More on Franken and O'Reilly: Al Franken's new book, mentioned in the previous post, makes some criticisms of the popular Fox News host Bill O'Reilly: O'Reilly lied about past awards his shows have received, O'Reilly is a bully, O'Reilly is incapable of taking a joke. O'Reilly published a book soon after Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them came out; his book is called Who's Looking Out For You?

Both Franken and O'Reilly appeared on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross to promote their books. O'Reilly ended up walking out of the interview claiming a double standard was used: while he was peppered with tough questions, Franken was not asked anything controversial. Gross denied any bias on NPR's part.

Lets compare the questions, shall we?

To Franken :

Q: How did you come up with the title [of your book]?
Q: You wrote a couple of things about O'Reilly....I'm going to
ask you to choose one of these things [and tell about it].
Q: Read some sections of your letter [to Attorney General John Ashcroft] about abstinence.
Q: What do you think of Arnold Schwarznegger's [1970's
interview]?
Q: Do you feel like you've gone from being a comic and satirist
to ... being a lot more in politics that you would have
liked to be?

To O'Reilly :

Q: Why did you sue Al Franken?
Q: You were interviewing the son of a man killed in the world
trade center...you invited him to tell his point of view
on your show and then you kept telling him to shut up.
How much of that is theater and showmanship?
Q: You are basically calling [Janet Maslin, a New York Times
book reviewer] a character assassin who was
unleashed on you by the Times!
Q: How did you make the mistake of registering Republican?
[O'Reilly has publicly claimed he did not know he was a
registered Republican]
Q: Do you think it might have a chilling effect on book
reviewers to know that if they give you a bad review, you
will be mocking them on your show?

Sometimes its difficult to deny conservative claims of liberal media bias.