It’s not often that I can say that I agree wholeheartedly with Bill O’Reilly but I did last night when he debated Fox's Eric Bolling on Tesla, electric cars and the federal tax breaks that come with them. Color me cynical, but I couldn’t help but suspect that the reason O’Reilly loves Teslas (and their attendant tax breaks) is because he has one. Still, I came away thinking that Bolling got his clock cleaned on this one… and it was most satisfying.
It’s worth pointing out that this discussion was a follow-up to O’Reilly’s thumbs up to Tesla on a prior show. Apparently, Bolling saw that, emailed his objections to O’Reilly and got an invitation on the show to debate it.
It’s also worth pointing out that O’Reilly’s position on Tesla has, as they say, “evolved.” As Chris Matyszczyk noted on CNET, O’Reilly also clearly did not want his viewers to think he has gone over to the green side:
Of course, in order to create a sense of fair balance, O’Reilly added: “Many in the green lobby are self-righteous, arrogant, and dumb.” Surely few could argue with that.
And I certainly wouldn’t want to remind anyone that a Fox News pundit said in 2011 that Tesla was in a huge financial mess. Not even if it was Bill O’Reilly.
Still, it’s always nice to see a Fox News host stray from the usual agenda and talk about the importance of green vehicles, cleaner air and weaning our dependence on oil. For whatever reason.
So what do you think? Share your thoughts below.
