Comments on Mindless Acts of Random Intellect: Why Bill O'Reilly Sucks

Phillip, thanks for the detailed and non-anonymous...

2011-11-08T15:02:01.704-05:00

Phillip, thanks for the detailed and non-anonymous comment. This particular post is one of many on Bill O'Reilly. I find the man to be passionate but often a jerk and, more to the point, an outright liar. The quotes in question are all anyone needs to see to get the full context of a situation. You don't need a doctoral thesis to understand what O'Reilly was saying here. He absolutely positively called Dr. Tiller a baby killer and then denied ever having done so. The only quotes necessary towards the context here are the ones provided showing him a) saying it and b) denying having said it. Anything else is superfluous.

I agree entirely with your perspective that these talking heads say almost anything to simply get ratings. O'Reilly just recently was quoted as saying he used to try to cover real news but found people simply couldn't follow it so he went the simpler route.

For me this is part of the problem. My main issue with the pundits on Fox News is that their rhetoric goes beyond the norm and often is inciting outright hostility and violence. What I do most often with Fox News and conservative radio (most especially with Rush) is, as you so eloquently put it, change the f'ing channel.

As a radical republican I can often see both sides...

2011-11-08T14:18:37.355-05:00

As a radical republican I can often see both sides of the story without getting too excited by all these smoke and mirrors. People want to get so bent out of shape by what the other side is saying about them. I am in favor of abortion, and have no problems with how Dr,. Tiller made his millions. So my 1ST point is this: NOT EVERYONE WHO WATCHES FOX NEWS BELIEVES EVERYTHING THAT FALLS OUT OF O'REILLY'S MOUTH IS HOLY GOSPEL. However I do regularly listen to Rush during drive time, and he usually backs up his claims with audio clips and reports. My 2nd point is this: WHEN PEOPLE ABSORB THEIR DAILY NEWS MEDIA, THEY SOMETIMES FORGET THAT THERE IS A CONTEXT TO EVERY STORY. If you remove the context of the story, like this guy did with his blog, (for example all the quoted text was from O'Reilly defending himself). What this blog doesn't tell you is that O'Reilly was simply trying to defend himself against his critics who claimed that he incited Dr. Tiller's murderer. His defense was to point the finger back at NBC (I believe this was a mistake). O'Reilly claims that NBC has "relentless labeled this country a 'torture country', and 'a country run by human rights violators'" - and therefore, using liberal logic; if he is guilty for inciting the murder of Dr. Tiller, than NBC should be guilty for inciting Abdulhakim Muhammad to kill american soldier recruits. My final point is this: PEOPLE ON TV GET PAID LOTS OF MONEY. THE MORE PEOPLE WATCH, THE MORE MONEY THE NETWORK MAKES, AND THUS THE MORE THE PERSON ON TV MAKES. PEOPLE ON TV ARE GOING TO SAY THINGS TO GET RATINGS. PERIOD. If you hang on every word a political analyst says about your political affiliate, eventually you are going to hear something you don't like. And that is the beauty of our country: if you don't like how the media unfairly portrays all of the political parties - then CHANGE THE FUCKING CHANNEL.

I worry about him simply because millions of peopl...

2010-02-25T16:38:19.260-05:00

I worry about him simply because millions of people in this country revere him and believe he speaks with unquestionable integrity even though that claim is as paper-thin as they come. It's the same phenomenon with Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, etc. These people rile the converted in ways their own commentary decries in the opposition.

O'Reilly sucks because he is a well-coached ph...

2010-02-24T20:52:33.143-05:00

O'Reilly sucks because he is a well-coached phony. He pretends a familial connection to the Catholic Church, yet removes himself from the dogma he is, supposedly, bound to. He is as elitist and self-perfected as those he names as immoral. I will bet a billion dollars, that he is not a reader. His opinions carry neither weight, nor depth. Forget about him. He has no influence, other than his ability to be duped on national television.

O'Reilly sucks because he thinks and blathers ...

2010-02-24T20:42:44.461-05:00

O'Reilly sucks because he thinks and blathers about morays according to his parents and how he was brought up, as if that were perfection, and everyone used to be like that. He acts like he is the first one to think of his cogent solutions. O'Reilly comments on sex, as if he were the conscience of the man/woman-on the-street. He is not critically thoughtful, only versed. He doesn't read (I will bet you a million dollars).