The programming executives at Fox are the real geniuses. You can bet they know how to read and spin media stats. Understanding that the funniest clowns are those who take themselves most seriously, they pulled off a master stroke: they hired Bill O'Reilly.
What a knee slapper! O'Reilly is brilliant as the pompous windbag who thinks he is a journalist. The whole thing is a modern sit-com.
O'Reilly is at his best when he shouts down his betters, the finishing touch on his loudmouth lout persona. He plays it brilliantly!
I sincerely hope that Fox is paying him what he is really worth.
Let's look at some specific episodes of this sitcom cum news show. In this episode O'Reilly thinks he has duped Keith Olbermannn into skewering him on "truly evil" people.Don't worry, Keith. It's all an act. Think about it. No one could possibly be as obnoxious as the "Bill O'Reilly" character that "Bill O'Reilly" plays on TV.
The next episode might have been described in TV guide as "Our O'Reilly is so inflated, it's coming out of his ears and possibly his pompous ass".NEWSFLASH: THIS JUST IN. INTELLIGENT LIFE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AT FOX!
In the next episode, Olbermann raises a possibility that our favorite lout sounds drunk on the air! An episode sure to make the 25th Anniversary special with a special guest appearance of Krusty, the Clown. In an episode called "Bill O'Reilly gets crazy", Bill really does "get crazy". Irony can't top a crazy guy playing the part of a crazy guy. The fact is the US war against Iraq is a war crime, a violation each of several Nuremberg Principles. It also violates US CODE: Title 18,2441. War crimes, a capital crime.
Here's an update from The World Can't Wait organization:
Let's hope Bill continues to yell at folk and interupt them. He discredits himself with his tactics and provides the rest of us with a few laughs. We haven't seen this kind of comedy since TV's so-called "Golden Age". I haven't heard so much yelling since Ralph Kramden told Trixie: "Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!"At last, stop taking Bill O'Reilly seriously. Watch it for the yuks! O'Reilly couldn't possibly take himself seriously. He's a clown. It's an act. He's destined for the Clown Hall of Fame.The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime
YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.
Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.
There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.
There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.
But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn - or be forced - to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.
-The World Can't Wait
As Buzzflash pointed out, "Ronald Reagan taught the GOP what a B-actor can do for playing the part of a candidate and then acting the role of president for 8 years...Thompson may have been a senator and Republican counsel to the Watergate investigation, but his real asset to the GOP is that he's an actor."
O'Reilly, however, has outdone them all. He's a windbag playing the part of a clown playing the part of a windbag!
And, as we used to say on the news set: THIS JUST IN....Another update:
Another update:The Most Biased Name in News
Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tiltI challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."
But when Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable network, debuted in 1996, a curious thing happened: Instead of denouncing it, conservative politicians and activists lavished praise on the network. "If it hadn't been for Fox, I don't know what I'd have done for the news," Trent Lott gushed after the Florida election recount (Washington Post, 2/5/01). George W. Bush extolled Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow--a former speechwriter for Bush's father--and his "impressive transition to journalism" in a specially taped April 2001 tribute to Snow's Sunday-morning show on its five-year anniversary (Washington Post, 5/7/01). The right-wing Heritage Foundation had to warn its staffers not to watch so much Fox News on their computers, because it was causing the think tank's system to crash.
When it comes to Fox News Channel, conservatives don't feel the need to "work the ref." The ref is already on their side. Since its 1996 launch, Fox has become a central hub of the conservative movement's well-oiled media machine. Together with the GOP organization and its satellite think tanks and advocacy groups, this network of fiercely partisan outlets--such as the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative talk-radio shows like Rush Limbaugh's--forms a highly effective right-wing echo chamber where GOP-friendly news stories can be promoted, repeated and amplified. Fox knows how to play this game better than anyone.
Yet, at the same time, the network bristles at the slightest suggestion of a conservative tilt. In fact, wrapping itself in slogans like "Fair and balanced" and "We report, you decide," Fox argues precisely the opposite: Far from being a biased network, Fox argues, it is the only unbiased network. So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment. FAIR has decided to take a closer look."Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the Supreme Court. Both sides on this in a moment."--Bill O'Reilly (O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01)
Fox News covers Iraq war the least.
A new Project for Excellence in Journalism study finds that of the three major cable news networks, Fox News has given lowest percentage of coverage of the Iraq war. It has also devoted twice as much time to the Anna Nicole Smith story as have MSNBC and CNN.
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11 comments:
The sad reality is Len, O'Reilly currently resides within the top three slots of most watched "cabal news" shows (according to Leon Panetta's introduction , when he had him on his show the other day). So, I guess it is a fact, and I don't believe most viewers are watching for the yuks, I would say it is for the vitriol and angst, which Bill gladly provides.
But your observations are right on, he is a consummate actor, and constantly loses track of what role he is playing. I also think you could add to the mix of his personality that he more then likely is a failure as an authoritarian in real life, so he gets to act it out and abuse a nation.
Just think, if O'Reilly would have just followed his true calling and had become a cop, we would not have to discuss this damaging, spiteful propagandist that continues to muddle mainstream American culture.
benmerc
I am, of course, writing from the standpoint of a "sane" world. And, in a sane world, O'Reilly is a buffoon, an idiot, a clown, an idiot playing a role. On a certain level it is funny: an idiot playing the role of genius, a clown who thinks he's a genius. What's both funny and tragic is that Bill O'Reilly really does take himself seriously. It would be funny, in fact just as hilarious as one of Jackie Gleason's characters, if only the US were still sane.
