New Host, Same Act: O'Donnell Bashes O'Reilly

If Bill O'Reilly thought Keith Olbermann's departure would spare him further verbal drubbings on MSNBC, well, nope.

Instead, the occupant of Olbermann's old timeslot, Lawrence O'Donnell, devoted the last quarter of his show Monday to calling out Fox News' top-rated host and his timeslot rival. In the course of the rant, the writer-producer/host -- angry about O'Reilly casually referring to MSNBC as being called anti-American -- labeled O'Reilly "a joke," and called Fox's viewers "the most gullible audience in the history of television." He then featured video of Ben Armbruster, from thinkprogress.org, conducting an ambush interview with O'Reilly's well-traveled ambusher-in-residence, Jesse Watters. (Others have turned the tables on Watters before, so the idea's not completely original.)

Previously, O'Donnell made a point of dissecting O'Reilly's Super Bowl Sunday interview with President Obama, tallying up how many times the host interrupted Obama during the 15-minute chat. (Quite a few, it turns out, as you'll see below.)

Olbermann admitted in the early days of his show that he "punched up" at O'Reilly -- seeking to get a rise out of his top-rated competitor -- and was rewarded by getting under the host's thin skin. O'Donnell clearly seems intent on employing the same strategy.

In other words, screw civility. This is cable news, and the catfight is still O'-On, beeyotches!