In a rare display of agreement with his time slot rival Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly also struck back at Ted Koppel on Monday, asking for the veteran anchor to give an example of when he had lied on the air.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post on Sunday, Koppel singled out O'Reilly and Olbermann as symptomatic of the "death of real news," and cable news as a landscape where partisans "flaunt opinions as though they were facts."
O'Reilly took issue with that claim on his Monday show. "This is a fact-based news analysis broadcast here, and the fact is that we've invited Mr. Koppel on the 'Factor' more than a few times," he said. "We want to discuss his ongoing beef."
O'Reilly conceded that there are "abuses in cable television" in the form of "people on the air that bloviate...and make up lies," but that they were in the minority, and that the same could be said of more traditional broadcast news operations.
He also challenged Koppel to give a concrete example of when he had lied on the air.
"Ted Koppel..couldn't give me examples of me lying on air and giving an opinion not based on fact," O'Reilly said. "He couldn't do it, and if he could he ought to come on in here and do it and he'd shut me up for good."
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Keith Olbermann also lashed out at Koppel in a lengthy "Special Comment" on Monday's "Countdown." Olbermann slammed the former ABC News anchor for, among other things, his reporting during the run-up to the Iraq War.