Diane Sawyer publicized her Thursday night special on the foster care system on Wednesday’s Factor. Bill O’Reilly didn’t ask her how long she’s staying at Good Morning America, but he did ask her about the World News Tonight job:
| O’REILLY: …I’m not saying to bump anybody, but would that have been some — a job you would have liked? SAWYER: Not if Charlie Gibson was there first. O’REILLY: OK, I got it. You’re doing the nice P.R. thing. SAWYER: I’m not. I’m doing the real thing. O’REILLY: Would you — would that job appeal to you? SAWYER: Right now, no. O’REILLY: You have 22 minutes — you get two hours in the morning to do whatever you want. SAWYER: Right. O’REILLY: You can make fun of guys like me when I come in. You can have some laughs. You get a very large diversity of what you can do. It’s an interesting job. Twenty-two minutes a night you’re reading leads. That’s what you’re doing. SAWYER: No, no. There is a lot of editorial influence. O’REILLY: So you would have liked that job? SAWYER: I think it is a wonderful job, but I think Charlie Gibson is the right man to do it. |
The long transcript is after the jump…
O’REILLY: I have to ask you. It’s Katie Couric’s last day. I was crying, by the way, from 7 to 9, and I was in tears. And you know me. And this was on “Good Morning America”…
SAWYER: You are a sucker for a montage. That’s what I say about Bill O’Reilly.
O’REILLY: This gives “Good Morning America” an opening to sample them, as they say on television. Because she’s out there, and more fans, they’re not going to be — Vieira’s not going in until September. Are you going to do anything differently? I mean, you know, promote more. Do you see this as an opportunity for yourself?
SAWYER: Over the summer Robin Roberts and I will be there. Charlie Gibson is going to…
O’REILLY: He got fired. Oh, there he is.
SAWYER: Fired to his idea of heaven, I think.
O’REILLY: And he should have gotten the job in the first place.
SAWYER: Yes, he’s going to do great. But Robin and I will be there, and I think the network is looking at some big new strategies and things to be done over the summer. The summer gives you an opportunity to try out different things.
O’REILLY: So you will ramp it up and try to take advantage?
SAWYER: Well, I don’t know about advantage because what we’re thinking of right now is getting our team in place and our team…
O’REILLY: For the fall.
SAWYER: For the fall.
O’REILLY: But you have to hire somebody else, right? You figure you’d need a male presence on the desk?
SAWYER: Yes. I mean, I think Charlie — we’re not going to retire Charlie’s letter only. Somebody else is certainly going to come in.
O’REILLY: Would you have wanted to do what Couric is going to do? I mean, would you have wanted to read a prompter, because it’s basically a prompter reading job.
SAWYER: No, it’s not. No, it’s not.
O’REILLY: Yes, these days it is. Because you can’t travel out — you can’t do a lot. You’ve got to be on the desk and you’ve got to be — you’re kind of chained to it. Would you have wanted to do it?
SAWYER: You know, I think everybody loves the idea of taking the great content that they have on “World News” and thinking what you could do with it. But Charlie Gibson…
O’REILLY: I’m not saying to bump anybody, but would that have been some — a job you would have liked?
SAWYER: Not if Charlie Gibson was there first.
O’REILLY: OK, I got it. You’re doing the nice P.R. thing.
SAWYER: I’m not. I’m doing the real thing.
O’REILLY: Would you — would that job appeal to you?
SAWYER: Right now, no.
O’REILLY: You have 22 minutes — you get two hours in the morning to do whatever you want.
SAWYER: Right.
O’REILLY: You can make fun of guys like me when I come in. You can have some laughs. You get a very large diversity of what you can do. It’s an interesting job. Twenty-two minutes a night you’re reading leads. That’s what you’re doing.
SAWYER: No, no. There is a lot of editorial influence.
O’REILLY: So you would have liked that job?
SAWYER: I think it is a wonderful job, but I think Charlie Gibson is the right man to do it.
O’REILLY: OK, but you can do it at FOX News Channel. I mean Shep is good but I think…
SAWYER: Is this an audition?
O’REILLY: No.
SAWYER: FOX, bring it on.
O’REILLY: Let me put it this way. You’ve been very successful in anything you’ve done. You’re a success. Anything you want to do that you haven’t done?
SAWYER: I think we all want to find a way to do more of the things that we believe in. And at the time, that is about foster care.
O’REILLY: You want to help the kids?
SAWYER: I do. And I know as a sentimentalist as a soggy guy…
O’REILLY: Well, you know, Jessica’s Law campaign, that’s what we’re doing but you have a special interest in children? That’s what you want to do.
SAWYER: I have a special interest in changing things that I cannot imagine that we wake up every morning and continue to do.
O’REILLY: And tolerate.
SAWYER: And tolerate.
O’REILLY: All right. I want everybody to watch this prime time special of the foster care system, and we appreciate your coming in. Diane Sawyer.
SAWYER: And for taking over Shep’s job? I mean, do you call me or do I call you?
O’REILLY: If you want that job, we’ll put him on “The Factor” and I will retire. That’s how we’ll do it.
SAWYER: What a plan.
O’REILLY: We appreciate it.
SAWYER: Thank you.