Adopting his usual "looking out for you" mantra, O'Reilly on Monday suggested that Clooney and company make a serious effort to ensure that most of every dollar raised indeed makes it to aid tsunami victims.

The Fox News prime-time king intimated that he doesn't want the money to wind up seeping into the plethora of bureaucratic crevices that often permeate "relief" agencies and organizations. He said he'd watch to see if the money gets to the tsunami victims and warned that the celebrities taking part "had better be involved all the way down the line," the BBC reported.

Longtime viewers and fans know that this sort of thing is nothing new for O'Reilly. He was among the first and most vocal critics of the Red Cross and other aid agencies swamped by donations after the 9/11 attacks.

O'Reilly's reporting revealed that millions of dollars collected in the name of the attacks wasn't going to be spent on relief (although in the end, because of his scrutiny, much more of it was).

In his program's "Talking Points Memo" Tuesday night, O'Reilly elaborated and defended his investigative journalism.

"When Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in '99, $9 billion was pledged to help the folks down there. According to the Center on International Cooperation, most of that money never materialized," he said. "When an earthquake hit Iran in 2003, $1 billion was pledged. Seventeen million dollars showed up. Much of that problem was the corrupt Iranian government's foolishness."

But O'Reilly's cautious warning upset Clooney, who accused the Fox News star of trying to throw water on the effort.

In a letter to O'Reilly, Clooney said that because his nemesis seemed content to "stand on the sidelines and cast stones" at the event, it would likely lead many Americans to withhold donations because they feared the money would not be used for its intended purposes.

As a result, Clooney challenged O'Reilly to be a part of the fund-raising effort, to be broadcast this Saturday on NBC.

"Former Presidents Bush and Clinton believe this is an important enough event to participate in. We're not playing games here, we're trying to save lives. It's as simple as this; you're either with this joint effort or against it. We need an answer immediately," Clooney wrote in a letter to O'Reilly.

O'Reilly will indeed help with the event, which will be a telethon featuring musical acts, star interviews and other live events. But he is still sounding the cautious note regarding tsunami aid. "Only strict oversight by the media and responsible governments can forestall wrongdoing," he said.

Is O'Reilly being a wet blanket or a responsible journalist trying to hold Clooney and others to account?

You decide.

Editor's note: