Bill O'Reilly has lost his freaking mind

Crooks and Liars has the video of Keith Olbermann responding to the recent O'Lielly meltdown over supposed "Harrasment" by callers who merely mention Olbermann's name.

Windows Media - Quick Time

I haven't seen anything so flop over and belly laugh funny on TV since Olberman danced a jig after O'Reilly mentioned that he thinking of retiring in two years.

In response to a caller on his radio show who merely mentioned the words "Keith Olbermann", O'Reilly immediately hit the dump button (as if to hint that the person had made some threatening or obscene comment) and then proceeded to claim - "we have your phone numbers ... and you'll be receiving a visit from Fox Security."

[Update : Olbermann transcript is now available]

OLBERMANN: Bill O'Reilly is now threatening callers to his radio show, at least one of whom mentioned my name.

Our third story on the COUNTDOWN, oh, here we go. First it was the warnings to NBC chairman Robert Wright, then the phone calls to NBC president Jeff Zucker, then the petition to get me fired and Phil Donahue brought back, then the erroneous ratings information he gave out.

Even in that context, though, this is pretty special. Ted Baxter telling uncooperative listeners that he'll turn their phone numbers over to Fox security, and that Fox security will in turn contact the local authorities.

Bill thinks he has his own police.

A caller got through to O'Reilly's radio show yesterday. He insists he used no foul language, that all he did was mention my name, compliment my show, and asked, Why are you always smearing him, Bill? And the host, using the dump button all talk radio shows have on the seven-second delay, cut him off.

We're not certain what actually got on the air, but this was what was posted on O'Reilly's Web site as the air check for that part of the show.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, “THE RADIO FACTOR”)

O'REILLY: Orlando, Florida. Mike, go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (on phone): Hey, Bill, I appreciate your taking my call.

O'REILLY: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to listen to you during the day. I think Keith Olbermann's show...

O'REILLY: There you go, Mike is—he's a gone guy. You know, we have his—we have your phone numbers, by the way, so if you're listening, Mike, we have your phone number. And we're going to turn it over to Fox security, and you'll be getting a little visit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe Mike is from the mother ship.

O'REILLY: No, maybe Mike's going to get in big trouble, because we're not going to play around. When you call us, ladies and gentlemen, just so know, we do have your phone number. And if you say anything untoward, obscene, or anything like that, Fox security then will contact your local authorities, and you will be held accountable. Fair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's fair.

O'REILLY: So just—all you guys who do this kind of a thing, you know, I know some shock jocks, whatever—you will be held accountable. Believe it. We'll be right back.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

Rather than being the idol threat of a fever dream, it seems that Bill has done exactly that - twice.

Olbermann's guest during the segment is a prosecutor who points out that the person whose commited an act of "harrasment" here aren't the callers - it's O'Reilly himself.

SUSAN FILAN, FORMER CONNECTICUT STATE PROSECUTOR: Hi, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Having done calling—I've done call-in radio off and on since 1975. I thought I knew this thing pretty well. The caller can only get into trouble if he threatens a violent or illegal act, right?

FILAN: The only person that's going to get in trouble here is Bill O'Reilly. He's lost the plot entirely. To think that you can commandeer local law enforcement to be your personal henchman because you don't like something a caller said on the air is absolutely outrageous and absurd. It's an abuse of the media, it's an abuse of law enforcement, and he's now the one engaging in threatening behavior. You can't do that. He's crossed the line.

What did the caller say that's obscene, “Keith Olbermann”? I don't think so.

OLBERMANN: The people behind this and, as much as I'd like to claim I'm behind this, I'm not. I'm not as smart as Howard Stern is. But the people behind this say that one of their callers, Spinners, they call themselves, actually got calls today from somebody identifying himself as a former New York City policeman who is now director of FOX News security, who advised that organizer that if you call anyone to often in this circumstance, you can be charged with harassment.

Is that a scare tactic or is there anything to that particular claim, the idea of harassment?

FILAN: I think that's a scare tactic. Because what is too often? If one called and said every single day, “I love you, I love you” and he likes your message, is that too often? Is it only too often when he doesn't like what you're saying?

The harassment here is coming from Bill—Bill O'Reilly to that caller. The caller calling up and saying your name on the air, how is that harassment? It's a public radio show. He's inviting people to call in. That person has a First Amendment right to say your name on the air, and Bill O'Reilly doesn't have the First Amendment right to threaten a visit from law enforcement, as if this person has committed some kind of criminal behavior. Bill O'Reilly has crossed the line and lost the plot.

OLBERMANN: Well, he—he has a long history of trouble when it comes to phones, but that's another story entirely.

Let's just admit it right here - Falafel boy has lost his freaking marbles. Besides the fact that his hero Bush's poll numbers continue to circle the drain, it just might have something to do with the fact that Olbermanns ratings are on the Rise, while O'Reilly's are starting to tumble.

On Wednesday night, O'Reilly delivered 309,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic, while Olbermann had 231,000. Countdown had 75 percent of the Factor's demo numbers -- on third-place, also-ran, insert-your-cliche MSNBC. Paula Zahn had just 81,000 demo viewers.

Here's another example of Bully-boys increasing psychosis : During last weeks broadcasts of his television program Mr. "We're looking out for you" has not even mentioned the biggest Story on the Planet - the Bush/Katrina Video Tape. Instead he's been trying to whistle past the graveyard of the Bush Presidency with the story of another tape - the Colorado School teacher who was taped making "anti-Bush" statements.

Think about that a second - George Bush being proven wrong when he said "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levee's" is Not a story - but a teacher talking about things George Bush has said - accurately - Is a story. Huh?

This just shows that O'Reilly and reality have clearly gotten a divorce and his alimony checks have started to bounce.

On his program O'Reilly spoke with Jay Bennish's attorney and during the conversation he claimed that...

• 10th graders are only 12-13 years old.

• The kid must have taped the teacher because of his crazy rantings (as it turned out, on the very next show Hannity and Colmes where the student was a guests - he frequently tapes his classes as a way to take notes)

• The teacher must have been trying to "indoctrinate" his students into a particular mode of thought claimed O'Reilly while ignoring this section of the tape where Bennish said "In no way am I implying, I don't know, you got to figure this stuff out for yourself, but I want you to think about these things--you know, "

Imagine, a teacher asking his students to think? Where's Fox Security? Get that guy in a stress position. Quick before he tells the students about Bush's poll numbers or the fact that the Vice-President Popped a cap in some old dude's dome last month.

The Truthiness is getting a little to thick up there in Colorado.

Y'know if I was of a vicious bent - I would suggest that lots of people begin to listen in to O'Reilly's show call him up and say two words - "Keith Olbermann" then hang up.

After about 15 or 20 of these, the Fox Security guys will be overwhelmed and swamped - and maybe, just maybe - they'll stop listening to Bully O'Liely's chicken little act. Now, I'm not suggesting an organized campaign of "harrasment" of poor Mr. O'Reilly. No, that would be wrong. But I do think that it could be considered a form of reverse aversion therapy - like having a person with OCD face the source of their greatest fears in order build up their tolerance, and help bring there behaving back more towards - y'know sanity. It just might even be good for Bill in the long run.

I'm just saying...

[Update 2: After looking at Firedoglake, I came to the realization that my idol pondering about an organized effort call up O'Reilly isn't idol at all. The caller who was featured in the Olbermann peice is Mike Stark of callingallwingnuts.com. This was no boating accident... Mike's been doing this kind of thing, calling up wingbats and giving them conniption fits for some time now. It probably wouldn't be so much fun , if it wasn't so easy to push them over the edge of their fragile sanity.]

Vyan