Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham piled on defending the network that employs them on Wednesday night after GOP candidate Rick Santorum accused the news network of "shilling" for fellow candidate Mitt Romney.
Santorum made the comments on host Brian Kilmeade's radio show on Tuesday. Kilmeade defended the network, as did host Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday when she confronted Santorum about his comments. Santorum backtracked and said he was referring to the news programs on the network, not hosts like Van Susteren or Sean Hannity.
O'Reilly and Ingraham weighed in on the matter, criticizing Santorum for making such a claim. O'Reilly said, "We believe we've been fair to Rick Santorum here on 'The Factor.' Certainly Sean Hannity likes him. For a while there some folks actually thought he was co-anchoring with Greta Van Susteren, he was on there so much."
O'Reilly pointed out that Santorum had visited "The Factor" a total of four times, which was more than Romney and less than GOP candidate Newt Gingrich. "We don't put candidates on this program unless there's a reason...a controversy...something they've said or done," O'Reilly pressed.
Ingraham agreed with O'Reilly's sentiment and criticized Santorum for complaining about media coverage. "You tend to look a little bit whiney," she said of Santorum's attack. O'Reilly acknowledged that Santorum was complaining about who he called the hard news anchors on the network who reported that Romney was leading the Republican primary race, a fact Santorum, he said, was frustrated about.
"Well, we all can get frustrated," Ingraham said cooly.
(H/TMediaite)
Related
Before You Go
