Dec. 7, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

It may have been Steelers vs. Packers out on the field last night but Bill O’Reilly tried his best to get President Obama to fumble during their pre-Super Bowl interview on Fox News.

As Susan Milligan points out in US News, the President deftly handled O’Reilly’s line of questioning and observes that Obama’s “behavior indicates he is unwilling to engage in petty political food fights.”

O’Reilly: “Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?”

Obama: “You know, the truth is that the people—and I’m sure previous presidents would say the same thing, whether it was Bush or Clinton or Reagan or anybody—the people who dislike you don’t know you.”

The objective of Milligan’s piece was to point out media irresponsibility. But the O’Reilly/Obama interview is also another example of what John Harris and Jim VandeHei explore today in POLITICO: how the President is “playing the press like a fiddle.”

He is doing it by exploiting some of the most long-standing traits among reporters who cover politics and government — their favoritism for politicians perceived as ideologically centrist and willing to profess devotion to Washington’s oft-honored, rarely practiced civic religion of bipartisanship.

Click here to read the entire article on POLITICO.

Billy O'Reilly

Keith Olbermann

The so-called cease-fire between Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has ended … it may have been the shortest and least observed cease-fire in history.

According to a New York Times article, parent CEO’s Roger Ailes and Jeff Immelt got the pair to tone down their attacks. At least they had until the Times pointed it out, which has set off a new round of hostilities. Olbermann denied any deal to play nice and launched a new segment — “The Worst Persons in the World” — which was topped by O’Reilly and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.

O’Reilly, who refuses to mention Olbermann by name on his show, put Jeff Immelt and GE’s Securities and Exchange Commission fine back in his sights.

So, was there a cease-fire? Will there be another brokered peace? Howard Kurtz’s article in the Washington Post today cites Ailes as saying he could control his nutcases, but Immelt couldn’t control his.