Fresh Air and O'Relly So, did any of y'all hear Bill O'Reilly throw a temper tantrum on NPR's Fresh Air this morning? I already knew he was an arrogant, daft, selectively honest bully, but I hadn't realized that he also had a serious persecution complex. At the end, he accuses Terry Gross of doing a hatchet job on him, even though half of the interview was about fairly banal stuff re: his relationship with his father, etc. Remember when there were prominent conservatives who could engage in civil discussion and who treasured reasonable debate, like William F. Buckley? Remember that? That was cool.
I'm no fan of O'Reilly or Fox News, but I'm not sure why you put Fox News in the headline since your post didn't include any substantive information about that organization.
You're right. I changed the title of my first post, but that appears not have affected the title of the thread. Fox News was, not surprisingly, a subject discussed in the interview, but it isn't mentioned in my post. My bad.
O'Rielly has gotten meaner and nastier since Al Franken's book came out. Al beat him up so badly, documented his endless lieing so thouroughly up to and including his invention of a hardscrabble upbringing that he has been really defensive ever since. So last I hear Bill the blusterer he was going to apologize for his early stance on Iraq if the Kay report didn't substantiate the Bush wmd claims. Anyone got a link to that apology?
He boasted how independent he is, he claimed he registered as an independent...until someone pointed out that he actually registered as a republican! Freaking liar.
Re: Re: Fresh Air and O'Relly It should also be archived here:http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?todayDate=current Wait until the end. When asked to respond to a book review that points out a fairly embarrassing bit of hypocrisy (on his show, he had earlier called this book reviewer a "pinhead," thus giving lie to the notion that he doesn't engage in ad hominem attacks), he turns into a giant baby. It's really quite shocking to see a grown man act like a little spoiled baby.
Re: Re: Re: Fresh Air and O'Relly I think Terry Gross handled it badly. He got on her case by asking whether or not she had treated Al Franken differently, and when she admitted she did, and he asked, "Why?" she didn't have a good answer ready. In my opinion, she should have diffused the situation in order to continue with the interview. She could've said, "You're right and I'm sorry." This would have ended his diatribe and forced him to continue. Unless, of course, she was really looking to rile him up in order to get some good sound bites. On the other hand, O'Reilly (isn't that a notorious blamough impersonator and canibal?) went off like a firecracker for no reason. And he kept accusing NPR of being biased when it was only one interviewer on NPR he was dealing with. I mean, he knew he was going to go in the lion's den and if his intent was to sell his book to "liberals" he merely reinforced their perceptions of him and scaring off potential buyers of his book.
O'Reilly seems to be bristling about Al Franken so much, he can't even drop the subject. It's clear that he had an agenda as well in this interview, to provide fuel to another argument that NPR does not offer "fair and balanced" news. Whatever, for the most part, I thought the interview dealt with his book, tossed him some soft questions about his childhood and his ideology, and allowed him to defend himself and his beliefs. And he's fine to do that, but the one thing O'Reilly is most guilty of is never allowing someone to get a leg up on him. He's a control freak, and if things go beyond his control, he snaps, which is exactly what he did. Regardless of whether or not I agree with some of the things that Bill O'Reilly says regarding politics, spin, etc... I have very little respect for him because he refuses to be proven wrong and if that threat arises, he uses his controlling nature to either end the interview or change the subject. There's a reason he has his own show and rarely goes on others, because he needs his own pulpit and without it, he may show the world he's not wearing pants... he would be exposed.
I am an independent. Who the hell are you to slam me? Stick your little insignificant sneering leftist pisant sophomoric prick attitude where the sun don't shine.
Terry Gross was way under-prepared. You figured she'd be ready for Bill O'Reilly's tactics. I thought she lacked backbone. Bill was actually winning me over a bit with the banalities, but then he went strange. He probably planned the whole tirade. BTW, I listen to National Pentagon Radio as much as I watch Faux News. This was a case of the spineless vs. the socially challenged.
NPR is the greatest news organization in the world: the only one ever to have been demonstrated against by Palestinians and Israelis at the same time. full disclosurer: my internet hookup is paid for by public broadcasting.
I have to say I listened to the whole program and I thought Bill was holding his own for a while in that distastful anecdotal way he has of getting his point accross. An then he just lost it and acted like a total baby for very little reason. The fact that he tried to Spin (interesting his definition of spin in this interview) it on his own show before it aired on NPR was characteristic of his style. He's a bully, nothing more.
Why was Terri Gross interviewing him? Was it over his book? She has the demeanor of a church lady, really. Even when interviewing Gene Simmons.
A good friend of mine swears by NPR. He says to me, "If they piss YOU off, then they are doing something right." As for Terri Gross, she seems to think all the world's problems can be solved by wearing sensible shoes. As for Bill O'Reilly, he will fade into oblivion, just like Howard Stern, when his schtick grows old.
If I wanted to be ticked off, I'd watch CNN or ABC for free. The fact that I'm paying to be ticked off by NPR really ticks me off.
NPR get contributions from Exxon, Citibank, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the listeners of WHYY in Philly. I think the Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets public funds, which also provides a contribution to NPR.
That fraction of a penny that goes from "your" pocket into public broadcasting? Not even enough copper to snort it. In any case, I'm fairly confident in guessing that you never actually listen to NPR, so you would be basing that "ticked offness" on what, exactly? While not perfect, they are far and away the best source of news in America.
As demonstrated by the survey cited in the thread, watching Fox news makes Ian McCracken stupid. Something like that.
He is a bully, no question, but Teri Gross was completely worthless as an interviewer. She was completely cowtowed by him. Deep down, though, she really DID want to trap him in some way, but she has no backbone for it, and certainly no skill at it. All she had to do was say phrases like, "Bill, you're a controversial figure, how do you respond to people who say X?" If you want to trap, you don't throw the trap, crudely, in front of them, you let them step into it themselves. Of course, she invariably gets backed into the corner by the barking dog, so when he asks the question, "Were you as hard on Franken as you are on me?", she is stuck. He's dictating the terms of discussion, so she can't escape. Pretty pathetic. Meanwhile, O'Reilly has a point. People ARE out to get him, Franken particularly.