Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes phoned NBC chief Jeff Zucker last summer and threatened
to "unleash" Bill O'Reilly against NBC and its parent, General Electric, unless Zucker
reigned in MSNBC host Keith Olberman, who was regularly attacking O'Reilly (as "the
worst person in the world") and Ailes himself, the Washington Post reported
today (Monday). The complaints were later echoed in phone calls to Zucker from Rupert
Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News, the Post said. After
the appeals failed, O'Reilly began an assault on GE chief Jeffrey Immelt, accusing him
and his company of supporting the Iranian government. "If my child were killed in
Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt," O'Reilly said during one broadcast.
GE spokesman Gary Sheffer insisted that "nothing we supply ... to Iran is in any
way endangering U.S. troops." He said that News Corp execs "tell us if the attacks
on O'Reilly end, the attacks on GE will end."
19/05/2008
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