that is it for this "special report," fair, balanced, and unafraid. make it a great weekend. captions by closed captioning services >> "the o'reilly factor" is on. tonight: >> i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to governor this country. >> bill: newt gingrich lashes the american media. did he effectively turn around a bad situation concerning his former wife? >> i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. >> bill: we have analysis with mike huckabee, lou dobbs and bernie goldberg. >> i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i earned. >> bill: did romney convince the folks that he is one of them. we will take a look at the governor's populace appeal. also tonight will women vote for newt gingrich? janine turner and leslie

marshall on that. caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone, the factor begins right now. captions by closed captioning services >> bill: hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. newt gingrich and the evil empire. that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. faced with harsh accusations from his former wife marianne, speaker gingrich turned the tabletion last night in a very shrewd way. he killed the messenger, he hammered the press. for conservative americans, this was deeply gratifying because there is no question that the american media are generally invested in liberal politics. a pew research poll in 2008 found that americans believe journalists favored barack obama over john mccain by a margin of 70-9. and just 8% of the press people themselves say they are conservative.

mr. gingrich well understands that reality. and the hostility conservatives have toward the media and so he delivered an epic blow. >> your ex-wife gave an interview to abc news and another interview with the "the washington post" and this story has now gone viral on the internet. in it she says that you came to her in 1999 at a time when you were having an affair. she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no. but i will. [ laughter ] but i think destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. i'm appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. [cheers and applause] >> is that all you want to say, sir? >> let me finish, please. >> every person in here knows personal pain. every person in here has had

someone close to them go through painful things. to take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question he in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything i can imagine. [cheers and applause] my two daughters wrote the head of abc and made the point that it was wrong, that they should pull it, and i am frankly astounded that cnn would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate. [cheers and applause] >> as you noted, mr. speaker, this story did not come from our network. as you also know it is a subject of conversation on the campaign. i take your point. >> john, it was repeated by your network, you chose to start the debate with it don't try to blame somebody else. you and your staff chose to start the debate with that. [cheers and applause] now, let me be quite clear, the story is false.

every personal friend i have who knew us in that period says the story is false. we offered several of them to abc to prove it was false. they weren't interested because they would like to attack any republic, they are attacking the governor, they are attacking me, i'm sure they will get around to senator santorum and congressman paul. i am tired of the elite media protecting barack obama by attacking republicans. >> bill: all right. now, what did speaker gingrich accomplish? well, he deflected the marital issue, he once again proved is he a conservative warrior. he separated himself in the more low key personalities of mitt romney and rick santorum. on balance, speaker gingrich took a huge negative and turned it into a have been to. at least in the short run. but his ex-wife's accusations have hurt im, especially among women voters and we will talk about that in a few moments. no question that newt gingrich is now come competitive in south carolina and could win tomorrow, saturday. ron paul has no chance. leaving rick santorum the alternative to gingrich.

now, last night the senator consistently went after the speaker. >> so, when he goes and says i can, you know, run rings around president obama and lincoln douglas debate. you can't run rings around the fact, newt that you supported the primary core basis of what president obama has put in place. >> bill: the truth is there is not much difference among rick santorum, newt gingrich and mitt romney on most policy matters. they are left with personalities rather than policy. mitt romney understands that and last night tried to convince the voters that he is like them. >> i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i earned. i worked hard in the american way. and. [ applause ] >> i'm going to be able to talk to president obama in a way no one else can that's in this race right now about how the free economy works, what it takes to put americans back to work and make sure he understands this divisiveness of dividing americans between

99 and 1 is dangerous. >> bill: by the way my newspaper column this week available on bill o'reilly to the come now exactly on that topic on how to divide america is a very bad thing. the south carolina voted on saturday will be fascinating because there are some variables in the air. very conservative voters must choose between santorum and gingrich. modern voters will most likely go for romney. those who despise president obama who l. have to figure out who is the best chance to beat him. again, there isn't much difference among the three candidates on issues. it's all a matter of style. talking points will not make a prediction other than to say most likely between romney and gingrich tomorrow. with santorum coming in third. if the governor wins, he cruises into florida. almost unstoppable. if the speaker wins, must immediately hope that translates into millions of dollars in donations. so he can compete on television in the sunshine state. if rick santorum comes in third, it's going to be tough for him going forward because of the money factor. in florida you need big cash to compete.

