TV and radio personality,
Bill O'Reilly, is back-peddling hard from his
recent statements that have so revolted Americans -- that calls for him to be fired from his privileged position on the public airwaves are persisting into a second week.
But rather than defend or apologize for his remarks, O'Reilly is desperately lashing out at his critics. He says they are "anti-American."
But Americans are wise to O'Reilly, who is increasingly being described as a "blowhard."
What started the blowup was O'Reilly's response to a referendum passed by voters in San Francisco that called for a ban military recruiting in the city's schools and colleges.
O'REILLY: Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."
And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.
Media Matters for America notes that:
"Commenting on the controversy on November 11, O'Reilly at first defended the remark: "What I said isn't controversial. What I said needed to be said." But during his November 14 TV show, O'Reilly backpedaled, claiming the remark was merely a "satirical riff." Viewers were unable to assess O'Reilly's new characterization, because, in presenting the subject, he omitted the part of his remarks that had sparked the controversy in the first place.
On his November 15 radio show, O'Reilly claimed that the controversy over the remarks was "good"; that the "smear sites" are "now on the defensive"; and that "I wanted to show our affiliated stations, all 400 of them, I wanted to show our sponsorship, all the people who buy time on The Radio Factor, I want to show everybody exactly where this was coming from, who these people are on the far-left smear sites."
O'Reilly then attacked the unnamed "far-left smear sites" that had reported his remarks, saying, "And they are anti-American people. They hate this country. They do."
Fire Bill O'Reilly.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mike Morford devotes an entire collumn to detailing his disgust for O'Reilly:
O'Reilly is... the right's most self-aggrandizing blowhard, one who still vilifies France like a child who hates broccoli.
And he is the one who now suggests that -- because San Francisco dared to ban aggressive military recruiting in our high schools so disadvantaged 18-year-olds won't be unwittingly sucked into the brutish military vortex so they can be shipped off to Iraq to die for appalling and indefensible reasons -- al Qaeda should blow up Coit Tower.
What do you do with that? You laugh. Sure, file a formal complaint with Fox. Sure, demand that Billy should be fired ...
But of course, it won't make one bit of difference. Bill O'Reilly is still Fox's cash cow. Even if O'Reilly's cultural relevance is tanking, he's still getting PR for miles out of the childish comment. Hell, you're reading a column about it right now, which means all those extremist right-wing inbreeding sites get to squeal "San Francisco in uproar over O'Reilly comments," and grunt and revel in our displeasure. Ah, well. It matters not.
Here's the takeaway, the only thing you need to know: Bill O'Reilly is a walking, snorting cautionary tale. For those who occasionally tread similar terrain of barbed political commentary... he is the Grand Pariah, the threshold, the Place You Do Not Want to Go as an intellectually curious human soul. He is the guy you can always look to, no matter how bad it gets, and say, wow, at least I'm not him.
But maybe Morford is wrong. Maybe O'Reilly has peaked -- and he is tanking fast.
Denver Post columnist Cindy Rodriguez writes:
So a city passes a symbolic referendum saying it doesn't like the U.S. military recruiting kids in public schools, and O'Reilly says it's OK to bomb that city?
How un-American.
A couple of days later, during a segment about an executive who gave a $10,000 tip at a strip club, O'Reilly told co-host Lis Wiehl she should learn how to dance for tips. Wiehl, a Harvard- trained attorney, replies, "No. For $10,000?" to which O'Reilly says "Yeah, you're a good-looking girl ... if you haven't seen Lis on TV, she's a good-looking blond."
This on the heels of a Nov. 3 segment in which O'Reilly suggested to a giggling Wiehl that she submit to a "full-body search" during a segment on police searching bags in the New York subway.
Perhaps that sex talk is exciting for O'Reilly, but to me it's sophomoric and boring.
I'm thrilled I no longer have to accidentally come across him on the dial.
Rodriguez reports that the reason that she doesn't have to come across O'Reilly on the dial because is because a Denver radio station pulled the plug on O'Reilly's radio show, "The Factor" -- when Al Franken of Air America beat him in the local ratings. She notes that Franken is overtaking O'Reilly, (who she calls, "The Bully") in several other markets as well.
Fire Bill O'Reilly.
The controversy is not going away. John Nichols, Associate Editor of the (Madison, Wisconsin) Capital Times, writes:
Nothing bugs the cable TV's boldest blowhard more than Americans who think for themselves. And the people who live in America's most livable cities tend to be a diverse lot of entrepreneurs and innovators, big thinkers and big doers who are better educated, better traveled and better prepared to see through the spin that is pumped out by the Bush White House and its media amen corner.
As such, they are less likely to take cues about how to vote or what to think from television and radio personalities. That's bad news for O'Reilly, who has gone so far as to write a children's book - "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids" - that pushes the "indoctrination" envelope to places even Limbaugh feared to go.
And a city that is immune to indoctrination, a city that thinks for itself and refuses to fall for the fear-mongering that is the stock in trade of the cable news channels these days, well, that's just not O'Reilly country.
What's an O'Reilly to do? Point the terrorists in the direction of the cities that are not scared enough, not paranoid enough, not ignorant enough to put their trust in the likes of Bill O'Reilly.
Fire Bill O'Reilly.
[Crossposted from Political Cortex]