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Friendly fire? Dave vs. Bill II


He's a big target. Did Dave lay a glove on him?


By ED BARK
Boy, it's always something. Clinton vs. Wallace, Limbaugh vs. Fox. T.O. vs. the world. And for our featured Friday night fight, Round 2 of Letterman vs. O'Reilly on CBS' Late Show.

They first tangled in January, with David Letterman winning on points. In the end he landed a jarring left hook by telling Bill O'Reilly, "I have the feeling that 60 percent of what you say is crap."

The guest came better-armed this time, with a toy sword and shield and a willingness to play even after Letterman, as advertised, called him a "bonehead." The host pounced after O'Reilly said that Americans are depressed about the war in Iraq and would rather watch Bowling for Dollars or Dancing with the Stars. Then he asked Letterman whether he'd go on the latter show. Ergo, "You bonehead."

O'Reilly took it magnanimously, telling Letterman, "I teed you right up for that." He also kept saying that any animosity between them is "all an act." The two in reality are "buddies" who roll together in the same bowling league, O'Reilly said.

It's doubtful they're really pals. But one wonders whether all that parrying and thrusting is entirely on the level. Fans of the old Letterman show on NBC will recall the constant grousing of guest Charles Grodin. Many viewers didn't deduce that it was only a bit. For all they knew, Grodin really did see Letterman as just another in a long assembly line of detestable, phony talk show hosts.

O'Reilly, like Grodin, was promoting something. His latest bestseller is Culture Warrior, which Letterman brandished and later dismissed as a book about sailing or something. Nor has he ever seen The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel, which he supposedly can't find on his TV.

Letterman was spoiling for a fight -- or at least a play-fight -- all night. After a sub-cursory handshake he came out swinging. People such as O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh "know it's all just a goof, right?" the host sort of asked. "You're just horsin' around. Am I right about that? You're doin' it because you know it'll be entertaining."

O'Reilly kept his calm, flaring up only briefly during the interview, but at the studio audience. "Knock it off" he snapped during give-and-take with Letterman on whether Iraq had become a "more heinous, dangerous situation" after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. O'Reilly opined that it's "pretty much a tie," but some in the audience apparently didn't get his sarcasm. Frankly though, it was hard to tell exactly what set O'Reilly off.

Letterman had some churlish moments as well. He kept interrupting his guest's attempted responses to sometimes rhetorical questions.

"Do you want me to answer?" O'Reilly asked at one point.

"I don't care," said Letterman, who even upbraided him for taking a sip from whatever is in the guest's official Late Show mug.

Near interview's end, O'Reilly said it's not a "black and white" issue in Iraq. Nor is it fair to brand the U.S. a bad country or President Bush an "evil liar."

"I did not say he was an evil liar," Letterman shot back. "You're putting words in my mouth, just the way you put artificial facts in your head."

O'Reilly let that one slide, too, again telling viewers that this is just a "big act" between two friends.

Letterman brought down the curtain with a jab at both of them: "I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I don't think you do either."

From this referee's perspective, O'Reilly narrowly won their rematch by letting a sometimes childish Letterman have his way. In the bargain, O'Reilly no doubt sold a few more books and Letterman got at least a one-night ratings fix. He needs O'Reilly more than O'Reilly needs him. Factor that in while watching an extended segment from their interview here.