Ted Koppel Schools Bill O'Reilly On True Journalism

Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly asked his guest, veteran journalist Ted Koppel, how HE would interview GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump.

Koppel did not hold back, explaining that he felt Fox News and their ilk have made the news interview "irrelevant" through their pundity when it comes to the Trumpster.

Via Media Matters:

“You and I have talked about this general subject many times over the years. It’s irrelevant how I would do it. You know who made it irrelevant? You did. You have changed the television landscape over the past 20 years — you took it from being objective and dull to subjective and entertaining. And in this current climate, it doesn’t matter what the interviewer asks him; Mr. Trump is gonna say whatever he wants to say, as outrageous as it may be.”

As he so often does, O’Reilly didn’t actually admit that his guest had hit the nail on the head, so he tried reiterating the same query. Once again, Koppel did not let O’Reilly or Fox News of the hook for their culpability in the rise of Trump:

“The first way you do it is not in the interview — you do it by some reporting. It’s an old-fashioned concept but I think demonstrating who and what Mr. Trump is and what his policies really amount to is something you don’t do in an interview. He doesn’t answer the questions.”

Reporting from Fox News! Ha! Now that truly would be revolutionary.

Finally, Koppel left O’Reilly with this stinging criticism of the candidate they helped spawn:

“When was the last time you have heard Donald Trump spell out a real policy on anything other than, ‘We’re gonna be the best, we’re gonna be the greatest, I’m gonna negotiate the best deals you’ve ever seen.’ There is no substance in any of that, and nobody among his followers seems to care about that.”