(Possible) controversy alert! Idolatry, EW.com’s humble video series devoted to all things American Idol, is being sucked into the No-Spin Zone. That’s right, Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor will be excerpting our interview with Idol‘s season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert for an episode airing tonight at 8 p.m. EDT (and repeating at 11 p.m.).
I’m not sure what to expect, exactly, but here’s a little context: During my freewheeling, candid Idolatry chat with Mr. Lambert, I had asked if he’d seen an O’Reilly Factor segment from earlier in the season during which host Bill O’Reilly blurred out photos of Adam kissing another man and called them "embarrassing." When I raised the question "embarrassing to who?" Adam replied, "I wasn’t embarrassed. I guess he was. Bill was embarrassed." So you know where we’re headed, right? Straight up Molehill Mountain, the land where narcissistic TV hosts grab onto any little soundbite that makes the news about them. And now, here I am, blogging about O’Reilly building a show around an interview I did with an Idol contestant that referenced an O’Reilly segment that was focused on said contestant. Coming soon to your dictionary, next to the word "meta": A picture of my ridiculous pink dye-job.
O’Reilly’s web site teases their story thusly: "’Idol’ runner-up Adam Lambert sounds off on Bill! We’ll play you the tape." Newsflash to fans of The O’Reilly Factor: The interview, in its entirety, is embedded after the jump! Guess there’s no need to tune in to O’Reilly after all!
UPDATE: Color me plum surprised! O’Reilly actually praised Adam for his Idolatry comment that TOF‘s two female contributors gave him props during the telecast in question. But riddle me this: If O’Reilly wants us to believe he truly operates in a "no-spin" zone, how come he neglected to air any of Adam’s Idolatry quotes that could’ve been construed as critical or mocking of the Fox News host? Also, dude needs a serious education about First Amendment. Maybe he should start with this link?
I love that you are going to be on O’Reilly in all of your Allison Iraheta Pink glory Slezak! Wow, Idolatry is really getting around…
wens the next idolatry interview coming? u promised on friday!
That was an awesome interview Michael. You brought up so many interesting topics and Adam was extremely revealing and engaging. O’Reilly is a tool.
Well atleast it’s good publicity for EW and Idoltatry. How many days has A.I been done again?
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/05/29/jon-kate-being-investigated-for-child-labor-complaint/
Michael, you conducted the BEST interview with Adam I’ve seen. Guess O’Reilly is missing his “Inside Edition” roots, popular culture being more interesting lately than politics. If he’s rude to Adam, Bill will be get a avalanche of nasty emails.
On a side note, Bill keeps saying he’s “never seen American Idol”. So Bill, WHY are you talking/reporting on something you have no first hand knowledge of?? Isn’t that journalism 101???
Slezak! Kris’ Idolatry episode was supposed to be up yesterday. We’re going crazy here! Can you give us any sort of updated time frame?
Bill is a joke and your interview with Adam was the best Adam interview yet. Thanks for it!
Now where’s Kris’s interview?? I am insatiable. (Also, I am awaiting Gokey’s with great glee.)
Look at it this way Michael…people will get to see your wonderful new hairdo!!!!
O’Reilly is a bigger tool than Gokey. Speaking of the Gokester, where’s his interview that was supposed to be up today? Heck, where’s the interview with Kris that was supposed to be up yesterday? We LOVE you guys and Idolatry, but WE NEED CLOSURE!!!
Amen to everything that Margie said. O’reilly is just way past his prime and he knows it. Trying to stay relevant by outing an awesomely talented new singer is low.
Mike, how much you wanna bet Billo makes a “comment” on your pink hair?
I still don’t know what Bill is going to be able to do with that portion of your (overall awesome) interview. All Adam said about it was that he wasn’t embarrassed by the pictures and that the O’Reilly segment on him wasn’t as bad as he though it might be. Oooh…controversial! O’Reilly just wants to cash in on Adam’s popularity at the moment (it seems to be a massive theme around the web).
Ok..so I totally initiated an eye roll as I read the headline..ugh Bill O’Reilly..but then I broke into laughter- heh, pink hair, heh. I am so going to watch the news tonight.
Allison Iraheta-hair <3 heh.
The best thing about this is we all know Adam doesn’t give a s**t what people say about him.
Slezak, I would be very happy for Idolatry to go on forever and never come to an end, but you are killing us by not putting up the Kris and Danny interviews!
I was reading a political site today about the Supreme Court nominee and it referenced Adam. I’ve come across so many non-Idol articles that reference him, that I’ve concluded it is at the moment obligatory to namedrop him so a website gets hits regardless of topic. As I’ve also seen my local TV news anchor also randomly talk about him (and I live nowhere near California), this is obviously holding true for TV as well. Although this is O’Reilly’s third time going after Adam. It’s starting to seem obsessive.