and that's the memo. next on the run down, governor mike huckabee says romney is right for not releasing his tax returns and he will also weigh in on how gingrich's personal life may effect

>> bill: personal story segment tonight. perhaps the best expert on the south carolina primary is former arkansas governor mike huckabee now a fox news

analyst. four years ago he finished second in south carolina behind john mccain. take the speaker first, how much will mr. gingrich's personal life hurt him tomorrow. what do you think? >> probably not a lot, bill because what he did the other night in the debate was pril brilliant political gamesmanship. it was a flawless put down and when you are accused of being a bad guy the best you can do is turn the bad guy into the person who attacked you. if you make him a worse bad guy than you, you win. that's exactly what newt did. he did it with precision like i have rarely seen. >> all right. now, the evangelical vote though is substantial in south carolina. you got a lot of it right. >> very strong. >> and women, about 50% of the electorate. so he does have vulnerabilities in both of those areas, does he not? >> he does. i think one of the things you do if you have a problem, you do what a good magician does. you call attention to something else.

so what he has done, he has not allowed himself to get into the whole issue of what marianne said in that interview with abc. he simply said let's look over here, let's lack at the news media republicans love to beat up the news media again, that's what he has done and he has done it brilliantly. so right here at the very moment, rather than people talking about what she was saying, they are talking about how he put down cnn, john and the entire media. >> bill: it also did something else. the passion that he brought in the attack on cnn and john king makes romney and santorum look much smaller because he looks like the warrior and a lot of republic voters want a warrior to go after president obama. >> well, i think that's one of the issues in this campaign. i'm not sure republicans want to govern effectively as much as they just want to beat obama. so they are looking for the person who is going to beat

obama. >> bill: do they want to beat him or beat him up? >> no. they want to beat him. >> bill: the problem is once you get out of the republic precincts and into the general election the beating up of obama isn't going to matter that much. >> that's exactly right, bill. that's why i say the biggest mistake republicans can make is if they don't have plans on how to govern, how to fix america, get people to work. they have got to be able to speak to those voters who have lost their jobs over the past few years. >> bill: what do you say, governor, romney and gingrich and san some are the same. they stand for the same things. they don't differ on the issues very much. it's did you this seven years ago and you are a moron for what you did in massachusetts and you were there. look, right now, there is no difference. there is no difference. they are the same. people are voting personalities now. that's what they're voting. >> i think you are right. you said that in the talking memos and i couldn't agree more. there is not really a lot of space between any of these guys except with ron paul. there is some pretty big space. >> bill: is he out of it. >> exactly. i am just saying when you talk

about the three guys and i do think that santorum has a tough go after south carolina unless he has a big surprise. he roughed up newt gingrich pretty good in the debate. i will say that and he called a lot of things into question about newt's judgment. two things have happened for newt this week that really put him in that position to possibly win south carolina. one was that debate performance. the other was chuck norris' endorsement today. >> bill: chuck norris, everyone. >> that is going to be a big deal for him. >> bill: chuck norris, of course, endorsing the governor last time around in 2008. all right, now, the income tax thing you have said that -- you don't want -- you wouldn't -- you didn't, did you, last time around,. >> yeah, i did. and during the time that i ran in arkansas, i released 20 years of tax records. bill, it was the stupidest thing i ever did. you know why? because you have to release a very detailed financial disclosure statement that people can halfway understand. look, must americans don't

understand their own tax returns do we really think they are going to understand mitt romney's? they are going to be complicated. tim geithner didn't understand his tax returns why on god's earth. >> bill: he didn't file them, did he. >> no he didn't file them. why do we think people are going to read some huge tax return of mitt romney and get something out of it. >> bill: in the media the perception is if you don't release them you are trying to hide something. listen, romney doesn't want his tax returns in the hands of the "new york times." they are going to cherry pick it and make him look like a greed head. he doesn't want to give them any more ammo. >> you get zero credit with the media for having released them and buy yourselves a lot of grief. why would you help load a gun that's pointed to your own head? >> bill: because the people, the folks, most of them want you to. i think that's the answer to your question. >> well, but he has to forcefully tell us why he is not going to. why it's irrelevant. say look i have disclosed more than i need to. let him make it clal, i will

