Bill O’Reilly followed in colleague Andrea Tantaros’ footsteps tonight by gratuitously throwing Benghazi into the missing Malaysian airliner story. And it merely confirmed my theory that O’Reilly’s real beef with the missing-jet media saturation is that there’s no way for him to exploit it.

As I posted earlier, The Five’s Andrea Tantaros, just happened to think of Benghazi families while she was sympathizing with the families of the missing Malaysian airline passengers. Later, O’Reilly just happened to think of Benghazi when he was thinking of how he’s getting beaten in the ratings by CNN looking out for the integrity of journalism over the Malaysian airlines story:

(T)he media is running wild with the airlines story, as you know, and there is a big reason why: money. The nation’s newspapers are in dire trouble. They need bold headlines. The network news doesn’t want to cover important stories like the IRS and Benghazi but they can cover the airliner without any political consequences.

Cable news, which now dominates America’s prime time media, is in a brutal war for ratings. The Fox News Channel was the #1 rated cable channel in the country last week. Not just news, all cable channels. We beat everybody. The zombies, the thrones, you name it.

There’s a lot at stake here. FNC wants to keep its leadership and its main competitor, CNN, understands there’s an appetite for the airline story. So it’s going wall-to-wall trying to generate some interest, get some viewers.

Not “trying” to generate interest and viewers, O’Reilly, but actually doing it. The New York Times reported earlier this week:

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the CNN 8 p.m. program, hosted by Anderson Cooper, beat Fox’s perennial ratings giant, Bill O’Reilly, in the audience that attracts the most revenue for news channels, viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. It was the first time Mr. Cooper has ever topped Mr. O’Reilly in the group for three straight days. (Mr. O’Reilly still won the week in that category.)

O’Reilly continued:

MSNBC has stayed the liberal course. They’re not really hyped up about the airliner story. But if they could find a way to blame Chris Christie, things may change.

Project much, O’Reilly?

From there, O’Reilly complained that the modern day media is not the independent watchdog to power the founding fathers intended when they gave it First Amendment protection. “Because of the big money now associated with the media… circulation and ratings now dominate news coverage and unfortunately, so does ideology," he said.

Of course, O'Reilly didn’t mean at Fox News.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to follow the jetliner story. It’s a mystery – folks like that. But when the media begins to pander to the audience and fabricate things, then there’s a problem. We’re living in an extremely dangerous age, where thugs like Putin and the mullahs of Iran could ignite a world war. We need honest and courageous media. Do we have that? You make the call.

I wholeheartedly agree that our media have failed us. The problem is, as I posted during O’Reilly’s first round of missing Malaysian airliner sour grapes, O’Reilly’s bellyaching just doesn’t pass the “legitimate concern for journalism” smell test. Not when you have a guy promoting phony stories like the War on Christmas and deliberately turning legitimate stories like the George Zimmerman verdict into a vehicle to advance his own racial acrimony.

As I also previously posted in Sour Grapes 1, O’Reilly’s grievance also smacks of, “There’s nothing in it to exploit,” as he has done with other stories he has over-covered.

But not to worry. If the hosts can’t actually make the missing Malaysian plane about Benghazi, I feel confident they’ll eventually find excuses reasons to blame Obama.

And then it will be back to Fox News business as usual.

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