Bill O'Reilly, Competing with TIME Magazine, Names His Person of the Year
Reported by Deborah - December 17, 2007 -
Tonight, 12/17/07 Bill O'Reilly, trying to beat TIME Magazine's announcement on Wednesday, named Gen. David Petraeus the Factor Person of the Year. He noted that The Factor had very stringent requirements for this honor but didn't reveal if he was the only person making this choice. In fact, he acted like The Factor's Person of the Year award was on equal footing with TIME's.
O'Reilly told his viewers that TIME was considering JK Rowling or Al Gore for the annual honor. He signaled negative for JK Rowling but maintained a straight face when mentioning Al Gore's name. However, he gave no hint that Al Gore would make an acceptable choice referring to his global warming work but ignoring his Nobel Prize.
O'Reilly stated that The Factor criteria required the person to have done something extraordinary that changed the world. He obviously felt that neither Rowlings or Gore fit The Factor's rigid requirements. His choice of General Petraeus also gave him to opportunity to point fingers at the "Bush haters" who he claims, regularly ,don't want us to succeed in Iraq.
comment:There is a strong probability that O'Reilly will get a lot of mileage out of condemning anyone who disagrees with his selection so I'd rather not give him the satisfaction. I'm a bit suspicious since he didn't mention Moveon and the General Betray Us ad making me even more certain that he'll be talking about this after TIME makes the announcement.
However I am having trouble understanding why BOR didn't think Al Gore was an acceptable choice especially since News Corp's Christmas Party, had a Climate Change theme. If News Corp is so committed to this issue why aren't BOR and FOX News talking about it 24/7? Why didn't O'Reilly cover the international meeting in Bali? I'm sure he's saving the Bali discussion in case Gore takes the honor.
