As part of his criticism of President Obama’s appearance on Funny or Die's "Between Two Ferns," Bill O’Reilly announced two nights ago, “Abe Lincoln would not have done it.” So Media Matters consulted a Lincoln scholar – and guess what? He strenuously disagrees.
Media Matters spoke to Harold Holzer, a man with impeccable Lincoln credentials: He’s the author of many Lincoln books and articles, chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and the recipient of the National Humanities Medal for his work on Lincoln. Media Matters’ Joe Strupp wrote the following:
“I will tell you Abraham Lincoln would go on ‘Between Two Ferns’ in a second,” said Holzer. “He went in the reeds, he played whatever was the most modern, the most cunning, the most unthinkable, unprecedented way to get his message across in a day when there were no press conferences, no culture for press conferences.”
…According to Holzer, Obama’s actions are in keeping with Lincoln’s press tactics.
“How could you be angry with President Obama for taking his message to the widest audience, this is absolutely in the Lincoln tradition,” said Holzer. “He used humor very well and was very tough, very manipulative with the press.
Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone made a similar point. He wrote that Lincoln's strong fondness for off-color jokes and anecdotes "attracted its share of press criticism."
Calderone also punched holes in Fox's criticism of comedy during serious times. He noted that Fox talking heads approved of George W. Bush’s jokes about not finding WMDs in 2004, in the middle of the Iraq war.
That period could also be described as “serious times,” but according to progressive watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Fox News stars didn’t seem bothered by Bush’s jokes as the situation in Iraq unraveled.
“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace said he thought the jokes were funny, and Brit Hume described Bush’s routine as “a good-natured performance, and it made him look good only in the sense that it showed he could poke fun at himself.”
Hume added: “And you have to feel like saying to people, ‘Just get over it.’”
So I think we can conclude that yes, Abraham Lincoln would have gone on Funny or Die. But I think we can also conclude that, since Lincoln was a Republican, Fox would have cheered his performance.
IMHO, knowing that Obama has said that Lincoln is an inspiration to him and that Obama even used Lincoln’s Bible for his inauguration, BOR’s saying that Lincoln wouldn’t have gone on “Funny Or Die” was a very deliberate choice designed to try and hit Obama personally. BOR hoped to take Obama down a peg by declaring that the President he admires the most would never do what Obama did. And, of course, like everything BOR does, there’s always a bit of “hey, look at me” as BOR definitely wants the folks to think that he has some kind of special insight to the Lincoln mindset, you know, since there’s a Lincoln book showing up in the bargain bins with his name on the cover).
BOR’s uber-ego may think that he got a good shot in at Obama but, as it’s playing out, BOR is looking rather petty and even uninformed. LOL!