Like the rest of Bill O'Reilly's male posse, Jesse Watters, in embracing Bill's right wing ideology and misogyny, is a chip off the old blockhead. Watters "comedy," like the "comedy" of Miller, Carolla, Gutfeld, and McGuirk is really an expression of what O'Reilly really believes such as the recent Watters World piece that purported to show that single women are really too stupid to have the right to vote. This week, Watters' oevre was an attempt to prove that Bill Maher's fans are really, as Watters big pimping daddy Bill O'Reilly would say, "loons" who are really too stupid to have the right to vote. His piece was peppered with not so subtle right wing talking point. As such, the smug and smarmy Watters adroitly demonstrated why a number of studies have shown Fox viewers to be misinformed and that begs the question of who are really the loons!
O'Reilly started the segment by reminding his audience about his belief, articulated in his "Talking Points" that the "far left is running wild after the reelection of President Barack Obama." (Hmmm, I shopped at Whole Foods. Was that sufficiently wild?) He then showed video of Watters' interviews outside a Bill Maher performance in NY City.
After some banal banter, Watters advanced a right wing talking point with his question, to a woman who supports Obamacare, about what she would think if health premiums went up. Rather than showing her response, he cut to a Honeymooners clip in which Jackie Gleason said "you really got me that time." He asked another woman if she was concerned about "this massive national debt." After she responded that Obama has spent less than other presidents, Watters smirked and said "Obama, you sure about that." A clip of a guy saying "what kind of rubbish is that?" was shown. Watters advanced more agitprop with the question of "what's the point of raising taxes on wealthy people" when "if you raise taxes on just the wealthy it's only about 68 billion in revenue."
He asked another woman if she "hated the rich." In the midst of Watters' agitprop, there was a moment of schadenfreude when Watters statement, that raising taxes only pays for a week in spending, was met with the response that cutting out PBS only gets an hour. To Watters smarmy question about Obama's plan on housing, the same interviewee said that housing prices have gone up. Watters didn't believe him. Watters engaged in his trademark sexism, while promoting a core Bill O'Reilly/right wing talking point when he asked a woman if he should pay for her contraception. (Note to Jesse - her health plan, not you, is paying for her birth control.)
After the video, Bill and Jesse chatted. Bill said "Number One, housing prices have not gone up." Watters said that they're "down since the peak in 2006." Bill and Jesse are wrong. According to market research, "prices were up 4.6% in August from a year ago, the largest year-over-year gain in six years. The report parallels others showing recent strengthening in home prices, which are still down about 30% from their 2006 peak."
More right wing misinformation from O'Reilly with the claim that President Obama has "spent the most." Watters blithered about historic deficits which are a different entity than government spending. On the Forbes website (hardly liberal), they cite Marketwatch which states that "our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower." Jesse's interviewee was right.
O'Reilly pontificated that "the president's supporters really don't know much." Watters could have been describing the Fox audience when he said that Maher's audience are "zombies." He opined that the president "could destroy the economy but as long as there's Obamacare, gay marriage, and abortion on demand, they're going to support the guy no matter what." (Uh, Jesse, gay marriage and abortion are state things and given the number of states with anti-choice law, it's hardly "on demand" but thanks for the talking points.)
Watters, who has obviously never listened to anything said by Greg Gutfeld, accused Maher of being "vicious, vile, and hateful." Despite the fact that Fema and the power companies are unconnected, Watters couldn't understand why the audience clapped for FEMA when "nobody in NY has power, no water, no food." (The Maher thing was 11/10. Full power was restored to Manhattan 11/2. As of the 11/12 all power that was safe to restore, in other areas of the city, was restored.)
Maher fans are "stupid?" Really?
Isn’t Watters the editor of “FoxNation” website, which allows “vicious, vile, and hateful” comments to be posted DESPITE the website’s specific statement to the contrary?
I think he knows he’s a hypocrite on this and that is why he can’t keep the smirk off his face.
Says the guy who constantly puts forth the notion that he is “fair and balanced” and “doesn’t have a dog in the fight?”
He’s spilling his gut’s about his true feelings on Politics as fast as Mitten’s at a closed fundraiser!
If only his audience could hear what he say’s, without the fog of their ideology getting in the way.