Bill O'Reilly on Fresh Air

This is both interesting and frustrating to listen to. It's an interview with Bill O'Reilly by Terry Gross. Terry asks him some really tough questions - asking him about statements he's made in the past - and Bill spends most of the time on the defensive. The guy is so full of it. Pick just about any topic they discuss and do a modicrum of research and you'll find that he is dead wrong.

For example, in one segment he accuses the Times book reviewers of being biased because they always give glowing reviews to left-wing partisans and never even review his books. As an example, he cites Janet Maslin's review of Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Terry interupts him and gives a quote from the review where Ms. Maslin writes that Dude, Where's My Country? is a bumper sticker that doubles as a book. Mr. O'Reilly retorts that overall it is a favorable review, that if you read the last paragraph you would know that (implying that Ms. Gross had not read the entire review).

Well, I did read the entire review. It's posted here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E1DD133CF935A35753C1A9659C8B63

Guess what? The review, while not devastating, is more negative than positive, and the quote that Terry Gross used was from the last paragraph:

"In 'How to Talk to Your Conservative Brother-in-Law,' Mr. Moore has some specific hints. He recommends agreeing that men and women are different, that animals don't have rights, that granola is fattening and that a little sunlight is actually good for your health. 'We have a namby-pamby way of saying things,' he writes, along with 'a hoity-toity view of religion.' He asks readers to recognize that ''this arrogance is a big reason the lower classes will always side with the Republicans.'

Mr. Moore has marshaled all of his impassioned, populist bluster to effecting that change. That makes 'Dude, Where's My Country?' a bumper sticker that doubles as a book."

Throughout the review, Ms. Maslin paints Moore as a self-aggrandizing blow hard:

"In his latest book, Michael Moore reveals the identity of his favorite political candidate: someone who bracingly advocates 'a free country, a safe country, a peaceful country that genuinely shares its riches with the less fortunate around the world, a country that believes in everyone getting a fair shake, and where fear is seen as the only thing we need to fear.' Oh, wait a minute -- he's talking about himself."

But you don't even have to leave the interview to find refutation of his claims. Bill O'Reilly contradicts himself. Terry makes reference to a report in which Mr. O'Reilly falsely claimed to have won a Peabody. Mr. O'Reilly calls that completely fallacious, and the proceeds to explain that, in fact, he had actually said that he won a Peabody but that he mispoke and meant to say a Pope; he then said that he had corrected himself on his radio show numerous times. First of all: how can something be true (he claimed to have won an award which he did not) and fallacious? Secondly, it seems doubtful that this false claim would actually be a mistake - when is the last time you, or anyone, is honored with an award and then forgets which award was won?

Eventually Bill O'Reilly walks out of the interview. He's such a hypocrit... Terry Gross may have asked him tough questions, but she always let him give a complete response, without denigrating him. She let him say anything he wanted to, in full... which is far more than can be said for Bill O'Reilly, who has a habit of interupting, talking over, denigrating, and even censoring interviewees (by "ending the interview").

Give it a listen if you have some time.

Show/Hide...