You can bet your No Spin Zone that Bill O'Reilly has a new Enemy Number One in New York Times columnist Timothy Egan. In an op ed last week, Egan managed to explain everything that was wrong with Bill O'Reilly's Supert Bowl interview with President Barack Obama and, at the same time, everything that's wrong with Fox News.
The op ed is called, "Bill O'Reilly's Gift For The Ages." It starts with O'Reilly's announcement that he is auctioning off his notes for the Obama interview:
Let us now praise the Bombastic One’s gift to posterity. His interview, his notes, all the ephemera should be preserved and studied.
But not preserved and studied for the reasons O'Reilly and Fox News would like:
The sickness that infects news and politics, and its commensurate cynicism, can be directly traced to the creation of Fox News...
...(C)ivility itself took a dive with the rise of Fox, and has never recovered. The shouters, the boasters, the haters who show up at town hall meetings or pollute the Web with dark fantasies get their behavioral cues from Fox. O’Reilly is famous for telling guests to “shut up,” for cutting off people he disagrees with, for smugly praising his own performances and bringing on sycophants to do the same.
Egan goes into further detail about how O'Reilly (and Fox) claim to just ask the tough questions - and then cites some great examples where George W. Bush and Mike Huckabee were given a complete pass on tough questions. Egan concludes:
From the War on Christmas to the Frankenstein monster of the Tea Party, Fox’s creations have been uniformly bad for American life. Regular viewers of Fox are less-well-informed than people who are exposed to no media. So yes, future generations should study O’Reilly’s interview. Learn from it, as with all mistakes of history, lest it be repeated.
The entire article is filled with great nuggets. It is a must-read for News Hounds. Otherwise, the only thing I can add is, "Amen."
Like Jan said, Egan can now look forward to having BillO’s personal stalkerazzi Jesse Watters following him on camera — and, I SOOOO hope that when that happens, Egan will look at the camera and ask if BillO has finished paying off Andrea Mackris . . .
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Why should you be surprised?
1. The network’s whole ethos is based around the notion of profit-making—just like any televangelist huckster.
2. If the network had any journalistic integrity, it wouldn’t. But there’s little integrity to be had (of ANY shape, form or fashion) at FoxNoise.
Meanwhile at Fux Noise Headquarters, the “news” is whatever memes that Jabba the Ailes pulls from his bloated ass at the morning staff meeting.
Billy is milking this interview with Obama, or should we say profiting off of it by selling his notes. Maybe he will use the proceeds to buy Intern Jessie some new clothing and a new pair of shoes.
The New York Times is on the conservative enemies lists, including the Fox “News” frauds. We have no doubt that thin-skin Billy will address this columnist on his next show.
NOTE TO TIMOTHY EGAN
Billy is coming for you. When he attacks you on his so-called “Spin Zone” respond with these gems.
1. We were unaware that Billy was hurting for money. He’s auctioning off his notes.
2. We weren’t aware that the suits of Fox “News” Channel allows its employees to profit from an interview.
Charles Blow isn’t bad either, with (sometimes) short biting columns that don’t waste a word.
Frank Bruni can also write a scathing piece every so often. Too often, he’s assuming the role of the “Op-Ed gay” (not that there’s anything wrong with that, if it’s not in excess).
Gail Collins can also make a good political point, even though she can’t seem to shed the humor.
MoDo — Maureen Dowd — also can skewer the right when she’s in the mood, which is not too often these days (she’s now in France, prattling on about marriage and affairs again).
Maybe they should have had Hannity do the interview; he would have made it interesting by also throwing in Rev. Wright, birth certificate, and Hillary killing Vince Foster!
