The Truth

The big Las Vegas welcome, as Wayne Newton would say, to all our new viewers in  Nevada, where the Fox News channel is being carried on Cox Cable.  I know many of you Nevadans tried very hard to get us on out there.  And we appreciate it very much.

Talking Points memo this evening is about truth.  It's no secret that we are not shy about promoting ourselves on The Factor.  We tell you what's going on.  And some people don't  like that.

But here's why we do it.  This morning I read scores of articles about the Red Cross finally doing the right thing in giving all the money in its Liberty Fund to the people directly affected by Sept. 11.  Not one of those reports mentioned that The Factor and the Fox News Channel took the lead in reporting the story, despite the fact that we made our transcripts available to the wire services and the big newspapers.  And those transcripts proved that we were first and we were right.

Now you who watch The Factor know what's going on, but millions of Americans don't.  We would like to reach those Americans.  That's why we have to blow our own horn.  I got tons of calls today, including one from the actress Goldie Hawn, congratulating The Factor for getting the money shifted.  Howard Stern was particularly gracious.  And he himself helped in the effort by supporting me on his radio program.

But the elite media was not supportive.  In fact, Howard Rosenberg of The Los Angeles Times "US" magazine, the E-Network and Entertainment Tonight continue to make snide references  that the only reason I even reported the story was to promote my book.

That, of course, is incredibly insulting.  But, hey, that's the elite media, often assigning a negative motive for a positive development.

The labeling continues as well.  Newsweek magazine calls me a conservative talking head, and simply printed George Clooney's accusations about me, without asking me to reply.  US magazine calls me a contentious commentator.  Those labels, of course, are intended to diminish what's being said here.  There were no pejorative labels put on George Clooney, even though he is dead wrong.

By the way, the last we heard from the Clooney camp, his flak Stan Rosenfield was telling The L.A. Times, "All O'Reilly had to do was get the facts, instead of making  irresponsible innuendos."

Well, here's a bulletin to The L.A. Times and to Mr. Rosenfield: We had the facts from the very beginning.  And the outcome has been positive with hundreds of millions of dollars now going to the families.

Talking Points wants to make this perfectly clear.  Mr. Rosenfield, George Clooney, and many people owe The Factor and the Fox News Channel a major apology.  And that includes all the sleazy media outlets who took snide shots at us.  But trust me, I will be holding my breath,  waiting for those apologies to come.  For some people, there's no such thing as the truth.  And that's the "memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Al  Sharpton told some supporters in North Carolina that he was leaning toward running for president in 2004. That's it.  That's the "Most Ridiculous Item."

— You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET.  And send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com