release my tax returns when barack obama releases his college transcripts and the copy of his admission records to show whether or not he got any loans as a foreign student. when he releases that talk to me about my tax returns. that's being forceful, that's what mitt romney needs to do and he a stumbles. he has been stumbling. that's why that newt is in a better position today than he was a week ago. >> bill: you think newt is going to win i can tell just by your body language. >> i think he is that a position. romney has had a good lead and he may hold on to it people have last-minute jitters about voting their emotions. it's not going to be a 10 point run away. it's going to be tight. >> bill: governor thanks as always. here are the results of our bill o'reilly.com poll. will negative attacks on mitt romney help or hurt newt gingrich in the south carolina vote. 20,000 vote. 0 percent said it would help them. whopping 70% say they will hurt the speaker. whole different ballgame than when we first did that poll. interesting nonetheless. directly ahead, will women

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>> impact segment tonight, a recent fox news poll asks women registered voters what they think of newt gingrich, favorable, 24%. unfavorable, 58%. can't say 9%. never heard of him, 8%. that's the jersey shore crowd. joining us now from washington, fox news contributor leslie marshall and from fort worth, texas janine turner, radio talk show host. what do you think of those numbers, janine. >> i don't know what i make of those numbers because if you listen to the crowd in the room in south carolina i don't think it was all men applauding there. i think women are more

concerned about the economy. they don't have jobs. their husbands don't have jobs. their children don't have jobs. i don't think this whole issue with his former wife is really -- >> bill: here is the problem, janine, if you three guys basically saying same thing about the economy and you do. gingrich, romney and santorum. then it comes down to personalities, and the fox news poll shows that mitt romney is by far and away the most popular among women. if he does win in south carolina. it's going to be because of women because men are going to go for gingrich in my humble opinion tomorrow. you don't know until it's over. yogi berra up by 57 my father taught my. i got sidetracked with that quote there. ronald reagan in 19800. he didn't get the women's vote either. now recently in a 2011 gallup poll he has been regarded as the greatest president ever.

>> difference between reagan's presentation and gingrich's. what do you say, leslie? >> well, bill, he is not doing well with women. this was before the interview with his former wife. and, you any, i think it comes down to a few things. one, i do think some women don't like him. they like mitt romney and think that mitt romney is the guy who can beat president obama. two you said it's about personality. absolutely. think that newt comes across for many women as a bit bombastic whereas romney comes back more as a gentleman. i hate to say it bill and feminists are going to get mad at me. romney is better women. santorum does better with the women. it shouldn't, it shouldn't but it does. >> bill: santorum is a good looking guide. >> all the candidates like you said not much difference. newt did not do well with women before this. >> bill: i think it's more the

bombastic stuff than the looks stuff. because janine, i think there are some women who they don't like loud guys and brash guys, and, you know, con problem stational guys. now, of course. i'm not like that i know some who are gingrich is really in your face. >> he is in your face. he has a lot of solutions that require the work of all americans. you know, he doesn't really present an easy fix. he presents a deep -- he a deep thinker a lot of plans require all of us in america to step forward. women are a little bit busy raising families and working at the same time. i really think that it is hard to pick. i think women may turn for him. in the past history most conservative candidate has won. >> bill: either south carolina or florida. >> i think he may win in south carolina. >> bill: he might. listen, when you have that kind of fire behind you with

just 48 hours, you know, when you have that kind of -- >> -- women like fire, too. >> bill: they do it's a matter of newt gingrich's perception of him over a lot of years if he were coming out of nowhere and people didn't know him that would be right people have formed opinions of him. i'm going to give leslie the right word. >> you know we like bombastic men, bill when they are attractive which many women and myself think you are but not necessarily the heavy white haired guy mr. gingrich. his past does come into play not just politically but personally and definitely with women. you know we are very emotional. i will leave it at that. >> i think that the speaker knows that and he has try to soften it up. he went after the messenger and the messenger was trying to exploit the situation. i know both men and women

