This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," June 13, 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: As you may know, the state of Alaska released many of Sarah Palin's e-mails while she was governor. More than 13,000 became public last week. And more than 30 reporters descended on Juneau, the state capital, to try to dig something up. So far the media has come up with no embarrassing moments, nothing.

Joining us from now from Asheville, North Carolina, purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com, Mr. Goldberg. Look, let's -- let's no-spin this. This is a persecution against Sarah Palin, and I have had my -- you know that. I've had my little differences with the governor.

BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, sure.

O'REILLY: I don't let her spin on this program. I call her. But this 13,000 e-mails and 30 reporters go to Juneau, Alaska, not a cheap trip, all right. That's a hard place to get to.

GOLDBERG: Right.

O'REILLY: And why are they up there, Bernie? Why?

GOLDBERG: Yes, you're absolutely right about the persecution. But there's one other reason, I think. First of all, Sarah Palin is not -- she doesn't hold any public office, and she's not, as of today, running for any office. And it's likely that she won't be running for any office any time soon. So, as you rightly ask, why the interest? Of course they're trying to dig up dirt on her. That's why they're sending all these people up to Juneau. That's why some newspapers are asking the American public to go through the e-mails to see if they can find anything.

O'REILLY: That was so ridiculous. Don't you think they should be embarrassed, The New York Times and The Washington Post?

GOLDBERG: Absolutely. I'm going to give you -- I'm going to give you another reason they should be embarrassed. But here's the second reason, besides the one that you mentioned, and it's as simple as this. Sarah Palin is box office. She sells newspapers, and she gets ratings. And that's why the mainstream media can't get enough of her.

But here's why they should really be embarrassed. They don't have any respect for her. They think she is stupid. They bash her and her family. But -- but, it doesn't bother them to use her fame to make some money for themselves. In that respect, Bill, they are no better than that lowlife Levi Johnston, who was a fiance, a former fiance of Bristol Palin, who used his connections with the Palin family to tell stories and make some money. The respectable -- respectable -- mainstream media is no better, in this case, than Levi Johnston.

O'REILLY: You know, they used to try -- they being the left-wing media -- to disguise it. They used to try and say, "Well, we're not really left wing. No, no," you know, "we're blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." They never admit to it. I remember having a long conversation with Marvin Kalb, you know, my former professor at the Kennedy School at Harvard.

GOLDBERG: Right.

O'REILLY: And Marvin would never give you that. He'll never give you that. "No, no, no, no, no. They're not." Now this one you go -- you're looking through 13,000 emails for what? What exactly are you looking for, policy?

GOLDBERG: Bill...

O'REILLY: Are you looking to see if she was a brilliant policymaker? No. You're looking for a gaffe. You're looking for an embarrassment. So you send your guys up. Why don't they just admit it, Bernie? Why don't they just admit it?

GOLDBERG: I was going to say, Bill, even in this case they're not going to admit it.

O'REILLY: It's insane.

GOLDBERG: They will never. They will never. Do you know never? Never doesn't mean like maybe. They will never acknowledge their biases. As a matter of fact, during the last election, two liberal journalists who put out very important political news letters in Washington -- Cook and Rothenberg, Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook -- said of course the media has a liberal bias. Like what else is new? This is the only bias in our culture that we say what's the big deal? We wouldn't say it about racial bias. We wouldn't say it about bias against women. But media bias, they don't admit. And on the few occasions when a couple of honest journalists admit it, then they say you just have to learn to accept it. So don't expect them to ever come clean on this.

O'REILLY: Now, on Friday we did a report on how the nightly news, the three newscasts -- ABC, NBC and CBS -- were covering the Weiner situation. And by far CBS -- NBC, they covered it, you know, after he admitted doing what he did. But CBS, Scott Pelley, new anchorman there, they have covered it the least. And Tim Graham was saying well, you know, it's the old media bias thing. And I said you know what? I don't think so. I think the CBS News is now wants to go back to the days of Cronkite, and they just see this story as trashy and they're not going to do it.

GOLDBERG: Well, I can tell you that that's not a theory. That's an absolute fact. And I know this because I talk to people inside the CBS broadcast center, people at very high levels. And they say that that is -- that is the new policy, to go back to the golden days of CBS News. They'll worry about the ratings along the way. But their goal is to bring back the serious news glory days of CBS News. And that's why, in their view, these two stories just didn't make the cut.

O'REILLY: Yes, any tabloid stories, they're not going to cover. And let's hope Pelley is -- you know, Cronkite after he retired was unmasked as like a really uber-liberal guy.

GOLDBERG: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: So we don't want them to go back to that. But Cronkite, I think, in his (INAUDIBLE) days was fair. Would you agree with that?

GOLDBERG: During -- during his newscast he was fair. And I know -- I know a senior producer on the evening news in those days very, very well. And he said, "I never knew what Cronkite's politics were and I talked to him," as he put it, "I talked to him five times a day and I didn't know what his politics were."

O'REILLY: He's like a werewolf. You know, it's like he retired and then all of a sudden his fangs -- anyway. All right, Bernie, enjoy yourself in North Carolina. Beautiful country out there.

GOLDBERG: Thanks, Bill.

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