Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

She laughed. "No, Inside Edition has never been the recipient of a Peabody Award."
I decided to call Bill. He was nice enough to get right back to me.
"Yeah, Al, what can I do for you?"
"Well, first of all, Bill, congratulations on all your success." "Thanks. What's up?"
"Okay. I saw you the other night on C-SPAN, and you said Inside Edition had won a
couple of Peabodys."
"That's right. We won two."
"Well, maybe you should check that out with the Peabody people. Because they don't
think you did."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Then, "I'll call you back."
About ten minutes later, Bill was on the line. "It was a Polk."
"A Polk?" I asked.
"Yeah. Just as prestigious as the Peabody."
"So, there are two most prestigious awards in journalism?" Bill didn't appreciate the
sarcasm. "Al, it's a very prestigious award."
"Fine," I said. "But, Bill, don't you think it's little ironic that you got it wrong about a
journalism award?"
show.
"Okay, Al, go after me if you want," and he hung up.
And, by the way, that Polk? Inside Edition won it over a year after O'Reilly left the
I thought Bill's reaction was odd. He hadn't said, "Omigod! How embarrassing! I can't
believe I've been saying that! Thank you so much, Al, for calling me. Now I won't humiliate
myself by making that mistake again. Thank you so much for calling me rather than taking it
public." Instead it was, "Go after me if you want."
So, I did. I called Lloyd Grove at the Washington Post's Reliable Source column.
Lloyd ran with it on March 1, 2001, after checking Nexis. He also offered Bill the opportunity
to respond, and quoted him saying, "AI Franken is on a jihad against me. So I got mixed
up between a Peabody Award and a Polk Award, which is just as prestigious."
Okay. So that was over. He got caught making a mistake, and was kind of a jerk about
it. Fine.