applauded that action last night. not all of them. >> i thought it was very smart politically. >> it was. >> all i have to say is think lincoln. lincoln wasn't that good looking. he was a great president. >> bill: janine, there wasn't television then. >> i know, he would have won even then. [ laughter ] >> bill: plenty more ahead as the factor moves along this evening. lou dobbs on offshore money is it evil? lowe will weigh none the debate last night. bernie goldberg on whether right or wrong to run the piece swt speakerererer [♪...] >> announcer: bank robbery certainly is a frightening crime. after all, bank robbers stole $43 million in one year. but identity thieves? try 37 billion! and guess how identity thieves are getting some of that money. by taking over our bank accounts. they may not even need your social security number anymore. all an identity thief may need

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>> bill: in the campaign 2012 segment tonight, the three republic contenders each had their own strategy today the day before the very important vote in south carolina. joining us now from washington fox news chief d.c. correspondent james rosen and from mount pleasant, south carolina, chief political correspondent carl cammeron who is running around all over the place today. you know, i'm not talking about ron paul because we just

don't think that mr. paul is going to be competitive. could be unfair about it i only got a certain amount of time. so cammeron, here is what i don't get. santorum and gingrich are doing some national media today. romney not so much. we invited him on the factor. didn't want to come on tonight. he did a little "fox & friends" thing. i know he has three big events. is he not really embracing the national media which, of course, would reach all of south carolina. you say? >> well, he would say and romney campaign would say they are about meeting south carolina voters in the last day before the primary and that he has done plenty of media the debate last night didn't in many minds work out so well for mitt romney. he bobbled that tax question about releasing his returns. he watched newt gingrich hit it out of the park on a number of occasions. give you example how risk reverse the romney campaign is right now. they have yet commit to a debate scheduled for monday in tampa. it was expected he would go. but they readily acknowledge that it may not be in their

best interest to be there. so they haven't said they are not going to go. they haven't said that they are gonna. it's a herb in of romney wants uncertainty. they are realitied. they can see gingrich is surging it in south carolina and can pull off a win here. they are confident he has the money in the long run in the short run taking a pounding. why subject himself to you? >> bill: i'm not going to pound romney. i'm going to ask him questions that i think nobody else would ask him. >> of course. >> bill: rosen, if you want to win you have got to be visible and show the folks that you can take the fire and as come ron said they are risk reverse in the romney campaign right now. i don't know if that's the right strategy against aggressive guy like santorum. what due say? >> i don't think that the romney campaign imagines that their candidate at this point suffers from a lack of visibility or the g.o.p. primary electorate or viewers

of fox news need to get to know him any better than we do. it's a question of getting out the vote. logistical questions late in this day on the eve of this primary. i think romney also was very shrewd today when a reporter asked him, like newt gingrich faults the news media for its role in the process thus far he says i have no complaints with the media. just make sure you spell my name right. it got a good life. it ain't always been the case. just on your show about two months ago, you will recall that bret baier responded how he complained to bret abouts questioned about. romney chafd about pretty standard questions about positions and how they have evolved over the years just so incapsulate what romney said. he answered those questions many many times and he didn't want to answer them again. now the momentums everybody says has shifted to newt

gingrich however there is the women factor and we talked about that in the segment before you guys. the polling still says most women do not support newt gingrich. they support mitt romney. with the controversy yesterday. is that something that these guys are thinking about tomorrow, cammeron? i mean, is there an effort to get to south south south carolina women? >> if you look at the graphic of the polls still strong with seniors and women. not as strong with men. and that ultimately if you break it down by income groups, et cetera, that romney still has much more long-term vicket than newt gingrich does. don't think for a second that romney doesn't have plenty of heavy artillery to unload should he choose to. that hasn't happened. mitt romney himself suggested that it was time for newt gingrich to cough up the ethics documents that was part of his investigation to be only speaker of the house to

