In response, O'Reilly stated: “I don't know if it's the fault of women and minorities. I think it's the fault of bad and corrupt management at the major elite media institutions.” Fox News' contributor Jane Hall added: “Well, I think it's hard to plot, you know, the ratings of CNN, you know, and blame women, blame minorities, blame their depiction, those stories about Rush Limbaugh.”
Later in the segment, Goldberg stated: “Bill, the point I was trying to make, with all due respect to both of you, is that this problem didn't start last week or the week before. Journalism has been moving further and further to the left. It's a good thing that we have women and minorities in the newsroom. That's the good part. The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time.”
O'REILLY: The New York Times, which was unfair to Limbaugh this week, as was CNN, MSNBC, and the Los Angeles Times, is at the lowest stock price in 10 years. The network news, ABC, CBS, and NBC, have lost 40 percent, 40, four zero, of their audience since September 21, 1998 -- nine years ago.
So I'm saying to myself, “I think it's almost over here.” What do you think?
GOLDBERG: This problem has been a long time coming. Journalism today is a lot different than it was, let's say in the 1950s and even the 1960s. And before everybody says, “Yeah, that's right, and it's a good thing,” let me say I agree, I agree up to a point. But back then, there were reporters, some of whom went to college, some didn't. Some people were blue collar, some people came from well-to-do families. Some people were Democrats, some people were Republicans. A lot of journalists served in the military. There was diversity of opinion back then, which was very important, but there was no other kind of diversity.
But then, Bill, when women and minorities came into journalism, they pushed the newsroom further and further to the left. Everybody agrees that minorities are overwhelmingly liberal in this country, and so are young women. Ann Coulter just said if women weren't allowed to vote, the Democrats would never win another election. That's the atmosphere in which this stuff with Media Matters is allowed to thrive.
And I'll tell you -- I'll give you a solution. News executives are willing to jump through hoops in the name of racial and ethnic diversity. They ought to jump through a few hoops and start an affirmative-action program for conservative journalists, because otherwise, the numbers you gave, these are going to be seen as the good old days next year and the year after that.
O'REILLY: Well, Jane, I don't know if it's the fault of women and minorities. I think it's the fault of bad and corrupt management at the major elite media institutions. But there is no question that the last two weeks focusing in -- and remember, news watchers, consistent news watchers, people who watch this program and others, they're smart. Dummies watch the dancing shows and the cha-cha shows.
Not -- you don't have to be dumb. But the intelligent Americans -- all of the polls show, all the research shows this, Jane -- watch news, lock in on news, and they know when something's brutally unfair. They get it. All right? And in the last 10 days -- I mean, CNN particularly, it's startling, it's stunning, the audience loss over there. And I -- it's got to be. There is no other thing in play other than their attacks on me and Limbaugh and other ridiculous things that they've done in the last couple of weeks.
JANE HALL (Fox News contributor): Well, I think it's hard to plot, you know, the ratings of CNN, you know, and blame women, blame minorities, blame their depiction, those stories about Rush Limbaugh.
I mean, there's the Internet, there's cable news that was invented 20 years ago, there's the power of Fox News. I would take a different tact [sic] on it. I think what is happening is causing a share of audience loss is the fact that shows like yours, which mix opinion and news, are appealing to people. And that is why people are seizing on the symbol of you --
O'REILLY: But don't they -- don't they want --
HALL: --and Rush Limbaugh because they want to write and talk about it.
I also think while we are blaming things, blame Congress.
[...]
GOLDBERG: Bill, the point I was trying to make, with all due respect to both of you, is that this problem didn't start last week or the week before. Journalism has been moving further and further to the left. It's a good thing that we have women and minorities in the newsroom. That's the good part. The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time. This is just the most recent example.
I guarantee you, in two weeks, you'll have another example.
HALL: But Bernie, there's also the fact that --
O'REILLY: Wait a minute, Jane.
HALL: -- people from the right beating up on the mainstream media --
O'REILLY: No, no, no, no, Jane.
HALL: -- for stories that I think are a lot fairer than you guys give them credit for.
O'REILLY: Well, look, it doesn't make any difference because you have the two largest traditional targets in the country, Limbaugh and O'Reilly, being the victims. And again, they could have done this in a much better way, because they chose things that we could both illustrate that were dishonest. It was false.
GOLDBERG: This isn't why they're near death. They are near death because of their behavior for --
O'REILLY: I agree with that.
GOLDBERG: -- 25 or 30 years now.
