On Thursday’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann talks to attorney Howard Cooper, who represented Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy in his successful libel lawsuit against the Boston Herald and the reporter, Dave Wedge. Wedge wrote a hit piece against Judge Murphy, falsely claiming he said about a 14 year old rape victim, “tell her to get over it”. Naturally, this is the kind of hard-hitting and fact-free journalism that Bill O’Reilly loves, so he brought Wedge on his show allowing him to trash the judge all over again, creating such a national furor that the judge received extreme hate mail and death threats.So it raises the question: why Billo isn’t liable for libel?

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Olbermann: In the words of the court ruling, “The press…is not free to publish false information about anyone…intending that it will cause a public furor, while knowingly, or in reckless disregard of, its falsity.” A law that was not only ignored by Mr. Wedge but was also ignored and continues to be ignored by Bill O’Reilly.

I could be wrong, but isn’t that the mission statement of Fox News?

(thanks to Nicole for assistance)