This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 21, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Weekdays With Bernie" segment tonight: the far-left media in a conundrum. Doesn't like the Libyan action, as you heard, but their guy, President Obama, has ordered it. What a dilemma.
With us now to analyze, the purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com, Mr. Goldberg. Now, just incase the folks don't know our discussion, there are three major liberal voices that we follow. The New York Times, The Washington Post and MSNBC.
BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You said major?
O'REILLY: Well, MSNBC is affiliated with NBC News.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: And there's a lot of bleed-over there, OK? MSNBC on its own is not much. But NBC News contributes to that. In fact, we have a sound-bite in a moment that will prove that.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: But those people are all now in a tough spot. It's their guy doing this, but they don't like it.
GOLDBERG: Liberals generally don't like -- they don't feel comfortable with the use of American force unless it's to feed, you know, poor children, you know, something like that. But I think what they'll do is they'll say, unlike Bush -- they have to say that part -- unlike Bush, he got an international coalition. Unlike Bush, he got the United Nations behind him. He got France behind him. He got the Arab League behind him. By the way, if the Arab League was so much in favor of this, they have enough jet planes in their various armies, they could have done this on their own. But the point is, to answer your question, liberals may not like it, but they will support him. And they will support him because he went about it the way liberals can live with it.
O'REILLY: And Bernie is an oracle. Here is Andrea Mitchell, NBC News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: The problem the president has in projecting American values is that he first of all believes in a multilateralist policy. Now, on that score he has really accomplished that. This was pretty remarkable bringing the coalition together and getting the Arab League.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Remarkable.
GOLDBERG: Am I a genius or what?
O'REILLY: I just said oracle. Do you want genius, too?
GOLDBERG: No, oracle is fine.
O'REILLY: So that's the spin. That's how it's going to be spin. As Kucinich said -- and I'll get to him in a minute -- unlike President Bush, and I thank Karl Rove again for correcting me on that, he didn't go to Congress to consult with them about this, Barack Obama. He just went to the U.N., basically, and once they said OK, he did it.
GOLDBERG: Yes. There are going to be some liberals who are against this because Barack Obama isn't liberal enough for them. Ralph Nader is in that category.
O'REILLY: Michael Moore.
GOLDBERG: Michael Moore, right. Because they -- as I said, they don't feel comfortable with the use of American force. Not only do they detest the Pentagon, not only is Ralph Nader part of an anti-war group, which is fine, but he is, but Barack Obama isn't their kind of liberal.
O'REILLY: All right. But you say that the standard liberal people, not the far-left liberal people.
GOLDBERG: Right, right.
O'REILLY: Interesting what the Daily Kos, but they'll probably all coalesce behind him, I can imagine. I would think.
GOLDBERG: Yes. You're not going to get an editorial in The New York Times that says Barack Obama is behaving like George W. Bush would have behaved in this. He should have gone to Congress. He should have got some kind of resolution. He's a cowboy, but he's from Hawaii and not -- it isn't going to happen. It isn't going to happen. This is their -- in the bigger sense, this is their candidate. This is the guy that they fell in love with and corrupted themselves in supporting him during the campaign. They have too much invested in him.
O'REILLY: Can't bail on him now.
GOLDBERG: And they're not going to bail on him now.
O'REILLY: Not over Libya, by the way.
GOLDBERG: Not when they have a reason, a way to support him.
O'REILLY: Now the right wing doesn't like it either.
GOLDBERG: That's right.
O'REILLY: OK, for a variety of reasons. You know, no end game, this, that and the other. Now, do you support the action, by the way?
GOLDBERG: You did a poll last week that was -- while it was unscientific -- came out at 50-50.
O'REILLY: Fifty-one, 49, that's the final.
GOLDBERG: I think that was very telling.
O'REILLY: Yes.
GOLDBERG: I think that was very -- I went back and forth, and in the end I said, "I don't feel comfortable with this."
O'REILLY: I do for the terrorism aspect.
GOLDBERG: But it's a very close call.
O'REILLY: Right. I don't think you can let a guy bomb the Pan Am. You can't let him go.
GOLDBERG: They should have gone after him years ago for that.
O'REILLY: I know. Now you've got him. Now you've got them because there's an opposition to him. The world wants him out of there, so get him now.
GOLDBERG: What about the question of hypocrisy, which is really a big deal with me here? Liberals who do support him talk about the humanitarian reasons. They didn't care about the humanitarian reasons when it came to the Kurds or the Iraqi people…
O'REILLY: In Iraq, right.
GOLDBERG: …that Saddam Hussein was slaughtering and this hypocrisy on the right, as well. They make a great big deal out of this NCAA brackets business, as if the president can't take 15 minutes out to do that.
O'REILLY: That's just Obama bashing, pure and simple.
GOLDBERG: But conservative -- exactly. That's my point. But conservative -- if George W. Bush had done the brackets, the talk show hosts on television and radio would have said, "What's the big deal?"
O'REILLY: But there's an industry of Obama bashers.
GOLDBERG: There is. We have rigid ideology masquerading as thoughtful, honest commentary, and I'm getting sick of it.
O'REILLY: Most -- all right, most people, though, as you saw in the CNN poll, they're not in that ideological category, and they agree with me. Time is up for this guy. And if we can contribute, we have a right to because he killed Americans.
Real quick. And we only have 45 seconds. Word on the street here in Manhattan, Katie Couric is out at CBS. Do you think that's going to happen?
GOLDBERG: Do I think that's going to happen?
O'REILLY: Yes, that's all. Do you think it's going to happen?
GOLDBERG: I'm not going to equivocate, Bill. I am not going to suggest.
O'REILLY: We know what your oracle skills are.
GOLDBERG: I want you to save this tape, and I'd like you to play it to show what an oracle I really am.
O'REILLY: OK.
GOLDBERG: She's gone. When they hired her five years ago and paid her $15 million a year, they did it for only one reason, only one reason: to get the ratings up. She lost three million viewers in those five years. I say this without fear of being wrong: As the anchorwoman of the "CBS Evening News," when her contract is up, she is out.
O'REILLY: That's next fall. Anybody going to take her place that you know of? Did they call you?
GOLDBERG: We'll be back on that at some other point.
O'REILLY: They didn't call you yet, though, right? I submitted your name. You used to work there and know the hallways, know the cafeteria.
GOLDBERG: They did, but I said my loyalty is to Bill.
O'REILLY: All right. Bernie Goldberg, everybody, stand-up guy.
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