Why Is NBC News Selling Commemorative Obama DVD?

This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 18, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: the media panic over the economy, Dan Rather vs. CBS in court, and NBC News selling President-elect Obama. Here now from Miami, FOX News analyst Bernie Goldberg.

All right. We'll knock them down one by one. I know the economy is the most important story for all Americans right now, and we have a brand-new network, the FOX Business Network, which is excellent, and people should try to get it if they don't have it. But I am concerned that there's a lot of hype, negative hype that's scaring people to death, and I think you can do it — you can report on the facts without scaring people.

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BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. On the hype factor, I'm with you. But look, psychologically, it's probably not a good thing to open your newspaper every morning or turn on the TV and hear constantly that this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But it is. And it isn't the media's job to worry about our psychological well-being. So, while we don't need hype, we don't want to shoot the messenger either.

O'REILLY: OK. But, you know, people make decisions based on emotion and based on what they hear in the media, and I've talked to a number of people and nobody knows how bad this is going to be…

GOLDBERG: Right.

O'REILLY: …or when we're going to pull out of it. Nobody knows. So I think that you have to report it, but you have to say to people just that, look, we don't know. So the best thing to do is stay calm, don't be afraid. I think that editorializing is beneficial to the country.

GOLDBERG: Not in news stories though.

O'REILLY: No?

GOLDBERG: Maybe the guy on the business channels can say that. I understand what you're saying. But, you're right that we don't know how bad it may get. But we know how bad it is right now.

O'REILLY: That's OK. If you're just reporting the facts, it's OK. But you know, look, turn on the radio every morning, and there are some good news economic stories like gas prices going down, like inflation nonexistent. Those are trumped, big time, by, you know, the negatives. So they're cherry-picking negatives. But I understand your point. We're not in business to be babysitters and hold hands. We've got to give information.

GOLDBERG: That's my only point.

O'REILLY: But I think it's being hyped. I do think it's being hyped.

Now, NBC News, talk about hype, which basically set up an Obama headquarters, as you and I discussed throughout the campaign, is now marketing a DVD, very favorable to Barack Obama, selling it for cash, for profit. So what do you think about that?

GOLDBERG: Well, the name of the DVD is "Yes, We Can: The Barack Obama Story." And MSNBC, you've heard of that, right? MSNBC?

O'REILLY: Vaguely.

GOLDBERG: MSNBC is running promos that say — I want to read these exact words: "Barack Obama, America's 44th president. Watch as a leader renews America's promise." This sounds like the Barack Obama campaign is putting this stuff out.

O'REILLY: But it is.

GOLDBERG: This is ridiculous.

O'REILLY: It is the Barack Obama campaign, because its headquarters in the media was at NBC News. We did a trace…

GOLDBERG: It was.

O'REILLY: We did a trace to see if they did it when Bush was elected in 2000. New hope in the president.

GOLDBERG: And?

O'REILLY: No.

GOLDBERG: Right.

O'REILLY: No.

GOLDBERG: And if John McCain had won, I guarantee you, guarantee you...

O'REILLY: New hope, John McCain, America's hero?

GOLDBERG: But if I could put it into a little perspective, it isn't just NBC and MSNBC. The large chunks of the mainstream media have been gushing over Barack Obama from the start, and this is just the continuation.

O'REILLY: This is the only national news agency, Bernie, NBC News, putting out a tribute — I think that's the right word — to Barack Obama for money, for cash. Then what do you think they're doing it?

GOLDBERG: Well, yes, but a lot of people are trying to cash in on Barack Obama phenomena.

O'REILLY: But should a news organization be doing that?

GOLDBERG: No, but Newsweek has put out a commemorative issue that had pictures and prose that Howie Kurtz said — at The Washington Post — said looked like could have been written by the Obama campaign people also.

O'REILLY: Well, I think we know where Newsweek is, too.

GOLDBERG: That's right.

O'REILLY: But I just want everybody to know the standards of journalism in this country are collapsing.

Finally, Dan Rather...

GOLDBERG: This year was the worst ever.

O'REILLY: Ever. Ever in the history of broadcasting in this country.

Dan Rather spending $2 million of his own money trying for payback against CBS, and the trial is going to start soon.

GOLDBERG: Well, the new point is that what he got for his $2 million is, through discovery, he found out that CBS went out of its way to find a Republican to put on the independent panel investing the Rather-gate documents. Now, this raises a question: So what? I mean, if CBS had put George Soros and Al Franken on the panel, conservatives wouldn't be happy with that, and rightly so. So they went out and they found a Republican. But who did they reject? Who did CBS reject that was on a list? They rejected Rush Limbaugh. They rejected Ann Coulter. They rejected Matt Drudge. They rejected Pat Buchanan, and they even rejected your boss, Roger Ailes. And who did they pick? A former attorney general of the United States who's a moderate, maybe even a liberal Republican. And this is a smoking gun that CBS was tilting the investigation, you know...

O'REILLY: Against Rather.

GOLDBERG: ...in a Republican direction to get Dan Rather?

O'REILLY: I thought it was — I thought it was ridiculous, too. The New York Times...

GOLDBERG: It is ridiculous.

O'REILLY: I've got 30 seconds. Dan Rather going to win this lawsuit? Prediction?

GOLDBERG: Well, you know what? If it goes to trial, I think that Dan Rather is so damn charming, and I mean that. That's not a shot. I mean...

O'REILLY: He's got a shot.

GOLDBERG: He's so charming...

O'REILLY: Right.

GOLDBERG: ...that he'll sit in a Manhattan courtroom with a bunch of people who hate big business, he could win this thing.

O'REILLY: All right, Bernie. Thanks very much.

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