O'Reilly vs Rachel Maddow = No Contest

Bill O'Reilly thought / probably still thinks that he's in a league with Rachel Maddow and is capable of sparring with her. O'Reilly is a minor league player, who has bigger cable ratings, because he follows the FOX News formula of playing to the fears, prejudices and hates of the American fringe.

Ms Maddow, on her show last week, pointed out Fox News' role in promoting and distorting the Shirley Sherrod story. Fox News, observed Ms. Maddow, is different from other news organizations. "Just like the ACORN controversy, Fox knows they have a role in this dance. That's not new; that's not actually even interesting about this scandal. Fox does what Fox does."

That lightweight Bill O'Reilly, who used to write boring soft porn novels, thought he could put Ms. Maddow down by pointing out that his Fox News show, and other shows on the Fox News channel get higher ratings than Ms Maddow show, and the other shows on MSNBC. To Mr. O'Reilly, it must be all about the ratings and not about journalism, or honesty and truthfulness. He said to Ms. Maddow, that his program, "kick(s) your network's butt every single night, madam. And you have to be kidding me with this 'fake ACORN scandal' stuff? Unbelievable. Do you live in this country?"

Ms Maddow wiped the floor with the pompous airhead, with her response. "Because when you got all 'kicked your network's butt' and 'madam' on me, you really weren't trying to tout your network's ratings. You were trying to take the attention off me saying that your network, Fox News, continually crusades on flagrantly bogus stories designed to make white Americans fear black Americans -- which Fox News most certainly does for a political purpose, even if it upends the lives of individuals like Shirley Sherrod, even as it frays the fabric of the nation, and even as it makes the American dream more of a dream and less of a promise." See the video.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy