O'Reilly is accused of shoving an Obama staffer and the pundit admits insulting the man's mother.
(NASHUA, N.H.) - A number of bloggers are increasingly contacting Salem-News.com to update us on the latest Internet buzz. The word today is a possible shoving match between FOX News' Bill O'Reilly and the man responsible for the security of one of the nation's first black Presidential Candidates.
What really happened? Did O'Reilly actually push someone? Was it even an "incident" as FOX has described it?
In all honesty, you couldn't find two well known Americans who stand at more opposing positions than these two. Senator Barack Obama represents the face of radical change and an end to the war in Iraq. He promises to bring back policies that benefit people and causes that O'Reilly doesn't necessarily fight for. This all happened at an event for Obama in Nashua.
Those who were in attendance say O'Reilly took many single finger salutes and a bit of general harassment from the Democrats in attendance, but he waited for his chance to ask Obama a question.
The "O'Reilly Factor" host says he almost didn't get to ask the question because an Obama staffer named Marvin Nicholson blocked the view of the FOX News camera. That is when O'Reilly admits calling Nicholson a "SOB".
The clip of the incident below is from CSPAN. O'Reilly says he is saving the video that his crew shot of the shouting match with Nicholson for his Monday show.
It is reported that the Secret Service told O'Reilly to calm down at one point.
The FOX network smeared Obama early on in the primary process, and the candidate has closed the door to O'Reilly for the most part. One insider speculated that the only way Bill O'Reilly figured he’d have a chance to ask Obama to come on his show was to force his way in.
The FOX host stood in a fairly unpopulated part of the room at first. Once he was spotted the Obama staffers reportedly began to huddle. Three policemen showed up, too. One of them stood in front of O'Reilly until the talk show host asked him to move.
That is when Obama's staffer Marvin Nicholson took up the same post the policeman had stood, in front of the Fox camera.
O'Reilly yelled, "You're blocking our shot."
At that point Nicholson reportedly said, "Oh, am I?"
"At events like these, staffers block certain people and are sometimes accused of being too aggressive. Most of the time, the standard thing to do is give them a little business and then move to another spot. O'Reilly didn't do this," says Slate's John Dickerson.
"He shoved the Obama aide. There was an exchange and a little more shoving. I didn't fully capture because as I looked at O'Reilly in his black leather Fox jacket, which resembled the kind we wore during football season in high school, I swore I could hear him challenge the staffer to a rumble out by the drive-in."
"That's really low class, pal," said O'Reilly.
And when Barack Obama passed, he looked like he was headed for the door but stopped to talk to the Fox host. The video shows that the conversation was short. O'Reilly did not seem to be causing the commotion in the national interest, and he even sounds cordial as he talks to Obama.
That is when O'Reilly made a personal appeal to Obama to get him on his show. "We like you," he said to Obama a few minutes after "the incident".
We publish, you decide...
Special thanks for the video clips to FOX News, CSPAN and YouTube.
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