Topic: NewsBusters
Despite its recent shocking correction of claims made by Bill O'Reilly, NewsBusters is still content to pretend that some false claims made by O'Reilly are true. A Nov. 7 post by Justin McCarthy claimed that "O’Reilly also dispelled the false 'New York Times' story that 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' (O’Reilly only said 'MSNBC' without mentioning Olbermann by name) is competitive with 'The O’Reilly Factor.' In fact, 'The Factor' dominates the 8:00 PM slot dwarfing 'Countdown.' "
In fact, as Media Matters points out, the Times article is correct. Its claim that "Countdown" "has even come tantalizingly close to surpassing the ratings ... at least among viewers ages 25 to 54, which is the demographic cable news advertisers prefer" is absolutely true, and O'Reilly's claim that "In the past five weeks, 'The Factor' has beaten them by 225 percent in total audience and 100 percent in the key demo" is misleading. The article also noted that "Most of the time, though, Mr. O'Reilly outdraws Mr. Olbermann by about 1.5 million viewers over all at the same hour, according to Nielsen Media Research," something O'Reilly and McCarthy failed to mention.
