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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON NOV 05, 2001 21:24:19 ET XXXXX

CABLE NEWS KNOCKDOWN: O'REILLY GRABS CROWN FROM KING

FOX NEWS CHANNEL presenter Bill O'Reilly has grabbed the crown from CNN's King in the cable news wars!

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In Friday NielsenTV National People Meter runs O'REILLY takes a 2.4 rating with an estimated 1,794,000 viewers; CNN's LARRY KING LIVE fades with a 1.5/1,269,000.

Only in recent days has O'REILLY decisively sprinted past KING in a competition that has turned uglier by the season.

"I don't understand the appeal [of O'REILLY], never underestimate the stupidity of the American public, I guess is the old adage" blasted a senior CNN executive who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT only on condition that he would not be named. "We have faith that a quality, informative program will stand the test of time, not faux populism by a ranting millionaire."

"Larry King is old, looks old, talks old, pulls in old demographics," giggled a FOX producer on Monday with direct ties to cable's new chief authority. "I think we've turned a corner, and we're not going back!"

FOX NEWS executives have watched O'REILLY blossom over the past year. Six months ago the Harvard post-grad starting seriously spooking The House that Ted Built. After the September 11 terror attacks O'REILLY began catching and surpassing several times a week.

By any measure over the last week the worm turned for CNN and its claim to be the home of the nation's top talker: O'REILLY has pushed King to the back of the book -- 6 of the last 8 runs.

Last Thursday, with talk of anthrax and holiday travel threats, O'REILLY topped all primetime cable shows [entertainment, sports, news], turning in a personal best, leaving CNNMSNBCCNBCHBOUSANICKLIFETIMETNT dizzy in the shadow of his SpinZone.

Developing...

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

Answers

i like bill

he's one tenacious dude

he doesn't take any guff (or slithering) from anyone!

i like the way he latched on to the misuse of charity from the 9-11 event and has yet to let it go ...called for the Red Cross to face fraud charges!

and he's been calling for closing down our southern border for quite some time, and hasn't let up on that either

i like a LOT of the "characters" on fox news they don't seem as full of themselves as a lot of the major media newscasters

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

I very rarely watch Larry King as his show is akin to thin, tepid tapioca pudding, while O'Reilly's show is like a good old New Orleans hot bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

I saw the Bernadette Healy interview on O'Reilly then saw her again on King. My Gawd!!! What a difference!

BTW, last night O'Reilly was getting on the Red Cross again because they are using only 20% of the September 11 victims fund for its intended (we thought) purpose and the law allows them to do that--even if they say, as the Red Cross did, that the money will go to help a certain segment. I had no idea!!! That's bloody fraud, surely--wilful misrepresentation at the very least!

Send your donations to the Salvation Army!!! They are first on the scene with free donuts and coffee, embers still smoldering, bits dropping all around them, or floodwaters still high and winds gusting dangerously (as in NC), while the Red Cross comes later, when it's safe, and charge for theirs.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001