O’Reilly, Will in vitriolic ‘dispute’ over Reagan
Colbert lands post-Super Bowl slot
NEW YORK, Nov 12, (Agencies): Bill O’Reilly and George Will have escalated their extraordinary feud this week, a dispute that encompasses the leading cable television news outlet, a publishing empire and the legacy of the conservative movement’s most revered politician.
Will’s most recent column in The Washington Post, headlined “Bill O’Reilly makes a mess of history,” followed up their onscreen confrontation last Friday on O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show. O’Reilly responded by saying Will is jealous of his success.
“You know what, George?” O’Reilly said Tuesday night. “I’m bored with it. I’m bored with it!”
There has been no immediate comment from Fox News Channel executives either taking sides in the dispute or whether there would be any disciplinary action against Will, a network commentator, going on O’Reilly’s show and essentially calling its host a liar.
The argument is centered on the book, “Killing Reagan,” by O’Reilly and coauthor Martin Dugard, about the aftermath of the 1981 assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan. It’s one of a series of books, including “Killing Kennedy” and “Killing Lincoln,” that have made O’Reilly the country’s best-selling historian by far. The books usually sell 1 million copies or more in hardcover, a rare achievement these days for nonfiction.
Will has joined with several former Reagan administration officials in objecting to the book’s characterization of the former president as occasionally mentally incapable to serve, a decline accelerated by the assassination attempt. Reagan, who served as president from 1981-89, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994 and died at age 93 in 2004.
“Killing Reagan” relies in part on a memo written in 1987 by former White House aide James M. Cannon to White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, based on interviews with other White House personnel. The memo quotes concerns expressed about the president’s mental capacity and suggests the possibility that relieving the president of his duties might be in order.
But former Reagan aides, including Edwin Meese, have said that Cannon later recanted those concerns when he and Baker became convinced Reagan was fully capable of handling the job. Baker and Cannon are now dead.
Meese, a former attorney general, and John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, wrote in a column for Real Clear Politics last month that O’Reilly’s book “does a real disservice to our 40th president and to history itself.”
That cause was taken up by Will, who wrote that O’Reilly had slandered Reagan, and led to the on-air tussle last Friday.
Will said O’Reilly was “something of an expert” on misleading people, and suggested that the book plays into liberal attempts to discredit Reagan. He said he was surprised O’Reilly relied so heavily on a memo and neglected to interview surviving Reagan aides who would have disputed its contents. One would be Wills’ wife, who worked on the communications staff in the Reagan White House.
Stephen Colbert has landed the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot on CBS this winter.
The network said Wednesday that a special edition of Colbert’s “Late Show” will air directly after the Feb 7 game, the first time that distinction has gone to a late-night show. Late local news will follow Colbert, and then CBS will show a special edition of James Corden’s “Late Late Show” afterward.
The post-Super Bowl slot annually is the most desired in television, since it follows a telecast watched by more than 100 million viewers. If just one-fifth of the people watching the game keep the TV on CBS afterward, it will easily be the largest audience Colbert has faced.
CMT’s sixth annual “Artists of the Year” special will honor Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Little Big Town and Sam Hunt, the network announced Wednesday.
Airing live on Dec 2 at 8:00 pm from Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the 90-minute special on CMT — Viacom’s country music and entertainment cable net — will feature musical performances, tributes and toasts to the biggest stars in music, television and film.
Among the five country honorees this year, Shelton, Hunt and Little Big Town are being recognized for the first time. Bryan and Florida Georgia Line are returning “CMT Artists of the Year,” being celebrated again for their achievements from the past year.
Nathaniel Marston, star of TV soap opera “One Life to Live,” died on Wednesday following an Oct 30 car crash that had left him paralyzed. He was 40.
His mother, Elizabeth, news on Facebook.
“Dear family and friends, it is with a heavy heart that I share this devastating news,” she wrote. “My beloved and cherished son, Nathaniel Marston, who was putting up the good fight until last night was not able to continue due to the traumatic and devastating nature of his injuries. Nathaniel passed away peacefully as I held him in my arms.”
Marston had been in critical condition after the serious crash in Reno, Nevada, in which he suffered a broken neck and back.
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