be reprimanded by the house of representatives. that's only the beginning. romney campaign should choose to could throw an awful lot of chin music at newt gingrich. he hasn't done it some say they have within slow on the draw. they weren't appropriately worried about newt gingrich surging here in south carolina and may have taken it a little bit more granted. these hard to argue in the long term when you see that romney himself and his campaign had built their organization for a long ways race. his campaign and the super pack that supports him have been on the floor for books. no other candidate has yet. >> bill: in the course of five days, rosen, mitt romney has lost a lot of no joe. no doubt about it i didn't think it was bad last night romney. i thought he was okay he was weak on monday. gingrich getting all the attention. good and bad. issue has been made in the last week. not necessarily about romney

wants tenure at bain capital about just about his wealth period and the amount he pays in taxes or the rate he pays in taxes of 15%. >> bill: that's all bogus in my opinion. john kerry was much richer. >> it made for a rough week. let's not forget you asked about women. one women in south carolina that romney can point to the support of that's the governor nikki haley. >> bill: she is not that strong of governor right now. i don't know if that's going to matter. >> when we come right back, lou dobbs on offshore money. romney has a lot of it as rosen mentioned. is it evil? then bernie goldberg on whether abc news was evil to run the marianne gingrich interview. those reports after these messages.

>> bill: thanks for staying with us. i'm bill o'reilly in the lowe's the boss. some people have no idea what's in the offshore account. i don't know what they are. mitt romney apparently has $8 million in the cayman islands. have you been to the cayman islands by the way. >> i have been to the cayman islands. >> you have a lot of money offshore. >> it's always fun to look at other people's domiciles for their money. >> bill: why would anyone have $8 millioned in the cayman islands. >> that number by the way is a very conservative estimate. >> bill: might have more. >> absolutely. numbers rise as high as triple digits. in terms. >> why? why not invest your money in the america not cayman's. hurricane and the money is gone. >> i can't understand why the rest of the medias is talking about it. you focused on the issue. why wouldn't he put his money there? the answer is he gets to defer

faxes on the money that is in a trust in the cayman islands earning interest as he is invistad over the years. >> so when he -- defer means that he doesn't have to pay taxes until he withdraws that money? >> correct. right. >> bill: takes it back to the u.s.a. or starts to spend money off the account, right? >> yes. >> bill: kind of like an ira then? or kayman auburn hills? >> there you go. cira. >> bill: not doing anything nefarious. >> nothing nefarious. further another reason why wealthy people. not just mitt romney healthy people tend to put their money in places like the kayman islands. that is that they have protection from civil litigation and private investigators who might be wanting to look. >> bill: because the kaymans won't tell unless, i guess, the federal government goes down. >> absolutely. >> bill: if you are suing somebody and says how much money and the kaymans are going to go blank you we are not telling you. so you can protect assets

offshore bermuda, the kaymans, because they have secrecy laws. >> exactly. >> bill: since 9/11 if the u.s.a.'s to know then they give it up, right? >> absolutely. government to government, there are no secrets. >> bill: all right. so this is an attempt by the news media to besmirch romney for really no reason? >> this is abc news again. not to pick on them but, i mean, come on. >> bill: you think it's just bogus? >> this is tacky reporting. >> bill: tacky? >> absolutely tacky. it's sensationalized to the point of really frankly nausea. >> bill: orall right. >> bill: let's get to the tax return. now romney every time they ask him about it. remember al frankton on the honeymooners. whoever told newt gingrich to do that last night by the way is a genius. attack the news media they will forget all about what they're doing.

shouldn't romney by now at least have an acogent answer about what he is going to do at and not do. >> absolutely. he does have that answer. s t. was provided by one of his great supporters, former new hampshire governor john sununu who quickly pointed out. >> bill: nobody cares about john is a knew new. the question is are you going to release your tax return, hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm. >> all he had to do was follow the advice of john sununu and another governor. >> chris: city. pointed out to -- the fact is ron paul is not releasing his tax returns. rick san some hasn't done his yet and wontd do so until he released them. newt gingrich released one year. and meanwhile john sununu for whatever reason is having trouble with his ralph camden moment. >> bill: i don't mean any should in your opinion just release the things? >> at this at this point yes bee

he has stepped in it and said he would. in my opinion he ought to say to the national media, you know, stick it. this is none of your business. >> bill: can't do that though. folks go we want to know. >> that's fine. at some point somebody has to say there is a right to privacy even if you are president. >> no there is not. not right now. >> show me tax return data from one president? >> you can imagine if barack obama said to the media stuff it i'm not giving tax return. they are killing him for a college transcript. come on. they rip his. >> killing him? by the way the national news media let him go on every documented reference. >> if you are going to run for president you have got to release your tax return. >> fine. you know what? i think it's time for somebody to say the hell with you. >> bill: ron paul is your guy then. >> on that answer he sure is. >> bill: he is he is not going to release it because he doesn't believe the irs should be in existence.

he ♪ releasing it? >> for the record i love the irs. [ laughter ] >> all right. finally, your audience on the radio, dobbs has a radio show every day. they love newt going after cnn. the american media are just perceived to be corrupt mintle, right? >> yes. and then they tend to want to corroborate that impression with stunts like last night. >> bill: you would have asked the question. i wouldn't have led with it. >> you have got to sneak it in some place. >> you know what? you don't sneak it n my opinion. you don't even ask it. >> bill: you wouldn't even ask it? >> if there is any news value and ex-wife saying that her ex-husband is a complete -- >> bill: no, i get that i might have said look, you are now being forced to relive unpleasant experiences. do you want to say something about him, mr. speaker? that's what i would have said. >> that's perfect that's why you are number one.

>> everybody should check with me particularly cnn. cnn is going to be on fire if they don't knock it of oo lou dobbs, everybody. bernie goalberg. talk about cbs runs the interviewer. a solomon last night. i hope that's not racist. i hope it's not racist but he my name's jeff. i'm a dad, coach... and i quit smoking with chantix. knowing that i could smoke during the first week was really important to me. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke -- and personally that's what i knew i needed. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if youevelop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away

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>> bill: back of the book segment tempt. bernie goldberg is on the factor each monday we wanted to get his take on whether abc news was right or wrong for running the former gingrich's wife's interview on nightline. what is the verdict, goldberg. >> let me say that reasonable people may disagree on this matter but if you are asking if i would run it, the answer is. no, i wouldn't have.

and in case anybody is interested, it has nothing to do with whether i like or dislike newt gingrich or it has nothing to do with politics at all. i can only think of one reason to run the interview. that is it's a ratings bananza. when you get beyond that which isn't easy. most of it is old news. the new stuff about the open marriage. what does it tell us about newt gingrich's character. everything the electorate needs to know about newt gingrich's character is out there and it's been out there for a long time. this is very important. brian ross, a very good reporter went on the radio. to promote the show last night. promote the nightline. he went on radio yesterday morning and he actually said this. we start by knowing that what an ex-wife we have to say we all take with a grain of salt. really? if brian ross is telling the

reporters we need to take this information with a yan of salt why are you running this interview in the first place. >> bill: i told him on this program last night i would have not have done the interview and run it the reason is there is no corroboration for the personal attack launched at the speaker by his former wife. this is the key. this is the key. and goldberg knows this because both bernie and i came up the old fashioned way. any gutter snipe in the world, and they do it on television and radio every single day in this country and it's disgusting can attack somebody personally. and get somebody to back it up. i saw o'reilly do this. i heard o'reilly do that. but you -- if you don't have corroboration independently as marianne gingrich absolutely does not. absolutely there is no corroboration, it's her and her agenda alone that abc news got behind. all right? and then the damage to a human

being, whether you like him or not, is significant. in my con conscience, i can't do that i understand could of reporting. i'm not putting brian ross down and abc news down. i can't do it. >> neither could i. i heard you last night. and i said to the tv set, i wouldn't have done that interview either. let me say one word very briefly about marianne gingrich and not about her veracity at all. obviously she has every right to feel any way she wants about her ex-husband, obviously. but when you take a conversation and when you reveal a conversation, that's a better word, when you reveal a conversation from the privacy of a marriage, and you share it, not with your sister or your best friend, but with a couple of million total strangers, that, to me, is not a classy move. that's not a good thing. and. >> bill: it's pay back though

that's what it was. >> well, if it's pay back, that ought to be factored into the decision as to whether or not to run the interview. which is what i think you said earlier. >> right. it's a disturbing situation but with the 24/7 news cycle. it's not going to get any better. now, there is an interesting story out of george mason, and this is a university in virginia that's doing some good work about the coverage of mitt romney so far in the primary season. and the headline is that mitt romney is getting far more negative press than anybody else in the g.o.p. field. that's interesting. all right? because he is not a bomb thrower like gingrich and not as conservative as santorum and not as out there as ron paul. but romney is getting 78% negative coverage on the broadcast networks 22%. even fox news is more negative than positive about romney on

"special report" bret baier's show, 63% negative on romney, 37% positive. so, what do you read -- how do you read that? >> yeah. i think this is -- it's because he is the frontrunner. and journalists love to tear down frontrunners, especially if they are republic frontrunners. but there is another part of the poll that's really, really interesting. get this, bill. they went through all these stories in the beginning of january. not just about romney, then they did another poll for the entire g.o.p. field. you are going to love this. of the entire g.o.p. field, cbs had the most positive portrayals of romney. 57% positive, 43% negative. fox, these are the exact words the poll, fox had the most balanced overall coverage with 52% positive and 48% negative. this is of all the entire field. and are you ready for this? nbc was the most negative overall with 27% positive, and

73% -- i know you are shocked. 73% negative. 73% of the things nbc news put on the air about all of the republics was something negative. >> bill: all i want to say is. >> nice going. >> bill: nbc is having election coverage tomorrow night returns coming in. [ laughter ] and. >> that's going to be a lot of fun. >> bill: everyone on the -- that's all i'm going to say. there isn't anyone there, all right, who is a reporter or -- it's all. >> no. >> boom. i don't know. we're living in a crazy world, goldberg. you know what i mean in the media is just going nuts. that's why gingrich scored big, man, he laid into us last night and the folks went right on. they know what's going on. bernie goldberg, everybody, pinheads and pritsz on deck starring barack obama being a

soul man. p and p, two minutes and change away.

pinheads and patriots. iden >> and president obama is singing a soul song. but, first, "killing lincoln," in the 20th presenting. thank you for supporting the book.

and james, from orange, next. i have not problem with the interview but i don't recall that work being curious about president obama's aassociation with rezko or bill ayers. and chuck: o'reilly i can't believe what a wimpy interview you did with ross. stories about newt gingrich and romney were hatchet jobs and you let him spin. >> from indiana, i have new request, when you told ross you would not have interviewed her,

i am glad you would not go there^. the story has been td. there is no corroboration, the woman so-called new information, and that is a key. right now in america anyone in america can say aanything abouta famous person. that is right. i will not put personal facts on the factor without hard fact buzz there has to be a major reason to put on that kind stuff. and from texas, same old story, got religion and everything is all right, with the world i don't care for gingrich. and from thailand, wise up, i often clean toilets in the minority as a minority sailor and guess what, it helped me shape my character. and from kansas, my 70's-year-old daughter and i got every question correct not civil war news quiz, time to bring not a team. >> and guy, from washington, my

aunt turned 101 last week, and her sisters could not be there because they called. probably on their cell phone. right, gary? congratulations to your aunt. christopher, from north carolina, please come to fayetteville you would love the crowd. i am there in february 3rd, get over this. we love fayetteville, and, tonight, president obama was all over the place yesterday down in disney and up in harlem. >> that's a no, then, reverend green was here. ♪ i am so in love with you those guys din think i would do it! i told you i was going to do it!

the sand man did not come out. don't worry, i cannot sing like you but i want dead show my appreciation. >> i do, too, i love al green, he is a patriot. ♪ whatever you want to do >> didn't think i would do it. that is it for us, tonight, please check out the fox news website, i shouldn't is done it, too late now. we would like you to spout off about the factor at foxnews.com/oreilly, name and time. word of the day, a great word, dolosity. i have come up with all of these new words, all new, by the way. that is it tonight. special south carolina voting all saturday on the