BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: And in the "Impact Segment" tonight President Obama's big advantage in the upcoming election that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points" memo. Last night Dan Rather who canceled his appearance on THE FACTOR talked with Jon Stewart about liberalism in the national media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN RATHER, FORMER CBS NEWS ANCHOR: I know it's widely believed that CBS, NBC, ABC chocked full of liberals not true.
What's chocked full of people who want to give honest news, straightforward news and voted both ways in many elections. I'm not saying that nobody in the Newsroom was liberal any more than I saying anybody is conservative. Frequently what happened people who were described as conservatives want to say I worked at CBS News and, you know, almost everybody there was liberal. What they really mean is not everybody there agreed with him all the time. This is a sham.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right with all due respect to Mr. Rather his statement is a sham. He is not telling the truth.
Here are the facts. After the presidential race between George Bush and John Kerry, the University of Connecticut surveyed 300 journalists nationwide. The study found that 52 percent of the journalists voted for Kerry. Just 19 percent went for Bush. The rest would not answer the question.
In 2008 NBC News identified 143 journalists who made political contributions. 125 of them gave to the Democratic Party; just 16, 16 out of 143 donate to the Republican Party. Two gave to both parties.
Also in 2008, the Pew Research Center studied 43 news outlets in America in the run-up to the Obama/McCain election. About 35 percent of the stories done on Barack Obama by those organizations were positive. Less than 20 percent were positive when it came to John McCain.
Those are the facts, Mr. Rather and they are grim if you believe the media should be fair and balanced. Just today the Web site Politico ran a story about how the "The Washington Post" is covering Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
"Post" reporter David Maraniss has a new book out called "Barack Obama the Story". In that book Maraniss documents the President's drug use as a young man. It was extensive. The "The Washington Post" ran that story on page 6 but earlier this month "The Post" ran a 5,500 word story on page one detailing Mitt Romney's high school hazing resume.
I mean, come on. Fair-minded people know that much of the media is actively working to see that Barack Obama is re-elected. Dan Rather would never admit that but it's absolutely true. So the question becomes how much will the liberal press influence the election?
And by the way there was a press blackout of the gender abortion Planned Parenthood scandal this week. Total blackout. We'll deal with that in just a few moments.
"Talking Points" believes the media will deliver some votes to Barack Obama next November and in a tight race that could be enough. And that's the memo.
Now reaction. Let's bring in the purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com who is in Miami this evening. Bernie Goldberg worked with Dan Rather for about 15 years. So what say you?
BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'm not sure, Bill, why you have a media analyst on to talk about this. I think you need a psychiatrist because what Dan said is delusional. I mean it's delusional. Number one his -- his problem and his dispute is not with conservative critics of the media. It's with the American people because poll after poll after poll show that large numbers of Republicans and Democrats of conservatives and liberals believe the media has a liberal bias. That's number one.
Number two when I was writing my book, "A Slobbering Love Affair" right after the last presidential election, I quote several prominent and highly well-respected journalists in Washington. And one of them, a fellow named Charlie Cook who is a very well-respected political journalist said "Let's face it, is there a Democratic and a liberal bias in the media? Of course there is." I think you can say that the media had a finger, more than a finger on the Democratic side.
So, this is -- this is simply ridiculous and delusional and the facts you gave in the "Talking Points" more than prove the point that there is an abundance of liberalism in the media and they don't keep it to themselves enough.
O'REILLY: Not anymore. I mean, there's a book out on Walter Cronkite now. And Mr. Cronkite a very, very left-wing guy, much further left than I think you thought he was. I certainly didn't. I knew he was liberal but I didn't think he was off the chart left which he is.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: And this book documents that. And Rather took over and Rather -- Cronkite tried to hide it I mean it will come out in little ways. But he did, you know he was respectful to authority. He went along with the Vietnam War in the beginning. He wasn't some crank. Rather pushed it, you know, toward the liberal precincts.
I know he killed a couple of stories of mine that didn't reflect his political correct vision. One on gays in Massachusetts he killed and there were a couple of others.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: But at this point, I think we've established the fact and we don't have to really debate it any longer, that what you just said is absolutely true. So then the question becomes --
GOLDBERG: Can I give you one --
O'REILLY: Go ahead. Go ahead.
GOLDBERG: Can I give you one example because you mentioned the Vietnam War. Can I -- this is something that I've written about and it needs to get a lot more play than it's gotten so far. At the end of August of 2004, when John Kerry was getting shellacked by the Vietnam veterans for truth, the Swift Boat Veterans --
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: -- I'm sorry for truth over his war record in Vietnam, Dan Rather gave an interview to a national news magazine broadcasting in cable in which he said, "In the end what difference does it make what one candidate or the other did or didn't do during the Vietnam War. In some ways that war is as distant as the Napoleonic campaigns."
One week later. Not one year later. Not one month later, one week later the same Dan Rather is on "60 Minutes" Wednesday on CBS telling us about what a candidate did or didn't do during the Vietnam War. So the Vietnam War --
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: And of course, that was -- that was President Bush and that was his National Guard service.
GOLDBERG: Yes exactly. Exactly.
O'REILLY: So he said it, look, it doesn't matter with Kerry and he makes a big deal about Bush, right.
GOLDBERG: Exactly. Exactly.
O'REILLY: You got him. You got him.
GOLDBERG: Ok.
O'REILLY: Now he's 80 years old. He wouldn't come on this program because he may be 80 but he still knows that I would have hit him with the three things: the University of Connecticut, NBC -- and he couldn't --
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: Right, correct.
O'REILLY: But the question now becomes how much of an advantage is it five percent for Barack Obama because the media --
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: Yes, yes.
O'REILLY: -- and I'm including entertainment industry in that as well. Because you're going to get the comedians, you're going to get entertainment tonight. You're going to get all of that into the pro-Obama camp. How much -- how much does it matter?
GOLDBERG: Right. Ok. The last time you asked me that a month ago, I said I didn't think it mattered very much. But since then I'm having second thoughts. Since we spoke last, the "The Washington Post" runs that page one story about what --
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: The hazing, right.
GOLDBERG: What Mitt Romney did, yes; 50 years ago in high school, right? The "New York Times" runs a page one story about Ann Romney's elite hobby of riding these expensive horses and jumping you know hurdles and all of that.
Now, these stories -- it's not because -- simply because they are in the "New York Times." These stories filter out to the networks and then they filter out to the entertainment shows and late night comedians and all of that. And they filter into the national consciousness.
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: And as a result, I'm starting to think -- and I didn't last night -- but I'm starting to think that people who aren't familiar with the issues, who don't know the Romneys, they start to say well, he's -- he's -- this is the guy who bashed a gay kid in high school and she is this elitist who rides these expensive horses? And it could affect how they see these people and in a tight race, can have more than an impact than it should.
O'REILLY: I think it does. It's going to deliver a few votes. You know, it just depends how tight it is.
All right, Bernie Goldberg, everybody.
And Dan Rather watching tonight, you are welcome to come in here any time, Dan. We will plug your book. And we've got -- we have soft drinks for you not the big kind though. The small ones.
GOLDBERG: It could run out, by the way.