Keith Olbermann: Is Bill O'Reilly mentally ill? Nick Langewis and Mike Aivaz

Published: Friday September 28, 2007



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Print This Email This Want to get political news first? Get Raw headlines in your browser . "These people aren't gonna get away with this. I'm gonna go right where they live. Every corrupt media person in this country is on notice right now. I'm coming after you. I'm gonna hunt you down. And I mean it. Smear stops here. You're all on notice out there. I'm comin' for ya."

--Bill O'Reilly, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly "Tonight," opens MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, "as in the past few days, Bill O'Reilly has devoted large sections of his shows to defending himself against critics who pointed out the racism in his surprise that people in a black-owned restaurant know how to order iced tea without cursing about somebody's mother." Though "an argument can be made" for a parallel between racism and mental deficiency, says Olbermann, he seeks to take a serious look into the possibility of real psychological problems plaguing the host of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor in light of recent remarks, construed racist, following a visit to a predominantly black restaurant. O'Reilly, says Olbermann, is showing signs of paranoia stemming from a disconnect between the outside world "and his own head." "Americans should be very skeptical of the news media. No longer can it be trusted." --Bill O'Reilly "We haven't trusted you in ten years," quips Olbermann. Marvin Kitman, author of The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly and self-proclaimed "leading O'Reillyologist," is quoted in his recent Huffington Post blog post: "When I began studying him he was a semi-demented TV newsman, who rudely interrupted guests in debates, giving them the last word, which he also interrupted, but lately he seems to be losing it." "He seems more unhinged than usual," says Kitman. "He has two people on debating an issue when we're lucky, but even when somebody is on his side, if they're slightly off--like, one degree--he comes down on them--and he's just about ready to implode, I can see, looking at him." Kitman sees an air of paranoia around O'Reilly, and a fear that everybody's out to get him, "which I guess is partially true." In O'Reilly's recent "debut as a restaurant critic," he adds, O'Reilly demonstrated his trademark case of "Achilles mouth." Olbermann wonders out loud if O'Reilly's missed the kind of backlash that disgraced MSNBC host Don Imus received for his "nappy-headed hoes" gaffe due to a lack of expectation, on the part of the public, of common decency due to diminished mental capacity. "I think he's on the verge of having a breakdown," says Kitman. "I think he needs psychiatric help." "Having a conversation with O'Reilly is like trying to take a drink of water from an open fire hydrant." --Marvin Kitman, September 25, 2007 The following video is from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's Countdown, broadcast on September 27, 2007:







