More attacks on Bill O'Reilly, but are they well-founded? Here's what almost everyone, including us, missed.

It's a headline at Media Matters, and it's all over the blue blogs. Bill O'Reilly hit the mute button on a caller to his radio show and threatened police action, all because the man mentioned the name of Keith Olbermann. This is manna from heaven for Olby, who devoted an entire segment of his Friday night show to crowing about it. Over at OlbermannWatch we wrote up our critique of Keith's on-air antics, which included the usual doses of irresponsible "journalism" and tendentious spin.

But what if Olbermann, Media Matters, and all those blue blogs are wrong? What if they are listening to the audio of the call and missing (or ignoring) something that puts the entire incident in a completely different light. We'd like to take credit for this notion, but it was Inside Cable News that had the smarts to catch something that was staring everyone else in the face--what may be the true reason the caller was cut off and told he could be reported to "local authorities":

whatever the caller said that triggered his booting most likely occurred after he was cut off because of the [7-second] delay.... If it was Olbermann’s name, the delay would have had time to cut the caller off before Olbermann’s name got out on the air.

The 7-second delay. Every call-in radio show uses this technique to keep obscenities off the air. And right after the call, the transcript reveals Bill said:

O'REILLY: When you call us, ladies and gentleman, just so you know, we do have your phone number, and if you say anything untoward, obscene, or anything like that, Fox security then will contact your local authorities, and you will be held accountable. Fair?
E.D. HILL: That's fair.

ICN believes that was the real reason why the call was terminated. And it seems to be the only one that makes any sense. The 7-second delay prevents unwanted words from getting on the air at all. The whole purpose is to prevent the audience from hearing something. If it had been the name "Olbermann" that O'Reilly was trying to censor, it would have been heard only by those in the studio. It would never have made air.

So ICN's analysis is totally logical: something else was said that the 7-second delay caught and silenced. Given that O'Reilly went on to discuss comments that were "untoward" and "obscene", and that E.D. Hill was in agreement, this explanation makes infinitely more sense than the rantings on the blogs.

Of course, Olbermann tonight ran with the blue blog interpretation, ignored the references to obscenity, and had a high old time skewering O'Reilly. But it appears that, once again, an attack on Mr Bill may prove to have far more sound and fury than substance. Time will tell.