Yeah what an asshole that Charlie Rose is

Exactly what went through my head.

"well im an American!"

Just as he thought he was safe, Bill O'Reilly is shot to death by FEMA Death Panels.

His show is taken over by his annoying son.

In his Daily Show interviews Bill-o actually comes off as a relatively sane and reasonable human being. Massive ego, sure, but definitely cognizant of his rhetorical devices and the way he employs them. Seriously, there's no doubt; he knows that he's a polemicist for an ideological cause and he's cool with that. (Just don't mention the 'ideologue' buzzword around him or else he'll flip the fuck out.)

Cut to Glenn Beck who is just fucking insane and honestly thinks that Soros is going to "accident" him.

They're just from two completely different schools of telejournalism / right-wing edutainment. It'd be brilliant if Papa Bear suddenly ripped the shit out of Beck, but I dunno. I doubt Bill-O even imagines that Beck is worth the effort.

I would, and I say this with no sense of irony or sarcasm, I would LICK BILL O'REILLY'S SWEET, PUCKERED ASS if he did this. The ensuing malfunction in the pitiful reasoning abilities of their shared chosen audience would be well worth it.

"Sweet"?

Nothing on TV is real, least of all not Glenn Beck.

http://tinyurl.com/yfj3t4g

He's fucked up, sure, but I highly doubt he's crazy.

As for the requests for BOR to play Colmes to Beck's Hannity, that is exactly what they are doing here. So they're having their cake and eating it too: real America, don't you just hate soccer? But, you know, in a funny tongue-in-cheek sort of way. This was entertaining but it wasn't honest or anything, and BOR certainly wasn't taking Beck to task for his conspiracy-mongering.

pastorofmuppets: Yeah, no, I get all of that. They're both on the same side, filthy land of TV lies, I'm just a rodeo clown, etc. etc. There is a real difference in rhetoric between the two though: Beck may not be actually insane, but he plays an insane dude on TV. Bill-o is an old school commentator. We're just happily imagining the day when the two might turn on each other, is all. Will that ever happen? Probably not. At most - like you said - we'll get a pseudo-Colmes and Hannity thing going on. BUT LET US DREAM, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.

I dream they become good friends, and die in a fiery crash after a night of drinking.

I'm remembering the Bill O-Al Franken tiff, and, no, Bill O is irredeemable and filled with bile. He just comes across as someone with more experience managing his image on tv than Beck.

That said, this was the laziest devil's advocate Bill has "played" to Beck yet. You can tell his heart's not in it. He wanted to talk about BP that day, but the producers had other ideas, so Bill phoned it in. Poor Beck had to carry him in the exchange, I thought, and as a result came off way too hard to seem genuine.

I will say this: it's far more entertaining to see joking about fake outrage than actually sell it.

*see them