FNC

Bill O'Reilly called out The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, and CNN over some of their coverage of the Ft. Hood massacre -- which, in O'Reilly's view, blamed the wars instead of the killer, Nidal Malik Hasan, for the rampage. "The guy is either a Muslim terrorist or a crazy person. That's it. Those are the choices," said O'Reilly of Hasan.

"We did 5 million viewers at 8 O'Clock, wiped out CNN and MSNBC, wiped them off the face of the earth. The guard has changed in this country. The media guard has changed. And you know why people came in here, because they knew they were going to get an honest story. They weren't going to get spin that Hasan is some kind of post-traumatic syndrome victim. Some kind of victim of a terrible public policy gone awry. They're not going to get that..... I almost said a bad word. They're not going to get that garbage here."

O'Reilly's guest Bernie Goldberg also gave a new name to the mainstream media:

With the news that Oprah Winfrey may take her daily talk show away from broadcast affiliates and to her own OWN cable network, that got us wondering: should Glenn Beck, now the #2 show on cable despite airing in he afternoons, be Oprah's syndicated replacement?

Beck is well-rounded. Between his #1 best-selling books and comedy shows he's a three-dimensional talent that could easily adapt to daytimes. He could also use his radio audience to promote to local affiliates.

Just yesterday, the New York Times reported novelists are considering Beck to be the "New Oprah," when it comes to endorsing political thrillers. "He's our Oprah," author Brad Thor told The Times' Motoko Rich. "God love him, we're very fortunate."

Oprah Winfrey averages about 6.8 million viewers a day airing at various times across the country (9am in Chicago, 3pm in Los Angeles, 4pm in New York.) In October, Beck's live and same-day DVR average was 2.7M daily viewers, and that's on cable.

Heck, even CBS' Les Moonves has Beck to thank for a good quarterly report.

Beck is locked in to a multi-year deal with Fox News which would probably keep him from jumping anytime soon. His show premiered in January, and quickly shot past all competitors and even programs on his own channel, which air later in the evening to larger available audiences.

So, what do you think?

Oops. The New York Times ran a correction this morning related to a cable news election ratings story from earlier this week:

NATIONAL

A headline on Thursday with an article about television ratings for elections coverage on Tuesday night may have left the incorrect impression that ratings for Fox News on Election Night were artificially increased. The network's coverage had bigger ratings gains than those of its rivals; its ratings were not inflated.

Here's the original story... with new headline.

Tonight on FOX Report, Shepard Smith talked with Nader Hasan, the cousin of Nidal Malik Hasan. "I want to make sure everyone understands, he is a good American and we are shocked," said Hasan, who, when the interview was conducted, was still under the impression his cousin had been shot dead.

"We're blown away as a family," said Hasan who also said his cousin had been receiving "harassment" for his "middle eastern ethnicity."

And the motivation, says his cousin, was not wanting to be deployed to Iraq. Hasan was supposed to go later this month.

"If anybody wants to try to suggest it has something else to do with ...being afraid of wanting to go to war, um, that's, that's it," said Hasan.

An update posted on GlennBeck.com reports that Beck is doing well and in recovery following the appendicitis attack that caused him to miss his FNC show yesterday:

After being in pain most of the night, Glenn ended up leaving the radio program early yesterday to see a doctor. Turned out the pain was appendicitis and Glenn underwent surgery. Everything went well and he is now in recovery and doing fine. Glenn and his wife Tania are so thankful for all the kind words, prayers and support from everyone. Well, almost everyone. Those compassionate loving liberal bloggers were bummed things didn't end differently for Glenn.

In the last few hours, Beck tweeted:

Nvr a gdnight sleep in the hospital but always easier w/family, prayers and AMAZING drs/nurses. They didn't even cut off my feet!!

and

I just realized my tonsils are missing. Man, I wish I were as rich as M. Moore i could've had some of that sweet Castro Care he loves.

FNC's Shepard Smith sat down with the women on "The View" this morning for an interview covering balloon boy, opinion news shows, and the White House's position on Fox.

Joy Behar asked Smith if he ever felt like "an outcast over at Fox" as a straight news journalist compared with the opinion commentators. "No, come on," he said. "You can be around people who have opinions, can't you? I would hope so at HLN."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked if he thought the Obama administration's singling out of Fox News was unfair. "Oh, it's not a new thing," he said. "Administrations have been fighting with news organizations since time began, and I don't know, I think it helped us. It kind of looks like it did. When the white house is talking about you all the time, you know you got something going on."

When asked about the network's success, Smith pointed to FNC's strong performance during the election this week and said:

They're coming for the news. I mean, I think that people have, through all of this talk, people have come and sampled us and they've said, 'They are giving us the news. When they say it's opinion, it might be right-wing opinion. But when they say it's the news, it's the news.' There's truth in labeling and I feel good about that.

The hosts also took the opportunity to ask Smith about one of the big stories in October: balloon boy. Behar said, "the news organizations were highly criticized for the coverage," to which Smith replied, "What are you going to do? There's a balloon floating. The cops say there's a kid in it. It's running all across Colorado. We didn't have anything else going on. I mean, might as well follow the balloon."

During his earnings call this afternoon, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch was asked about the MSNBC/Fox News war of words. According to a transcript from AllThingsD's Peter Kafka:

Q: What's up with MSNBC-Fox News truce, which appears to be broken?

Murdoch: We didn't start this abuse, which we thought went way beyond... Finally, we had to allow people to retaliate. When they stop, we'll stop.

Q: And is it good for you to have antagonistic relationship with White House?

Murdoch: No.

News Corp.'s net income rose 11% in the latest quarter to $571 million. A year earlier, net income was $515 million.

• Related: FNC's Major Garrett interviews White House senior adviser David Alexrod.

FNC host Glenn Beck had an appendicitis attack during his radio show today. Chris Balfe, President of Mercury Radio Arts, Beck's production company, confirmed that Beck had his appendix removed today at an undisclosed hospital. "Before going under Glenn asked the doctor to draw out the surgery procedure on a blackboard," Balfe joked to the blog NTS MediaOnline.

• Earlier on TVNewser: Glenn Beck Surgery Goes "Horribly Awry"

Before most of the election day results started coming in last night, Bill O'Reilly took some time to talk with FBN's John Stossel about the criticism he got in this New York Times story for speaking to anti-health care reform forums organized by the group Americans for Prosperity.

O'Reilly said it comes with the territory: "Glenn Beck found this out very quickly when he came over from CNN... when you're here, you're a target, just by association."

"You committed a Cardinal sin of all time," O'Reilly said. "You left a liberal network and you went to a traditional right-leaning network."

Do Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have an unusual interest in one of today's elections?

Mediaite's Steve Krakauer writes that both Hannity and Beck are supporting Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the 2009 special election for New York's 23rd congressional district because his race represents something larger:

Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity really want Doug Hoffman to win that special congressional election in Upstate New York's 23rd district. It's not just because he's a 3rd party "Conservative" candidate in a race that saw the shunned, moderate Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava drop out and endorse the Democrat, Bill Owens.

It's because this race is a referendum on town halls, on tea partying, on the 9/12 Project.

Hoffman was on "Hannity" last night, and the host said, "I think this is a referendum on a lot of what's been going on in the country which is moving radically to the left." Hannity also declared, "I hope I'm on the air this time tomorrow night and I'll be able to declare you the winner." Clip after the jump.

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