Is It All Over for the Liberal Press?

With the left taking power in Washington, you'd think the left-wing media would be prospering. But no, the stats are grim.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is nearly bankrupt. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, bankrupt. The Boston Globe is losing millions. The New York Times is in serious trouble. The paper just borrowed $250 million from a Mexican guy named Carlos Slim. And listen to this: Senor Slim is charging The Times 14 percent interest.

What, was Tony Soprano not available? Is the Corleone family no longer in Tahoe? Fourteen percent? That's loan shark territory. The prime lending rate is just over three percent in this country. You'd think Barney Frank would have loaned them the money.

Now on the TV front, the uber-liberal MSNBC network was ranked 22nd in primetime last week, right behind the Roller Derby Network, I believe. FOX News was second, a tremendous performance.

But why are we hammering far-left NBC News? Well, it may be because even liberals are aghast at their product.

While covering the handover of power from President Bush to President Obama, NBC was the only network to run a split screen of Bush-haters. What a classy thing to do, right NBC News?

And by the way, that network was totally wrong about Caroline Kennedy Wednesday night.

However, blatant bias doesn't begin to explain the problems the liberal media's having. So here's what "Talking Points" thinks is going on. Americans are worried and angry over the economic situation, when neither Mr. Bush nor Senator McCain brought any urgency to the debacle. The folks voted the Democrats in. That doesn't mean, ladies and gentlemen, that most Americans want radical change or a socialist economy. Most don't.

And the hate the far-left media traffics in has alienated many folks. I mean, the disrespect shown to President Bush is disgraceful, and most decent people know it.

The bottom line on the bottom line is this: Most American news consumers remain traditional folks who respect their country and don't appreciate hateful attacks on a president even if they disagree with the president's policy. The liberal media is destroying itself, allowing zealotry to obliterate fairness. That's what's in play here.

As Judge Reinhold said in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Read it, live it, learn it."

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

As you may know, we don't have much use for former French President Jacques Chirac, who buddied up with Saddam Hussein. Well, Chirac was recently rushed to the hospital after being mauled by — are you ready? — his pet poodle.

Apparently, the poodle, named Sumo, was depressed, and who wouldn't be living with Jacques? So the dog bit him hard. You are required to make the call on whether Sumo is a pinhead or patriot.

Same thing with model Marisa Miller, who lost part of her bathing suit while on location for Victoria's Secret. Not Marisa's fault. Really nothing is. The waves are pinheads.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com