O'Reilly pushing manufactured outrage over Democratic "fractures"
Reported by Chrish - March 24, 2008 -
Bill O'Reilly is reveling in the "fractures" caused by the heated contest in the Democratic Party this election season and is put out because, according to him, the rest of the mainstream media is not covering it sufficiently. He has got to be kidding. His Talking Points Memo tonight 3/24/08 made sure to highlight the latest kerfuffles and then he complained about the inadequate coverage of yet another media-driven clash.
With video.
The incidents he says are big deals are James Carville's accusation of betrayal by NM Governor Bill Richardson, who recently endorsed Barack Obama over long-time friend Hillary Clinton, and an Obama supporter's accusation of "McCarthyism" against Bill Clinton for a totally innocuous and accurate remark. Because it's Democrats annoyed with Democrats, he thinks it should be highlighted as a huuuuuge deal.
(Juan Williams, in the Top Story segment - (O'Reilly/FOX is working to make it a Big Deal) - bluntly laid out the point that the media has a dry spell between the Texas and Ohio primaries, and the Pennsylvania one in April, so is trying to manufacture items of interest. RIP television journalism.)
O'Reilly, who has gotten 100% predictable, recapped the accusations and then attacked the media, specifically the Washington Post, for not finding the "compound fracture" as notable as he does. (Of course, their job is not to undermine all things Democratic, like him.) Then he smeared the newspaper with a vague accusation of libel, "smear attacks," - which Juan Williams also called him on later - and rumored that "some Post employees have significant personal situations of their own."
In the following Top Story segment (2nd video, below) Williams confronted O'Reilly and asked what these "Post employees significant personal situations" were, specifically. O'Reilly dodged, instead going to his accusation that the Post is smearing people in their book reviews and magazine, incoherent as usual when asked for details. He did make quite the threat against Post Editor Leonard Downie Jr., saying essentially that if he doesn't bring his paper in line with O'Reilly's view, O'Reilly's going to unleash some investigations of his own.
Bill O'Reilly is a paid character assassin. Please, quote me.
The discussion continued with Juan Williams agreeing with O'Reilly that the media is not making a big enough deal of the infighting. (Comment: Jesus Mary and Joseph, we can't turn on the teevee without hearing these same stories over and over and over. Wolf, Lou, Anderson, Tweety, Keith... there's no escape!) O'Reilly shed his sheep's clothing he wore for the TPM and went after Bill Clinton for his remarks - which again, were innocuos and accurate.
O'Reilly said "the folks" like the spectacle, the mud flying, it's exciting! Kinky Friedman, the other guest, said the Democratic Party leadership better step in and fix this thing, and O'Reilly seized the opportunity to say there is none - Howard Dean? "He's the biggest smear merchant on the block." He declared it a "free for all," and all three agreed, it's a mess.
This is such a blatant mind game. There are numerous ways to approach a conflict: conciliatory, mediating, escalating, downplaying, even objectively. If it's bad for Democrats expect FOX News to be leading the escalation front - it's good teevee (the folks like the mudslinging - it's exciting!) and better politics (from their point of view). They're not just going to sit back and watch, they're going to cheerlead. I just watched The Accused recently and this reminds me of those cretins in the bar who goaded on the rapists.
Juan and Kinky:
