Hockenberry at Center of Latest O’Reilly/NBC Feud

The focus of the first segment of The O’Reilly Factor last night was the possible link between NBC’s parent company, GE, and Osama bin Laden. Bill O’Reilly‘s complaint stemmed from the anti-NBC article in Technology Review by former Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry.

Among the various attacks on NBC in the piece, Hockenberry brings up a time when GE told him to essentially avoid contacting the bin Laden family for a related story. He wrote, “GE had an important, longstanding and valuable business relationship with the bin Laden group.”

O’Reilly read NBC’s response to the article, which called Hockenberry “out of touch with reality” and that his comments were “utterly absurd.” Hockenberry declined coming on the Factor, but said over the phone that he stood by his article.

Hockenberry spoke with TVNewser‘s Gail Shister after the Technology Review story was released online last month. About how NBC might react, he told Shister, “I hardly expect a call from that part of the world. They’ve got so many flames over there, anyway.”

While O’Reilly was questioning NBC’s parent on FNC, on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann was naming O’Reilly the Worser Person in the World due to his attempts to connect GE and bin Laden.

Click continued to see O’Reilly’s segment…

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