"...if only the US were still sane"
I agree with your assessment of O'Reilly for the most part, he certainly does believe in his buffoonery, that is with out question. What really bothers me is your quote about the instability of the American psyche, as these culture ranters have a captive audience... they are smart enough to know that much.
benmerc
Anonymous said...
What really bothers me is your quote about the instability of the American psyche, as these culture ranters have a captive audience... they are smart enough to know that much.
One must not confuse sanity with intelligence. FOX is trying to brainwash America. It's deliberate. Murdoch knows exactly what he's doing. Murdoch is certifiably nuts. The character portrayed by Jonathan Pryce in "Tommorrow Never Dies" was most certainly inspired by Murdoch.
I wrote my article facetiously, of course. O'Reilly is really just as nutty as a fruit cake, absolutely delusional. But just as it does not excuse Murdoch, it does not excuse O'Reilly. These dick wads have much to answer for.
In the meantime, all I can do is make fun of them. One day, the people will regain the "airwaves" that Reagan stole from them. O'Reilly will be out on his sorry ass.
If enough people stop watching him, Fox, themselves, will send him packing.
I think you may be on to something here, Len. And all this time I thought he was a serious journalist who just had his ass kicked one many times while growing up.
He's definitely a bully ...but not a smart one. He thought he would ambush Sarah Taylor with World Can't Wait.
In fact, she was able to make all her talking points in spite of O'Reilly. Moreover, she did a fairly good job of challenging the premises of his "loaded" questions.
She was right to contradict his premises (ex "those are facts") but might have done it even more forecefully.
O'Reilly does not think logically. He is challenged by facts...that's why he just keeps talking over people who try to answer his questions, however stupid those questions might be.
I agree. I thought she did a fantastic job of getting her point across and contradicting his idiotic points. She could've been a little louder, but he would have raised his volume accordingly to try and drown her out.
I started my anti-O'Reilly campaign back when he said San Francisco should be targeted by terrorists.
Pt, please the keep the "Cowboy" informed of your anti-O'Reilly campaign. I am sure some of the "regulars" here will find that a worthy cause.
BTW -- thanks for dropping in. Some new articles are in the works as well as some in-house pod casts.
The world can't wait stuff is absolutely chilling to me. It is so true, every word of it. It enrages me that my tax dollars are going to kill innocent children in the Middle East and to torture others. What has this country come to? It is just so sad and disheartening. Yet every day I get up and eat breakfast, clean house, go to work, come home, listen to the news, shake my head, cry myself to sleep perhaps when it gets too bad. Where are the mass protests? Why am I not doing more to stop the madness? What can I do anyway but what I have been doing? I vote every election. I stay informed. I try to get others in the community to be aware of what is happening to this great country of ours. I write letters to Congress. I attend protests that are staged in this area, which are unfortunately few and far between. The only solution to me seems to be impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. But it doesn't seem to be happening though more and more call for it.
Fuzzflash sez...
Below is the dialogue from the last scene of the film, "Mephisto". The exchange occurs between Hendrik Hofgen, stage name, Mephisto, (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and his Nazi handler who was "Cultural Minister" and used Mephisto, a brilliant but vain star of Germany's stage, as a propaganda stooge for the Reich. The setting is an empty concrete ampitheatre. Mephisto is being humiliated by his comptrolleur under a spotlight that follows Mephisto in his moment of come-uppance as he lurches in shame, shielding his eyes from the bright light he lusts after, but under circumstances where he is usually in total command.
Nazi Handler: "Well, Mephisto, what power is
looking down on you here.
Do you feel it?
This is theatre! Look at this arena.
It's almost ready. Wonderful, isn't it?
This is where
I'd stage a performance.
Don't blink, Hendrik, look history
in the eye. What an echo.
Hendrik Höfgen!
We shall rule Europe and the world.
A thousand-year empire.
Hendrik Höfgen!
Go! Get going!
lnto the middle!
Well, how do you
enjoy this limelight?
This is the real light, isn't it?"
Mephisto/Hofgen: "What do they want of me? After all...
... l'm only an actor."
(finis)
In a just world, a similar fate would await O'Reilly, even though Billy La Bouche is a complete buffoon, possessing none of Mephisto's charisma. Bill is a shit-kicker shill who sold his soul down a Fox hole for a fistfull of dollars and a prime time perch from which to squirt the poison that paralyses the humanity of most all who are sprayed by it.
O’Reilly’s only an actor too, and that is what “they” want of him.
Liberality said...
The only solution to me seems to be impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. But it doesn't seem to be happening though more and more call for it.
It's not happening because just enough Americans made the kind of bargain that Fuzzflash talks about below:
Bill is a shit-kicker shill who sold his soul down a Fox hole for a fistfull of dollars and a prime time perch from which to squirt the poison that paralyses the humanity of most all who are sprayed by it.
O’Reilly’s only an actor too, and that is what “they” want of him.
The bitter view was summed up by Kris in "Me and Bobby McGee":
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
Millions will not protest for fear of losing baubles.
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