By Keith Woodard

The O'Reilly Factor is a daily Fox News Channel show that's either
Talk or News Analysis, depending on who's telling the story.
Republican Bill O'Reilly is its confrontational host.  Last Thursday,
he invited San Francisco's equally pugnacious KGO radio talk show host
Bernie Ward, the "Lion of the Left" to debate the media's coverage of
Congressman Condit.  Enough heat was generated to make it doubtful
Bernie will receive another invitation.

The two are political counterparts.  O'Reilly denies being a
conservative, and Bernie denies being a liberal.

I've summarized here the eight points of contention, together with my
evaluations.

1.  Bernie: There is no connection whatsoever between the affairs and
the disappearance.  O'Reilly: How do you know?  I'm not saying there
is a connection, you flat out said there wasn't, so we'll let the
audience decide who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't.

Bernie's position was so unreasonable that he later tacitly backed
away from it.  He did get in a good lick by firing O'Reilly a question
he couldn't quickly answer.  But O'Reilly hammered him several times,
and when he brought the issue into focus near the end, framing it to
highlight Bernie's unreasonableness, Bernie had no rebuttal.

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: O'Reilly

2.  Bernie: Speculation is not allowed in journalism.

Speculation can be part of legitimate journalism.  When columnists and
editorial writers conjecture about whether Politician X will throw his
hat into the ring, or what campaign strategy he might employ, or about
the possible consequences of abrogating the ABM treaty, that is
speculation, and they are practicing journalism.

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: Draw

3.  O'Reilly: When you have a cousin in the family who says 'I was
told by Chandra they had an affair,' you should report it.

O'Reilly's general point was correct.  A family member (Mrs. Levy's
sister-in-law, rather than her cousin) is indeed making this claim
(Bernie's apparent doubts notwithstanding), and this certainly should
be reported.  O'Reilly nailed his point well with, "I don't think she
[Mrs. Levy] is lying about this, DO YOU?"  Bernie didn't directly
answer.

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: O'Reilly

4.  Bernie: She's given you five stories that contradicted themselves.
How come, when you interview her, you don't attack her credibility on
those stories?

Bernie was implying that, in interviewing Mrs. Levy, professionalism
would dictate attacking her credibility because some details were
inaccurate.  O'Reilly countered that we'd expect confusion in a
distraught woman, and attacking her under these circumstances would be
simply inappropriate.  Bernie wound up looking almost cruelly
insensitive.

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: O'Reilly

5.  O'Reilly: In the beginning, Condit said, "Oh no, I'm not a
womanizer, I don't do this."  Now we've got SEVEN women who stepped up
and told the FBI that he had affairs.

Throughout the debate, O'Reilly's voice, facial expression and body
language projected more poise and self-assurance than Bernie's.  When
he came to this point, it was clear he knew he was nailing Bernie to
the wall.  The implications were obvious.  Womanizers are more likely
than otherwise faithful husbands to have affairs with interns.  And
men are more likely to harm women with whom they've had illicit
affairs than they are platonic friends.  So, whether there was a
causal connection or not, the affairs are highly relevant to the
disappearance.  Bernie had no counter.

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: O'Reilly

6.  Bernie: Condit is on the record as saying he broke the
relationship off with her, and she was trying to call him afterward.

Ironically, O'Reilly's own Fox Network reported the gist of Bernie's
claim.  However, Condit probably did not make this statement, and he
was certainly not "on the record" with it.

O'Reilly seemed unaware of the Fox report, just as Bernie seemed
unaware of the contrary report in a July 4 article in the respected
newspaper _The Hill_: "Fox News also reported last week that Condit
told police that he had ended his relationship with Levy two days
before her disappearance. But according to Mike Dayton, an aide in
Condit's Washington office, D.C.'s Executive Asst. Police Chief
Terrance Gainer phoned CNN's Bob Franken at home and told him the
information Fox was reporting was untrue."  Bernie was inaccurate, but
he knew more and it showed.

Who was right: Draw

Who performed better: Bernie

7.  O'Reilly: Condit never acknowledged he had anything with her other
than a friendship.

O'Reilly was absolutely correct, even though he seemed unaware of the
story Bernie was referencing.  Fox reported: "Condit refused to go
beyond calling his relationship with Chandra a close friendship."

Who was right: O'Reilly

Who performed better: Draw

8.  Bernie: You're not doing journalism on this show, Bill!  

There might not be a consensus as to whether The Factor is journalism,
but a reasonable case can be made that it is.  The program is largely
interview and debate.  Nothing about interview per se is incompatible
with television journalism.  And debate is essentially an exchange of
opinions, not qualitatively different from point-counterpoint opinion
columns.  On his own show, Bernie implied that The Factor is largely
rumor and innuendo, but I've watched several dozen and I haven't seen
it.

O'Reilly did little to defend his journalism, but his dismissive
attitude conveyed the impression that he shouldn't have to.  Rarely
have I seen a guest treat his broadcast host as discourteously as
Bernie did here, nor have I seen O'Reilly treat any guests in such a
manner.  Bernie's sense of civility has probably atrophied because he
and some other talk KGO hosts do treat callers this way.  O'Reilly is
aggressive within the bounds of civility, but such distinctions tend
to be invisible to adversaries.  I was left thinking Bernie was
hurling insults out of frustration for his lack of headway on the
issues, but I have no way of knowing whether this was his actual
motive.

It wasn't so much that O'Reilly performed well on this point, but
Bernie's performance was reprehensible.

Who was right: Draw

Who performed better: O'Reilly

                                    Totals

Who was right most:  O'Reilly 6-0

Who performed better overall:  O'Reilly 5-1

Even on paper, Bernie lost badly.  Radio would have been worse.  Both
voices are authoritative and compelling, but Bernie's unrelenting
quasi-shout seems shrill compared to O'Reilly's nuances.