As some of you are aware, my colleague Bill O'Reilly (search) recently agreed to be interviewed by National Public Radio (search)'s Terry Gross, ostensibly to talk about Bill's new book. Instead, Ms. Gross immediately began hammering Bill over past disputes he'd had with comedian Al Franken and other critics. The tone of her questioning was so accusatory that Bill finally walked off the set.
What made it worse was that Al Franken had appeared on the same show in a friendly interview in which Ms. Gross spoke glowingly about Mr. Franken's new book. Now NPR's own official ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, has reviewed both interviews and concludes: "by coming across as a pro-Franken partisan rather than a neutral and curious journalist, Gross did almost nothing that might have allowed the interview to develop."
Mr. Dvorkin goes on to say that the O'Reilly interview, "only served to confirm the belief, held by some, of NPR's liberal media bias." It was, said Mr. Dvorkin, "in the end, unfair to O'Reilly." So far, there's been no response from Ms. Gross. As for Bill, you can hear what he has to say every night, right here on FNC.
That's the Asman Observer.
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