Posted on 11/30/2004 4:25:20 PM PST by Kitten Festival
I used to enjoy watching Bill O'Reilly on his primetime news/opinion program The O'Reilly Factor. In spite of his somewhat pompous demeanor (now that I think about it, I actually like that in a person) he seemed to be genuinely concerned with being fair to his guests and the subjects of his commentary.
Sure, he's been known to cut off more than a few babbling nitwits who've refused to answer his questions directly, but for the most part, he's always tried to give everyone their say, and for that I've admired him... or at least I did before last summer.
Mr. O'Reilly is often called a right-winger, especially by the liberal press, a characterization which I never thought was particularly accurate. He's generally more conservative than liberal, that's true, but he's certainly not some right-wing ideologue. As a matter of fact, he always struck me as being more like a Bobby Kennedy Democrat than anything else.
But whatever labels anyone wishes to place on the man, one thing is certain, he definitely has a way of aggravating people on both sides of the political aisle from time to time, and I for one am no exception.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I like Bill Oreilly but calling him a right winger is insulting to those of us who actually ARE.
O'Reilly is a blowhard more concerned with personal glorification than anything else. He dodged one recently with the young producer but his big mouth is going to torch him yet.
I used to like O'Reilly because he was one of the few people in the media who would openly critcize both Clintons, plus he was on Jesse Jackson all the time. However, O'Reilly is such a pompous windbag he lost me as a viewer a long time ago. He would fit right in on Capitol Hill.
November 29, 2004
O'Reilly Off His Rocker
We told you so - Bill O'Reilly is off his rocker. His new column defends Dan Rather as the victim of a dishonest and "unfair" press. In the same column, he blasts the Swift Boat vets for telling the truth about Kerry. What's up? He's probably angling for an interview with Rather, just as he was pandering for an interview with Kerry. And he's probably looking for somebody else to cry with, now that O'Reilly has paid between $2-$10 million to settle a sex harassment case. "The ordeal of Dan Rather goes far beyond the man himself," says "The Factor." "It speaks to the presumption of guilt that now rules the day in America. Because of a ruthless and callow media, no citizen, much less one who achieves fame, is given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to allegations or personal attacks."
As Cal Thomas once put it, O'Reilly is the "big kahuna" of cable news in this "ruthelss and callow media," someone who called me a liar when I appeared on his show and didn't give me a chance to rebut him.
As to the presumption of guilt, why didn't you fight that sex harassment suit, Bill?
O'Reilly claims that "Rather was found guilty without a fair hearing." What? He eventually apologized for using forged documents. He should have apologized to Bush.
It now seems clear that O'Reilly is on a downward spiral. He is cracking up right before our eyes. Perhaps this means his wife has filed for divorce.
Posted by: Cliff on Nov 29, 04 | 4:14 pm | Permalink
Ed is partially right about the rather incoherent, shocking Boston Herald column wherein O'Reilly defends dear dandy Dan. That's out of O'Reilly's own GUILT in the sex tape scandal that he fixed very smoothly and quickly to the tune of $2 mil +. O'Reilly is saying, in this oped piece, "Look, folks. I was smeared. That's what people do. They smear high value targets. Dan Rather is a great guy, really really honest. So am I........but look! Danny was "smeared" without facts." . . . .
You get the picture. O'Reilly is counting on readers making a comparison between how poor Dan was treated (without "facts" - which in itself isn't true because the only one failing to admit to them was Dan Rather himself!) - and how he, O'Reilly, was treated. That's what this otherwise incomprehensible near rant about how "Guilt No Longer Needs Proof" (Boston Herald) is really all about. It's about his scandal. He's trying to argue, by defending Rather, that what was said or reported about HIM is also a "smear." That's the "real deal."
....and lest anyone claim that I'm "not being fair" or am "leaping to conclusions," let's leap to the conclusion that no tough Irish kid from Levittown, who has made it as big as Bill O'Reilly would EVER in a hundred years pay some nonentity over $2 million dollars, just because she started making up stories out of thin air! She had tapes, folks. That's why ole "ethical" Bill had to deal. He dealt. He bought his way out of the problem. She and the problem went away, but not his shame over it. That's why he wrote an oped piece talking about "guilt without proof" and "smearing" good people. He wants you to "connect the dots" and believe that all the talk that y'all heard six weeks ago was just a smear campaign. If he can use Danny as his model - CBS anchor for over 3 decades, an icon of the media in general - then he, O'Reilly rises to that level also, and is also "smeared" - just because of his great success. That's what he wants you to think. That's why he wrote the particular "Danny's innocent" article. It's NOT about Dan Rather. It's about Bill O'Reilly, who had a "thing" about phones and young women working at Fox. Char
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.