Bill O'Reilly and the technique of saying anything you can get away with to stir up the base
February 08, 2010 10:30 pm ET by Jeremy Holden
Tonight, Bill O'Reilly attempted to step outside the laws of space and time in order to defend his newest Fox News colleague, Sarah Palin. As O'Reilly noted, Palin delivered the keynote address at the first Tea Party Nation convention. After showing video of Palin criticizing congressional Democrats and the Obama administration, O'Reilly claimed, "It took just moments after that before the left-wing media replied, hammering Governor Palin." O'Reilly then showed a clip of Democratic consultant Bob Shrum telling MSNBC's Ed Schultz that Palin's Tea Party convention comments were "a masterful exercise -- masterful -- in paranoid politics."
But the Palin comments O'Reilly aired weren't made at the Tea Party convention. Rather, they came during Palin's interview with Chris Wallace, which aired on the February 7 edition of Fox News Sunday, a day after Shrum criticized her remarks at the Tea Party convention.
O'Reilly's video trick effectively granted Palin a reprieve for the comments Shrum actually was criticizing -- specifically, numerous false and dubious claims Palin made during her February 6 speech:
SHRUM: What we heard tonight was more a masterful exercise -- masterful -- in paranoid politics. I mean, she came across to me as a merchant of hate with an "Oh gosh" smile. I mean, go down the things she said. Barack Obama has never talked about the war on terrorism. Yes, he has. The way the shoe bomber was handled on Christmas Day. Those were under the rules set up by -- not the shoe bomber, the underpants bomber -- those were under the rules set up and applied to the shoe bomber by the Bush administration. Small business needs tax cut. Ed, who's proposing the tax cuts for small business?
SCHULTZ: Barack Obama is.
SHRUM: Barack Obama. Who's opposing them? The Republicans. It's the technique that believes that you can say anything and get away with it, as long as you stir up the base.
It would appear that technique is right at home at Fox News.
But really, who's going to stop them? A team of reporters were denied whistle-blower status from Fox News, because the court ruled that falsifying news was not against the law.
And people who watch Bill O'Reilly.. they're not going to see this, or any other liberal publication exposing his lies. I'm not saying that all of Media Matters' work has been for nothing, but.. it gets discouraging.
This is the nonsense that MMFA, the Obama White House and I all object strenuously to - the stuff that hinders us from discussing the issues we really should be talking about. The stuff that poisons our national debate!
Why is Ted Baxter sucking Simple Sarah's toes?
To try to bring the Rodeo Clown down. Yes, it's as simple as that.
Mis-direction to take your attention away from the Reviled.
Tom Tancredo & Sarah Palin, Two Racist that could easily have starred in "The Beguiled"
Mr. Tancredo is Overt, Ms. Palin would be as well but her Palm hasn't been sufficiently Riled.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
They can't keep doing it and claim it is a mistake. At some point the other major networks will call them out for purposefully using the wrong footage. Most likely it will be Jon Stewart again. Keep tabs Jon, keep tabs.
I am still waiting for an explanation about the billion dollars of surplus Bush and his cronies wasted.
The right is quick to give a pass on how our national debt was created by a leader who paid for nothing. He only allowed the wealthy to become richer.
O'Reilly and Palin play on the poor and uneducted white. They could care less about facts and who is really fighting for them.
It is surely not the right.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/liveblogging-palin.html
Dude, this guy looks like an ex-biker. But; of course the right won't pay much attention to him because: He's gay.
It is a good read though, if you check out his Wikipedia entry.