I know it serves little purpose to you, the choir of mostly intelligent, logical humans with a conscience. Why pay any attention to the Bill O'Reillys of the world? Their game is weak, their opinions irrelevant, their facts distortions or outright lies. But The Falafel King still has a huge audience. And until demagogues like O'Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh implode under their own flaccid bombast, it's important to note their transgressions.
Here we have Mr. Bill "interviewing" a retired U.S. Army colonel with 29 years' service to her country. Notice how he speaks over her points and tries to pin her into answering a falsely constructed yes-no question. And the best part -- be sure to wait for it -- is when he goes on to attack her patriotism, eventually cutting her mic when she dares to throw it back in his face.
If you're impatient, you can read a recap by News Hound here. Or if you just want to see Snoop Dogg implore Mr. O'Reilly to perform felatio on him, then check out this clip from Dutch TV.
Apparently O'Reilly never got the memo -- or the series of memos -- describing how Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and George Bush discarded the Geneva Conventions and authorized torture of detainees. In O'Reilly's blinkered world, pointing out when our government behaves in ways antithetical to American ideals is...anti-American.
Ah, the no-spin zone. Makes me dizzy.
2 comments:
Damn. Do they sell righteous indignation in bottled form? Where does this man get his persecution complex?
I do wonder why people bother to go on his show. That woman (a Colonel who served 29 years in the Army!) was clearly the straw man there, and while the way he treated her makes him look like a bigger douchebag than usual, I wonder if continuing to give him that bait is kind of like thrashing around while you're in quicksand. Not so much productive - at least when you consider that there are people out there who will actually believe the guy's spin on that conversation.
The guy would interview a muppet and come off accusing Fozzy Bear or Beeker of giving comfort to our enemies and vilifying America. And then BO'R would warn us all that we should be thankful he exposed the true evils lurking behind that cute fuzzy veneer.
Come to think of it, maybe anyone with any sense should refuse to go on that show so his bookers will have to resort to the muppets.
And to repeat this woman's question, just what did he do to serve this country? I mean, besides making all of us a little bit dumber?
Not only was Wright a colonel in the army with 29 years of service but she TAUGHT THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS at Fort Bragg! Can you imagine a more appropriate expert to discuss this subject?
And yet she barely held her own in this interview because O'Shithead insisted on mishearing her points and insisting she came on to "bash America."
It's important that qualified, respected people continue to appear on his show. He has a huge audience (made up of octogenarian dupes, it seems) that needs to hear some reality. But it takes not only someone of a high caliber, but a particular approach to actually get a fair hearing.
Jack Shafer wrote this wonderful primer on "How to Beat Bill O'Reilly" for Slate:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2107110/
It works. I've seen those techniques in action. Unfortunately, more often than not, the representatives of any kind of opposing view (read: based in reality) come from ill-prepared lightweights.
One of my favorite (read: most cringe-inducing) segments on the show is when he has on that hate-filled Medusa, Michelle Malkin, supposedly balanced by blonde "Democratic Strategist" Kristen Powers, who more often than not agrees with her and O'Reilly.
Who the fuck is Kristen Powers? If any Democrats are listening to her strategies, it's no wonder Congress loses every argument to a delusional president.
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