Boston-area cable TV channel CN8 has an anchor named Barry Nolan. Nolan doesn't much like Fox News talker Bill O'Reilly.

CN8’s Barry Nolan says Fox News bigfoot Bill O’Reilly is “a mental case,” and Nolan’s crazy mad that the local Emmy Awards will honor Mr. No Spin Zone at their 31st annual back-slapfest next month.

“I am appalled, just appalled,” Nolan told the Track. “He inflates and constantly mangles the truth . . . and his frequent target is the ‘left-leaning’ media - the ones who do report the news fairly. And those are the same people who will be sitting in the room honoring him.”

Nolan, citing an Indiana University study that claims O’Reilly - a former Channel 7 anchor - calls a person or group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds on average, has been busy ringing up local TV types to get their support for his “Rescind O’Reilly” effort. He claims former WBZ anchor Liz Walker is on board.

I'm not a huge fan of O'Reilly -- I think that while his instincts are good, he shoots himself in the foot far too often because he is un- or under-prepared. (And don't even get me started on that body language thing he does each week.)

But if you keep reading, you find out where Nolan is coming from.

But Nolan insists that O’Reilly is “a mental case” who shouldn’t be held up as an example of journalistic integrity to budding TV journos from Boston University and Emerson College.

“This is who you should aspire to be like? Is this what we’re telling them?” he fumed.

Despite his reservations about his fellow Boston TV veteran, Nolan claims he will go to the May 10 shindig at the Marriott Copley Place to support his CN8 comrades. But since his wife will be out of town, Barry has invited O’Reilly’s nemesis, MSNBC yakker Keith Olbermann, as his date.

Talk about glass houses and stones. If you're seriously going to go after O'Reilly for name-calling, then it's probably not a good idea to associate yourself with someone who has a feature each night naming the "Worst Person in the World" -- very few of which are serial-killers

So, is the reason for the hubbub O'Reilly's name-calling or his politics?

That's a rhetorical question. You don't have to answer it.