Bill O'Reilly Blasts 'Desperate' Chris Matthews For Going On A Personal 'Jihad'

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly ripped the "desperate" MSNBC and host Chris Matthews on Thursday, alleging the network was in a "desperate situation" with falling ratings.

O'Reilly was responding to comments Matthews made on his show, "Hardball," on Thursday, in which he said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a rising Republican star, had a "black Irish look." The term refers to Irish people with dark figures, and Matthews compared Cruz to O'Reilly and Pat Buchanan.

"In addition to being misguided politically, Mr. Matthews also apparently needs glasses — badly," O'Reilly said, accusing Matthews of going on a personal "jihad" against himself and Cruz.

"One of the reasons could be ratings," O'Reilly said. "MSNBC in prime time [is] down 20 percent year over year, and falling fast."

O'Reilly has a point: MSNBC's ratings have plunged on a year-over-year basis, and the network now frequently places fourth in primetime behind CNN, HLN, and Fox News, which outpaces the three networks significantly.

MSNBC averaged 539,000 viewers in primetime this May, which was down 20 percent from last May. There was little better news in the key age 25-54 demographic, where its primetime audience fell by 19 percent.

Here's the clip of Thursday night's "O'Reilly Factor":