FOX News' Bill O'Reilly encourages viewers to harrass publisher of Syracuse Post-Standard
Reported by Chrish - April 24, 2006
On the right-wing smear program The O'Reilly Factor tonight 4/24/06 O'Reilly again attempts to attach this word to the media outside FOX to convince his devotees that the media is somehow unholy:
SECULAR: 1 a : of or relating to the worldly or temporal. b : not overtly or specifically religious c : not ecclesiastical or clerical 2 : not bound by monastic vows or rules; specifically : of, relating to, or forming clergy not belonging to a religious order or congregation
He contrasts it with the "traditional" media (FOX) that is supposedly more honest and moral. Ahem:
TRADITIONAL: 1 : an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior
Comment: The media has always been expected to challenge the powerful and seek to uncover injustices and fraud. We have seen a demonization of "secular", especially when attached to "progressives", and too many people think that secular means atheistic or anti-religious. This is intentional on the far right's part. "Traditional" is now code for hetero Christian families. We see here in the comments the effects of demonizing the mass media and canonizing the personalities at FOX: an unwillingness to hear other points of view and a mistrust of anyone not on board the mother ship.
Tonight, under the self-promoting title "Culture War in Print," O'Reilly said that the "left-wing media" hates him, FOX, and other FOX commentators because they "provide balance" to the "overwhelming secular presence in the media." ( I wonder how he feels about the overwhelming secular presence in the restaurant business, car manufacturing, the medical profession, utilities provision, and every other profession outside the clergy? ) He accuses some "left-wing media" of pushing their agenda in their hard news pages, labelling it unacceptable. Because the press is afforded First Amendment protections, he says it must be fair and balanced. Others, myself included, take those protections to mean that they can be as tough and critical as is warranted without fear of reprisal.
But "some people" can't win the debate so they resort to marginalizing and smears, and The Factor isn't going to tolerate it.
Yep, he's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. He's launching a campaign to hold the smear merchants accountable and the first step? Smear the newspaper publisher and writer who dared to print this and this. (We all know it's the reference to Andrea Mackris that sends him over the edge.)
O'Reilly accused the Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard of "smearing" him and told viewers to go to his website to get the phone numbers of the publisher and the editorial writer, whose pictures and names appeared on the screen for fifteen seconds. He called the men "villains" (smear), "unprofessional" (smear), and "incompetent"(smear), saying the paper's circulation had declined 30% (smear) in the last "few years". But according to Wikipedia:
"In 1993, the local feature desks were merged into one section, CNY, in reference to Central New York. In 2001, the Herald-Journal folded, leaving one paper, The Post-Standard. ... Before the merger with the evening paper, the Post-Standard was named as among the "10 best newspapers in America with a circulation of under 100,000" by Al Neuharth of USA Today (run by a competing organization). Since the merger, circulation has increased to over 120,000."
Looks like O'Reilly misspoke again.
He continues, calling it "a disgraceful newspaper" (smear), and some call it "sub-standard" (outsourced smear).
He tells his viewers that should they want to speak with the men their numbers are on his website, and proudly says that is what he'll continue to do: Any media person who continues to use smear tactics, not just on him but in any way, will be featured on The Factor and inducted into the Hall of Shame. He'll keep a running list of smear merchants along with a "don't buy, don't advertise" list.
Then, THEN, he says, you know we debate issues on this program all day. I have no objection to any media criticizing my stand on any matters of the day. But beginning today, the smear stops here. You guys want to do that? We'll let everybody know about it. That's called accountability.
Comment: What a hypocrite, OMG. This is just a run-up to his culture war book that's coming out, in synch with the Republican party who NEEDS an issue to rally the base to the polls.
Amend 4/26/06: This is too rich. At the very moment O'Reilly was smearing the men by calling them incompetent he showed their pictures - or rather he showed the writer and the deceased since 2002 father of the current publisher.
