Originally from Lynn Sweet in the Suntimes blog:
The incident was triggered when O’Reilly–with a Fox News crew shooting–was screaming at Obama National Trip Director Marvin Nicholson “Move” so he could get Obama’s attention, according to several eyewitnesses. “O’Reilly was yelling at him, yelling at his face,” a photographer shooting the scene said.
O’Reilly grabbed Nicholson’s arm and shoved him, another eyewitness said. Nicholson, who is 6’8, said O’Reilly called him “low class.”
“He grabbed me with both his hands here,” Nicholson said, gesturing to his left arm and O’Reilly “started shoving me.” Nicholson said, ” He was pretty upset. He was yelling at me.”
Secret Service agents who were nearby flanked O ‘Reilly after he pushed Nicholson. They told O’Reilly he needed to calm down and get behind the fence-like barricade that contained the press.
Obama had his back turned at this point and did not see any of this.
O’Reilly yelled “sir” at Obama and Obama walked over, not aware of what happened and told him he had an overflow crowd to visit. According to the time code from a photographer shooting the two, Obama and O’Reilly talked near 11:45 a.m. eastern time.
MediaBiestro’s TV Newser denies Sweet’s reporting, saying: Insiders tell TVNewser O’Reilly and his crew were on a ropeline, but their shot was being blocked. So, the FNC host was doing his damndest to make sure his cameraman got the shot as Obama walked by. Despite the Sun-Times reporting, insiders tell us the Secret Service was not involved.
O’Reilly responded on Fox News, saying
“A big guy, 6’8″ and stands right in front of ‘The Factor’ camera. So I asked him, fairly nicely, ‘You’re blocking our shot, sir, you need to move a little bit.’ The cameraman that I had actually moved away from him. He moved right in front of the cameraman again to block our shot. So, I had to gently remove him from that position.”
UPDATE: The shoddy video is here below, and yes, O’Reilly did call the guy an SOB.