Bill O’Reilly responded tonight to Sarah Palin’s swipe at him last night. If you ask me, O’Reilly put Palin in her place like a gentleman. Yes, he did.
In a rambling, not very coherent attack on him and Fox News on last night’s Hannity, Palin complained about the need for conservatives to stick together (and presumably stop criticizing her rambling, incoherent talk in Iowa over the weekend):
Even there – on Fox! You know, kind of a quasi or assumed conservative outlet and we have all day listening to the tease of Bill O’Reilly. He’s talking about – the guests on his show tonight, or the commentary on his show – and that would be, “All these GOP contenders thinking about running for president… Oh, what a reality show that would be, yuk, yuk.”
The irony is that O’Reilly has not been half as critical of Palin as other conservatives. I previously wrote about FoxNews.com pooh-poohing Palin’s claim to be “really interested” in running for president. That was before her Iowa speech. Megyn Kelly was pretty darned harsh on her (alas, my video got corrupted) and Sean Hannity didn’t mince words either.
Tonight, in his Tip of the Day segment, O’Reilly played a clip of his “reality show” remark. It was a teaser for a segment about the many Republican presidential hopefuls. In it, he said, “Wow, talk about a reality show!”
“So here’s the deal,” O’Reilly said in response to Palin. “In TV Land, where I live, you tease upcoming segments with flamboyant descriptions so people will sit through the eighteen minutes of commercials and watch it. That’s what we do. Miss Palin and Donald Trump are very high-profile folks. And both have starred in reality TV shows. Thus my tease was perfectly in context and harmless. So here’s the Tip of the Day. If no offense is intended, don’t take offense. Your life will be happier.”
As I wrote last night, Palin may well have lost her Fox News gig along with any credibility she ever had as a 2016 candidate.
Watch it below, from tonight’s The O’Reilly Factor, and ask yourself: Is this a perfect moment for Tina Fey to make a Saturday Night Live appearance or what?
But I take absolutely no joy in it. It’s sad to watch. I think the enormous increase over the last few years in the bitterness and anger with which she speaks is part of the whole syndrome. She really was not like that when she was starting out in politics, she was largely positive and exuberant— OK, she could throw some zingers, but so can and does Obama from time to time.
Back when she first appeared, I did some Googling and research on her, and watched some appearances in debates and etc. when she was running for governor, and she was a very different personality— knew her stuff thoroughly on Alaska issues, particularly oil, and articulated her thoughts much more clearly and intelligently. That person has just disappeared.
As for O’Reilly’s relationship with Palin. I don’t think he is intimidated. He pretty much demolished her when she appeared on his show once or twice. http://www.newshounds.us/2010/06/16/oreilly_demolishes_palin_by_asking_for_her_solution_to_the_bp_oil_disaster.php
I think after that, O’Reilly decided to be gentler with her. Or he was told.
In any event, I so wish I had the Megyn Kelly segment in which she really trashed Palin. Unfortunately, I pushed a button on my computer at the wrong time and corrupted the video. :(
doors, that video was hilarious. I admit I could only watch a few minutes of it, though.
And that is the most surprising thing of all. Usually, BillO has utter disdain for women with whom he disagrees and treats them reprehensibly (mainly because he’s putting the woman “in her place” as BillO would see all women).
Another interesting thing: I didn’t watch O’Reiliy’s blather (something almost as unlistenable as anything emanating from Palin) but Ellen transcribe’s O’Reilly’s comment with “Miss Palin.” Perhaps that was Ellen’s error in hearing O’Reilly or O’Reilly’s “putting Palin in her place” was a lot less gentlemanly than Ellen suggests. “Miss” is only appropriate when a woman’s marital status is unknown* (something Palin’s is most assuredly not)—or as an honorific, mostly used by Southerners to refer to any woman older than the speaker/writer without regard to her marital status. A gentleman would be sure to use the proper honorific, especially for a married woman; otherwise, he’s being less a gentleman and more a sarcastic wiseass.
*And the speaker/writer is a right-wing conservative who still can’t find it within himself to use the marriage-neutral “Ms” especially when the woman is well past standard college age. Even most modern women who eschew the term “feminist” tend to prefer “Ms” if they’re unmarried and older than 25.
Why bother making a big issue out of it and just allow her to die a slow death with her self-inflected idiocy.
What cracks me up is that, on Hannity, Palin said, “I don’t read the praise and I don’t read the criticism” but then she turned around and complained about BOR’s “reality show” remark (which did nothing more than show that she does indeed read the criticism). She’s a walking contradiction.
And, if she wasn’t taking meds/had a few drinks before this latest speech her’s — if that was just straight up Palin completely sober, all I can say is wow. She’s scary sh!t and the right-wing politicians who want to be taken seriously better move away from her quickly. LOL!
Btw, I also caught a quip by Gutfeld on “The 5” the other day in which he said something along the lines of there being those who say that they are interested in running President just so they can get a FOX “news” contributor gig. This was most definitely a shot at Palin (but could also pertain to Huckabee too; Carson as well?). Keep in mind that this is the same Gutfeld who admitted a few years ago that he has “pulled” his “punches” on her since she’s a fellow co-worker at FOX and it would be awkward seeing her in the hallway. Looks like now Palin is even starting to lose her formerly loyal “punch pullers” at FOX “news”. Bwaaah!
Please don’t kill me…http://youtu.be/ewm-XOsODho
The Workplace Bullies at this fraudulent “news” network prefer Jeb Bush over this broad. Nixon Trainee Ailes worked for Bush, Sr., and that loyalty continues today. She is mistaken if the Trainee would support her over Jebby.
The suits can fire Palin for attacking a Fox “News” host, just like they did with that Crowder character a few years ago. We doubt she would throw a hissy fit against Fox for fear of being banned from the network. She needs them more than they need her.
Nah, she didn’t lose any credibility. You can’t lose what you never had . . .
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Doesn’t really matter in the end because we all pretty much agree she’s “chemically altered” in some way, and there’s a strong psychological reason for that, whether she’s self-medicating with booze or with prescription meds.
I think her fairly fragile psyche is what’s cooked her goose, probably inevitably. O’Reilly actually nailed it on her central problem. She takes absolutely everything deeply personally, and her resentment just builds and builds and builds.
I feel sorry for Palin, too, but she has cooked her own goose 100%.
Sad, really, because in the early days, she could really deliver a whopper of a good speech (even if I disagreed with every word of it, the blazing charisma and charm were extraordinary).
Now she has to hang onto her Fox gig because it’s basically all she has left, and when even they’re turning against her— or even just no longer receiving her every utterance rapturously like in the good old days…