‘s interview with Hockenberry on TVNewser from December 24 — the first time he talked about the article.