On Countdown Last Night I Asked: Did Fox Help Obama in Airing Jackson Tape?

Had some fun with Rachel Maddow last night, subbing for Olbermann, on Fox "going nuts" and airing that Jesse Jackson tape. Why did they do it? Why did they hold it for O'Reilly instead of treating as hot news?

Why, after much teasing, did O'Reilly not play any more of it last night? Did this deny much-needed context and just prove they have tried to make Jackson look even worse by insinuation? Or was there an internal debate over what mattered most: What if they hurt Jackson but helped Obama?

Why did O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham agree that the tape does help Obama? Is this even true?

All this and more as follows in video below.

Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of E&P. [e-mail]

Comments

[lennix]

mr. mitchell thanks for the truth ever time and show us how stupid these people are and the sad thing about it is they get paid for talking about nuts like this is the first time they heard it please mr.mitchell keep us up on the true info about these cable and msm nuts please lol

[Thorn]

and please mr mitchell lobby congress to eliminate all punctuation forever

[freecasey]

Kinda goes to show just how bright these people are. O'Reilly and Limbaugh can't seem to think these tactics through to their fruition because they are in touch only with their groupies and not reality. Let them have their Beavis and Butthead moments ... "he, he, he, he said nuts ... he, he." Thanks to 8 years of Bush, many Americans have grown up a little bit politically. They are pretty pragmatic, don't have time for childish pranks and see through bulls%*t.

Like Limbaugh ordering his troops to attend the DNC open houses. Who needs Operation CounterChaos? They do all the work for us.

[lady49]

While I agree with you that FOX news is driven by senationalism and do their reporting sleazier than the worst sleaze magazines, this thing about Jesse Jackson is a non-issue. Rev. Jackson knew when he agreed to do the interview, that Bilbo was going to try to set him up.

More people should pay attention to your book. Hopefully Racheal will have you back to talk about it.

[96Bravo]

Yeah, I saw that. The thing about O'Reilly is...maybe they have more Jackson info, maybe the don't...he's the kind of guy who'll lie just to win an argument.

But yeah, Fox probably helped Obama more than hurt him...this time.

[Thorn]

Isn't the only point of this to say, "Hey! Look at me! I was on "Countdown" last night"?

[surfcitysteven]

You plan on doing your masters bidding and infiltrate the democrats platform meetings, little rushbo dittominion? HAHAHAHA.

[Thorn]

Without knowing the very first thing about me, you declare that I regard Limbaugh as my "master"? Nice. That's not creepy at all. (Also, check out apostrophes. People who write in English are fond of them.)

[BassMent]

Bingo.