This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 23, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "At Your Beck and Call" segment tonight: Our pal Glenn Beck has had a busy week. Not only is he doing his program, but he's also minding a dog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": Here's the press. Right on. See, look, even says "Press."
(IMITATES DOG BARKING)
Really scary, huh? She's, like, shivering. She's so afraid. This is our press now. Wouldn't it be really better to have, like, a really scary watchdog, you know? They have dared to hint, the attackers of this channel, consistently, consistently during the news broadcasts, they say you've got to present both sides. Really? Well, I think we do here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right. Now, did you feed that dog, Beck? Joining us now...
BECK: Oh, no. Forgot. That's — we call her Gray Lady.
O'REILLY: All right, let me introduce you. That was my mistake. Joining us from New York, the Beckmeister, the author of two big best-sellers "Common Sense" and "Arguing with Idiots."
Well, I'm glad you fed the dog, and I hope the dog is happy.
BECK: We have her at the control board now.
O'REILLY: That's right. Has a union card. Excellent. You are putting the nation to work.
BECK: Yes.
O'REILLY: Creating or saving jobs. Were you surprised that the media rose up to defend Fox News?
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BECK: I was. Actually, I found out last night, and I was thrilled. I think it's a great first step. It's the first step I've seen in people standing up and doing the right thing, and I — I applaud the journalists. Of course, they probably wouldn't like that, so maybe I should say, "I don't think they did — I think they did too much." They did too much.
O'REILLY: You know, it's interesting, because I don't think there's any love lost between the networks and us. But I do believe that there is a principle to be upheld here and that is you can't have the most powerful people in the country, the Obama administration, basically dictating who covers the news.
BECK: Yes, but Bill — Bill, when — when did anybody in television or journalism or Washington look to principles? I mean, when — when was the last time that actually happened?
O'REILLY: But isn't this critical mass? You know, look, that's true. The standards of journalism — and I'm here in Boston, as I mentioned...
BECK: Right.
O'REILLY: ...to do a thing for Boston University, the journalism department there.
BECK: They let you on university campuses?
O'REILLY: What?
BECK: They let you on campuses?
O'REILLY: They invited me. They actually — they courted me to come. You know, it's amazing. At Boston U…
BECK: This is not — this is a parallel universe, America. This is not the universe that I thought I was in. Bill O'Reilly is on campus, and journalism, people standing up for Fox.
O'REILLY: For Fox News, it's been quite a week. But critical mass has reached — critical mass has reached with — with the power. The power is what this is all about. Now — now, President Obama is trying to exercise his power to intimidate, and I think that even the most left-wing journalists understand, "Hey, we can't have this in America if we want to have a free press," and that's what this is about.
BECK: Yes, I don't think the most left-wing do, but the mainstream journalist does.
O'REILLY: There was some — this guy from The Baltimore Sun is a real far-left guy.
All right. Now, you know, I used to watch you on the Headline News over at CNN when you were on that program.
BECK: You did not. You don't even know where Fox is located on the dial.
O'REILLY: Ninety-six, and I used to cruise by once in a while. There were you and Jane Velez-Mitchell. I don't know what you were doing over there. Once in a while, Barney the dinosaur was on.
BECK: OK.
O'REILLY: OK. But you did OK over there. You did all right. Your numbers were OK.
BECK: Yes, they were.
O'REILLY: But now, you come to FOX, and now you're the big gun in the afternoon. Big ratings, beating some of the prime-time, killing the competition. There's nobody on CNN or MSNBC or CNBC or even Headline that comes close to you. You wiped them all out. So what happened from Headline News and Jane Velez-Mitchell to now?
BECK: I think it's my proximity to the master, Bill O'Reilly.
O'REILLY: It could be. It's a good point.
BECK: I mean that sincerely. No, I think, Bill, we're on a — you know, we're — we're the only group of people that are telling the truth, at least the truth as we understand it. We're the only ones that the American people don't sit back and go, "Do they think we believe that?" I mean, we're the only ones that are — are, at least, I think, trying to be unafraid and — and tell the news as we — as we see it and as we understand it.
O'REILLY: When Barack Obama was elected last November, did you say on election evening, "Boy, oh, boy, this country is in trouble"?
BECK: Yes, I did.
O'REILLY: So you knew...
BECK: I knew in 2004 that the country was in trouble when I saw Michael Moore sitting in the...
O'REILLY: With Jimmy Carter.
BECK: ...box with President Carter and the fact that George W. Bush was selling prescription drugs — I mean — I mean, creating the prescription drug — it's not like he wants a prescription drug — creating the Medicare drug package...
O'REILLY: Right.
BECK: ...and then not enforcing the border. When all of that started to happen, I looked and I realized, the Republicans are not telling us the truth. They're — they're beholden to someone else. And I know who the left is now. I know who has hijacked the Democratic Party. And I knew we were in big, big trouble.
O'REILLY: OK. Now yesterday, Neil Cavuto and I shot it out over executive compensation. The government is saying that if we give you TARP money, bailout money, you're not going to pay people $20 million with taxpayer money. I support that. If you have to go on the dole as an American corporation, the feds have a perfect right to dictate what you pay. Now, where do you stand on it?
BECK: You take — you take any government money, they have a right to tell you, I guess, what — exactly how you run your company. That's why you shouldn't take the money...
O'REILLY: That's right.
BECK: ...in the first place. I think it's a good stick. You're holding out the carrot. Here's a stick.
O'REILLY: So what — are you saying that Cavuto is terribly misguided?
BECK: I think — I think what you heard there, Bill, was that Neil Cavuto is just a bad man. No, I think he's — I think he's wrong on this one, but I haven't heard his reasoning on this one.
O'REILLY: On the surface, I would disagree. The reasoning is a slippery slope. If this starts, the government will start to dictate other companies.
BECK: That's already happened. That's already happening.
O'REILLY: They can't constitutionally do it. They can't say what Glenn Beck makes with Bill O'Reilly.
BECK: They can't constitutionally tell you either that you can give health care to people. That's not in the Constitution.
O'REILLY: That's an interesting debate. Somebody would challenge that. But you know what I'm very frightened about? That you and I are actually agreeing on executive compensation and TARP companies. You and I are actually agreeing.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: That's all I'm doing.
O'REILLY: OK. All right. Well, look. You made a lot of good points, basically saying that I am the driving force behind your success.
BECK: I think that's what America heard.
O'REILLY: Glenn Beck, everybody. Give him a big hand.
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