Are There Cracks in the Right Wing Echo Chamber?
Reported by Marie Therese - May 3, 2005
Bill O'Reilly has been on a two-week tear against Florida State Attorney Brad King because King has refused to indict three people in the Jessica Lunsford case. However, yesterday O'Reilly announced to Jessica's father, Mark, and Lunsford's attorney, Herb Cohen, that "[we] can only do so much here" at the Factor. Apparently, the bloom is off the rose and Bill is having difficulty influencing local politics as forcefully as he did in the past.
On its O'Reilly Factor web page, FOX News describes the show as follows:
"Other interview news shows are guest-driven," says Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist Bill O'Reilly. "The O'Reilly Factor' is driven by me. I will not stand for 'spin.' I look for guests who will stand up and verbally battle for what they believe in."
"The O'Reilly Factor" uncovers news items from the established wisdom and goes against the grain of the more traditional interview-style programs. O'Reilly's signature "No Spin Zone" cuts through the rhetoric as he interviews the players who make the story newsworthy.
Pushing beyond just the headlines, "The O'Reilly Factor" also features issues from local markets that do not find the national spotlight on other newscasts. According to O'Reilly, "Just because a story originates from somewhere the networks typically avoid, doesn't mean it contains less challenging issues, or compelling ideas."
In the past, whenever O'Reilly said "Jump," local and national media would say "How high?" His jihads would be grist for the mill of the right-wing internet, conservative talk radio and, eventually, they'd find their way into the mainstream media. One need only recall his recent campaign against University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.
However, the O'Reilly magic does not seem to be working in Florida these days and it also was not working when he attacked Atlanta's Paul Howard. In both instances, local news organizations either fought back or simply ignored the King of Mean's scabrous attacks on one of their own.
In retaliation O'Reilly has vilified these organizations on air - especially the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the St. Petersburg Times - claiming that they are on the side of the "bad guys" who are letting little babies die and vicious criminals walk free.
Interestingly, on yesterday's show, Mark Lunsford's attorney, Herb Cohen, said that there is plenty of time to indict the three possible accomplices through a revolutionary new approach, namely, waiting for the forensic evidence to be analyzed!!
COHEN: We're just at the beginning of this. When you say, you know, you've gone to the end of this, it's just starting. They don't even have the forensics back. They've taken items out of this trailer. They've taken sheets. They've taken carpet. They've taken pieces of wall ... we're checking on these things. You've got lots of time to file cases ... We're not giving up on this."
O'REILLY: ... When I say I'm at the end, I've done about as much as I can .. so what we want now is the result of the investigation, to see if the three knew Jessica was in the trailer, while police were looking, because then there's no question that they were part of the criminal conspiracy and the crime ...
Finally, Bill "gets it" - here in America we generally wait for evidence before we bring charges against our citizens. Unfortunately for Bill, that process may not conveniently fit into Sweeps Week.
At the end of the segment Bill takes a few parting shots:
O'REILLY: I am just beside myself. I have never in thirty years seen a public official act this callously in a case of this importance than this Brad King. And I've never seen a local media ignore it the way it's been ignored."
COMMENT
Rosebud .....
UPDATE 5/3/05 6:40 PM EDT:
Here's the official FOX News biography of Bill O'Reilly. It explains how he got his Emmy award.
Marie Therese
Bill O'Reilly joined FOX News Channel as the anchor and host of The O'Reilly Factor in 1996.
The O'Reilly Factor (8-9 p.m. ET, Monday-Fridays) is the most-watched program on cable news and has caused the powerful in America to duck for cover as the rigidly enforced "No Spin Zone" deals with the nation's most important issues in a straightforward and provocative manner.
From humble beginnings on Long Island, NY, Bill O'Reilly has risen to become "the new pope of TV Journalism" according to television critic Marvin Kitman.
In 2000, The Factor (as O'Reilly refers to it) passed Larry King Live to become the number one cable news program in the United States.
Both of O'Reilly's non-fiction books, The O'Reilly Factor, and The No Spin Zone have each reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list. His novel Those Who Trespass has been optioned for the screen by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions.
While growing up O'Reilly had no idea that journalism would be his calling. He lived in a modest house with his father, mother and sister in the Westbury section of Levittown. O'Reilly began working in his early teens mowing lawns, which evolved into a house painting business.
Upon graduating from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York with a degree in History, he taught high school for two years in Miami, Florida. O'Reilly returned to school to pursue a Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University.
After receiving his Master's degree, O'Reilly began his television news career in Scranton, Pennsylvania, followed by stops in Dallas, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Hartford, and Boston. He received an Emmy Award for his report on sky-jacking at KMGH-TV in Denver. In 1980, he anchored his own program on WCBS-TV in New York and received an Emmy Award during his tenure there. Later he became a CBS News correspondent covering the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands, among other assignments.
In 1986, Bill O'Reilly joined ABC News as a correspondent on The World News Tonight. During his three year tenure, he appeared on the show more than one hundred times and two National Headliner Awards for excellence in reporting.
O'Reilly's career changed in 1989 when he joined the nationally syndicated Inside Edition as senior correspondent and backup anchor. Within three weeks, he took over the anchor chair from David Frost. During his six years at Inside Edition, the show was one of the highest-rated "infotainment" programs in America.
In 1995, O'Reilly left to enroll in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he received a Master's Degree in Public Administration. Upon leaving Harvard, Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup FOX News Channel, hired O'Reilly to anchor The O'Reilly Factor.
Bill O'Reilly continues to live on Long Island where his best friends are guys with whom he attended first grade.
