Live On TV: The News Corp-NBC U (GE) Smackdown

Fox and NBC are playing quite nicely over at Hulu. Over on MSNBC and Fox News, though, it's a different story. Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post (and CNN, too) has a lengthy blow-by-blow, but here's the short version: A sort-of-play feud between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has devolved into a full-fledged corporate smackdown.

It started a few years ago when Olbermann figured his fans loved it when he named O'Reilly "Worst Person in the World." O'Reilly responded by making NBC News' so-called liberal bias his cause celebre, but never mentioning Olbermann by name.

This spring, O'Reilly turned up the rhetoric, with near-daily commentary on NBC U corporate parent GE: He says the conglom is killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq by doing business with Iran. Also, he says, CEO Jeff Immelt isn't very good at his job. Olbermann recently upped the ante by interviewing a wacko who had once confronted the very tall and very scary O'Reilly outside his Long Island home.

Apparently, both Fox News chief Roger Ailes and News Corp. (NWS) chairman Rupert Murdoch have reached out to Jeff Zucker to offer a deal: we'll stop if you stop. So far, Zuck hasn't buckled, and we hope he doesn't, at least for entertainment's sake. (Then again, if you're worried about the effect of corporate ownership on news organizations, this is your worst fear, realized: CEOs lobbying each other to affect each companies' news agendas.) Here's some of the latest: