The Stewart-O'Reilly Debates

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates they are not, but it's always fun watching Bill O'Reilly get popped in the head with facts and see him squirm and misdirect. It's too bad we can't see an unedited version of this interview.







Oh, and Bill? The Weathergirls are one of your favorite groups? I know it was most likely said in jest, but it only gave me images of you dancing to "Y.M.C.A." so please, leave the jokes to the funny men.

Wisconsin's State Tree Is What?! - UPDATED

Bill O'Reilly has been getting pretty hot under the collar at all the Wisconsin protesters chanting "Fox lies" while their so-called "reporters" are on the ground at the state capitol in Madison. So what does The O'Reilly Factor do? They lie.

Here's the intrepid BillO and his crack staff using stock footage of some random protest while speaking about the people in the streets in Wisconsin to promote the illusion that the protests are violent. Notice the short sleeve shirts and the palm trees in the background.



Now that's some fair and balanced reporting, huh? And here I thought the Wisconsin state tree was the Sugar Maple. Someone had better correct Wikipedia!


UPDATE (3/3/11, 12:15pm): Mediaite has defended O'Reilly as "not lying" regarding the above video.

The segment in question occurred during The O’Reilly Factor as Bill O’Reilly was discussing the anger in the union protests. At the top of the piece, he rolled footage of a number of the “union thug” videos that have become so popular on Right Wing news sites in the past few weeks. O’Reilly clearly identified the videos as collectively coming from “all over the country.” As many shows do, this B-roll footage was replayed again during the rest of the segment, including during an interview with Mike Tobin, Fox News’ reporter who’s been on the ground in Wisconsin.

Here’s where the problem occurred. Tobin was discussing Wisconsin (since that where he’s been) while the general footage played in the background. Taken out of context, these few seconds would seem deceptive. But, if you’d already seen the full segment, you’d recognize what the footage was (besides, this same clip has aired on other Fox News programs like Glenn Beck and been identified as coming from California). Further, the protest footage from Wisconsin is clearly labeled “Madison” as well as date and time stamped, while the “palm tree footage” is labeled “Union Protests.” Confusing? Not really, though if one were to simply see the 43-second clip on YouTube, one could reasonably raise their eyebrows. A reminder of the importance of context.

Had Fox News Channel, and in particular The O'Reilly Factor, been completely honest, instead of labeling the video "union protests" they would have specified the locality of each video. It's not so hard.

They deliberately misled the viewer by speaking to someone stationed in Madison, Wisconsin while showing video from Sacramento. How do I know it's Sacramento? Because a legit website, Think Progress, updated their site with that information.

By the way, that video of the shoving match was the only reported incident by Sacramento police, so the idea that protests have turned violent has no merit. And reporting about "anger" at protests isn't really news, is it? Anger at protests is a given, otherwise there probably wouldn't be a protest.

Was it a lie? Technically, no. But it was definitely sloppy journalism at a minimum and at worst, tried to paint a biased picture of what's actually happening across the country; far from the "fair and balanced" motto they purport. Therefore, I'll make the reassessment that the O'Reilly segment was purposely misleading.

The Extended Obama/O'Reilly Interview - UPDATED

Here's the rest of the interview aired on The O'Reilly Factor Monday night that we didn't see on Sunday.







Besides the continuing interruptions that I mentioned in an earlier post, I found something very intriguing. Toward the end of the second clip, O'Reilly asks what the media can do better, and gets lost in the Obama's "professorial" style.  He doesn't want a real answer or a real solution apparently, you know, too much substance for Bill confuses him. But then O'Reilly specifically asks, "Do you think you're being treated fairly by Fox News now?" (4:10 mark). President Obama's answer was, "I would say, I think that the news guys try to do a good job...".

 Is it my conspiratorial mind running away with me, or does the video show a very poor job of trying to edit out the "try to" part of the statement and make it sound like Obama said, "I think that the news guys do a good job."

The very first thing that came to mind was the same type of horrible editing during Michelle Obama's "really proud of my country" moment. Since this is a video uploaded to YouTube and not from the official Fox News website, I'll reserve judgement.  But I can't help wondering if they just can't help themselves over at FNC to just tinker with video that is available for editing, unlike the live portion on Super Bowl Sunday.

(I'll replace the YouTube video with official FNC video when it becomes available and update my analysis.)

UPDATE: Conspiracy debunked! In the official video, now posted above, there is no glitch at the 4:10 mark of the second segment. So my apologies to the dweebs in the Fox News control room for accusing them of fudging with the video. You can see the YouTube glitch here. That is, if it is actually a glitch upon upload, bad initial video that was uploaded, or a purposeful attempt at changing the intent of the comment.

The Complete, Unedited Bill O'Reilly/Jon Stewart Video...

... in which Jon Stewart reveals who the real pinhead is. What I don't understand is why Bill-O (to his credit) would allow the full version of the interview to be posted online for an easy comparison of what actually made the show and further shows his thin skin. The aired interview was more heavily edited than a James O'Keefe ACORN video.

This Could Be The Start of Something Big - UPDATED

Since the stalking of Think Progress' Amanda Terkel by the Bill O'Reilly Goon Squad, the website has started a campaign to let advertisers who use his show to peddle their wears know of O'Reilly's stalking tactics that make paparazzi look like upstanding citizens.

Today, UPS has responded by ceasing to advertise during The O'Reilly Factor.

Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

To add your name to e-mails being sent to advertisers to voice opposition of O'Reilly's stalking methods instead of just having them appear on his show for an honest discourse, as honest as O'Reilly can be anyway, head to the website and sign the petition.


UPDATE (3/29/09 11:30pm): It looks like Chrysler may be following suit.

We appreciate the diverse audience that television programming allows us to reach. Chrysler buys network cable as a package but we currently do not have the O’Reilly Factor in our media rotation at this time.

Although Chrysler may be out of business soon anyway, so they won't need to advertise anywhere.

The Obama - O'Reilly Factor Interview Part Three

...because I have to. Here's classic BillO playing guilt by association.



Bill, thank you so much for having "new respect for the man" after speaking with him and pointing out that had it not been for Barack Obama, there would be no Sarah Palin. "There would be no new blood in American politics." You mean besides Obama? Oh, I guess you mean there would be no new blood on the Republican side of American politics. Dipshit.

The Obama - O'Reilly Factor Interview Part Two

If you can stomach Bill O'Reilly flipping out because he as to pay more taxes on his multi-million dollar salary while trying to distort the record and saying that under George W. Pinhead our economy has grown more under than under Bill Clinton, then go ahead and watch part two of this four part interview. Need I mention that BillO's demeanor and attitude hasn't changed?

Benjamin Disraeli: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

The Obama - O'Reilly Factor Interview Part One

I watched the Obama/O'Reilly interview Part 1 on The You Tubes and I have to say that I'm really appalled at the amount of disrespect BillO showed. This is a United States Senator and the Democratic nominee for the presidency and O'Reilly finds it necessary to be fucking smug and arrogant.

That dirty motherfucker sits there, smirking and interrupting Obama at every turn. I defy anyone to find video of O'Reilly daring to be that disrespectful or even challenging ANY Republican. Not just Bush or Cheney, although BillO probably creamed in his pants if he has had them on (I don't know, I can't stand to watch this fuckwad) but even McCain (questions were about nothing other than softballs to bash Obama), Giuliani, Rummy, Rove ("Newsweek has become a far left publication..." says BillO), Boehner... ANYONE with an "R" after their name. Goddamnit, he pisses me off! Yet another asshole that I hope to have the opportunity to bump into on the street so I can punch him in the throat.

Obama, for his part, handled himself as well as he always does, but sometimes I'd wish he wouldn't be so accomodating to these douchebags and call BillO out for his interruptions and contempt.

The rest of O'Reilly's interview with Obama is scheduled for this week in three additional parts, because knowing O'Reilly, he's probably taking the time to try and find a way to edit the interview in order to portray Obama in the worst possible light.



* NOTE - the above post was partly written before searching for other O'Reilly interviews, which I have linked above.

Non-existent Homeless Vets Fight O'Reilly

When this story started emerging a few weeks ago, I knew something like this would happen. I wonder how Bill O'Reilly and Fox News will (or won't) cover it.

John Edwards, who until bowing out of the campaign, was making poverty and homeless veterans a staple of his stumping, was being lambasted by O'Reilly when he would let the American people know the truth and point out the fact that over 200,000 veterans of our Armed Forces are sleeping on the streets on any given night.

As recently as January 16, O'Reilly took to the airwaves to rain ridicule upon Edwards, saying, "Well, we're still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges,...so if you find anybody, let us know." As we reported two days later, Robert Greenwald and his crew at Brave New Films did exactly that.

Now, a group from Fitzgerald House, an "organization representing homeless veterans," plans to bring their fight for recognition to Fox's doorstep. They plan on visiting the Fox News Channel Studios today at 3:00 pm, and will come carrying a petition signed by 17,000 people demanding an apology from O'Reilly for his ignorance and abuse.

Leave it to Robert Greenwald, slayer of all things Fox, to take this head on and expose Bill O'Reilly as the egomaniacal misinformationist that he is. Take a look at the video.