Loofah Man loses his falafels

Keith Olbermann has really been getting under Bill O'Reilly's skin as of late. Last week, O'Reilly started an online petition to bring back Phil Donahue to MSNBC. What O'Reilly didn't say, but what he clearly meant, was Donahue would be back at his old time slot, replacing Olbermann and opposite O'Reilly. Of course O'Reilly would love to see that happen. He'd be short one smart and funny critic who loves to mock him and he'd have a competitor who had weaker ratings when matched against O'Reilly. Keith responded by mocking O'Reilly and signing the petition himself.

This petition followed on an on air attempt by O'Reilly to have Olbermann fired at MSNBC. Indeed, O'Reilly made a big speech on his television show deriding Olbermann and calling on MSNBC's president to bring respectability back to the news channel by sacking Olbermann. Keith mocked that, too.

Now, O'Reilly really lost it and, you have probably guessed by now, Keith mocked him for it (via Crooks and Liars). I don't receive television, but I listened to the show last night on XM radio. It was amusing enough that I decided to look it up this morning and actually watched it. The set up is simple. Some activists have decided to pick on O'Reilly. They call him on his radio show and mention Olbermann's name. Anyone who has listened to radio talk shows or run a radio station knows that when the public calls in you're never certain what might be said. This sort of stunt is pulled all of the time. So, you have a kill switch built in that cuts the caller off, so you can intervene and get to a legitimate caller. The activists have been dialing in daily and making between 3 and 5 attempts to say Olbermann's name on the air. Yesterday was no different. Except that when one caller got through, O'Reilly didn't just stop at using the kill switch. Nope, Loofah Man threatened to report the guy to Fox Security and have them contact the local police claiming that he was harassed and that the caller used an obscenity. As the clip above points out, the caller didn't use an obscenity and even if he had he wouldn't be turned over to the police. Only a legitimate threat of bodily harm or an illegal act can warrant that sort of intrusion. Sure enough, though, someone identifying himself as a member of Fox security is calling these people up. Funny thing is, though, the show airs on Clear Channel radio network - not Fox.

Here's the website of the activist who called, Mike Stark.