NYT media "critic" Alessandra Stanley writes about the Bill O'Reilly Obama interview:

It was billed as the ultimate smackdown, and it certainly promised to be a wonk vs. wacko match: the cerebral, conciliatory Senator Barack Obama versus Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel's most irascible, combative anchor: a commentator who calls liberals "loons" and "pinheads" and on Thursday's show described reporters scrutinizing Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as "sniveling, left-wing, wine-drinking, brie-eating."

The topic was national security, and their tone was civil, but thankfully not too civil: Mr. O'Reilly, as is his wont, spoke brusquely, interrupted, argued and didn't let his guest off the hook. He told Mr. Obama he had "bloviated" in parts of his convention speech, but congratulated him on his early opposition to the war, saying he had been "perspicacious.