O'Reilly contradicted his own claim that "no far right person in this country" is "going to get on the cover of Time"
On The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly said that "no far right person in this country" is "going to get on the cover of Time." O'Reilly made his comment in response to Time's May 29 edition, which featured the country music trio The Dixie Chicks on its cover -- a band O'Reilly described as "far left." In fact, the very person O'Reilly identified as Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines' right-wing counterpart -- Ann Coulter -- graced the cover of Time's April 25, 2005, edition.
On the May 22 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said that "no far right person in this country" is "going to get on the cover of Time magazine." O'Reilly made his comment in response to Time's May 29 edition, which featured the country music trio The Dixie Chicks on its cover -- a band O'Reilly described as "far left." In fact, Time featured right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on the cover of its April 25, 2005, issue, whom O'Reilly explicitly compared to Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines during the May 22 edition of the Factor, saying: "[I]f you were going to make an example of somebody who takes rhetoric to the extreme, Ann Coulter would be probably your best right-wing shot."
In addition, the cover of the February 7, 2005, issue of Time featured the "Top 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America." Those included:
- James C. Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, who has compared embryonic stem cell research with Nazi experiments conducted on live human patients during and prior to the Holocaust, and likened Supreme Court justices to the Ku Klux Klan.
- Former Nixon special counsel-turned-Christian radio commentator Charles W. Colson, who has called abortion "the root" of the illegal immigration "problem," likened discussions in the psychiatric community about whether bias should be classified as a mental illness to the Soviet Union sending Christians "by the hundreds to mental institutions," and speculated that God sent Hurricane Katrina as a reminder to the United States of the importance of winning the "war on terror."
- Rev. Richard Land, a radio host, author, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who has compared pro-choice advocates to 1860s-era "slave owners."
- Evangelist Franklin Graham, who has said Muslims must "strap a bomb on" in order to "please God," stated that Islam is "an evil and wicked religion" and those who think "Islam is such a wonderful religion" ought to "go to Saudi Arabia and make it your home," and declared that "[i]f God was going to use a hurricane to judge sin," He would have hit Las Vegas before New Orleans.
From the May 22 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: No I don't. I don't think they're -- I think they're a bad outfit [The Dixie Chicks] across the board as far as their tolerance for dissenting points of view. I think that's the problem with them. But, you know, they could've done it -- I have no problem with people trying to get their point across and legitimate dissent. I told her [Maines] that. I, again, I told her, I respected her right to say what she said, and then she distorted my remarks and said to The New York Times that I respected what she said. Total lie. Total lie.
But that's what the far left does. That's what they do. And the far right does it too, but there are so few far right loons anymore. They're just not around and they have no access to the media. No far right person in this country is going to get the cover of Time magazine as the Dixie Chicks are this week. There's not a far right person in this country going to get on the cover of Time magazine. Not gonna happen.
[...]
And Ann Coulter gets some media attention, but not nearly, not nearly what the far-left bomb-throwers get. But if you were going to make an example of somebody who takes rhetoric to the extreme, Ann Coulter would be probably your best right-wing shot.
But, you know what? I've had her on four or five times. You've seen her on the Factor. I make fun of her all the time and I don't agree with, you know, 70 percent of what she says. I think she takes something and runs with it to a degree, which is funny. But Ann Coulter doesn't get angry with me, doesn't, you know -- I have a decent relationship with her. As far as I get her on the phone, I could talk to her. I can book her on the show.
She doesn't -- you see -- and I -- and I -- I see a twinkle in her eye and I'm wondering: Is Ann just doing this for theatre? I don't know. I can't -- I can't say. But Ann Coulter would probably be the example on the right of -- of bombastic opinion.
But I will submit to you this: In a debate on geopolitics between Natalie Maines and Ann Coulter, who's going to win? E.D. Hill.
HILL: I'm going with Ann.
O'REILLY: OK. Is there anybody out there? 'Cause I'll put this event in Madison Square Garden. If -- I know I can get Coulter. OK. Maines we may have to tie up and drag in there. But is there anybody who would bet Natalie Maines versus Ann Coulter. Both rhetoric is in the extreme, I'll grant you that, but who's going to win in the backup category?
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oh, wait, it's Bill O'Btuse so of course he has no grasp of reality.
..that he's never been on the cover. Or has he? He lies so much, hard to tell.
I think I do recall something about him being on the cover of Paris Business Review. Headlines said something about, "The Greatest Threat to France Since Freedom Fries."
...that MM didn't pick up on his talking points, in which he ridiculed the youth of today for not being able to find Iraq on a map. Maybe they think it's next to Jalisco?
That Coulter is a centrist...
right on bush and iraq. ann coulter: wrong on bush and iraq.
Man of the Year 2004: George W. Bush
Look it up Bill, ya jackass.
BOR did the most gentle of jobs trying to say Ann was far right. He likes her on his show. He even advertises her book on his website. HMMMM Ann and a Natalie in a debate...HMMMM one sings for a living the other reads and writes all day from so far in right field Barry Bonds couldnt hot it over her head. What a ridiculous statement BOR. BOR anymore is nothing but a tabloid show that tries to kill liberals.
This guy never stops lying through his teeth. Natalie Maines isn't far left in any sense of the word. She's no more far left (actually he means "extreme"), than 78% of Americans, as recent polls have proved. Saying that Chimpo is a louse and is doing a crappy job isn't far left, O'Lielly, it's what most Americans think and it's the truth. As for MAnn Coulter, she goes waaay beyond far right, she's just plain crazy as an outhouse rat.
Anyone -- ANYONE -- who cuts against his grain is considered "far-left". A true centrist would be considered "far-left" by this tinhorn if he/she goes against his Conservative ideology. Which is why I've been saying that he is a far right-winger. It's where he is on the political spectrum that determines how he labels people -- he's on the extreme right. He's an extremist hiding under a "Traditionalist" label. What is so telling is how he will always go to bat for the Right, and not the Left. Why does this supposedly self described "Independent" always omit the Left from his concern ? When has he ever asked a right listing paper for balance, or for that matter, talk radio for more balance ? He and Hannity are the biggest frauds and liars on television bar none.
He and Imus should get an apartment together
And Ann Coulter gets some media attention, but not nearly, not nearly what the far-left bomb-throwers get.
What is this guys problem? The last time I checked, conservatives received almost double the airtime that liberals received. Facts do not matter to him nor the "majority" of the republican party frankly. It's all dodge, deflect and misdirect.
Bill should just quit. He's not helping anyone, and he's wasting valuable webspace that we have to pretend that we're shock by anything he says. He keeps saying the same lies in different forms everyday. Where's that French magazine Bill that says your boycott is hurting France? What a tool.
the way that he's always accusing one person or another with being on the far left.
Some of us have had to earn the mantel of Left Wing Bomb Thrower. Why should all these moderates & centrists get a free ride.
Man, O'lielly just has to try & take the fun out of everything.
in a debate- of course, he thinks he wins every "debate" he's in. Winning is apparently repeating the same slogan and not learning anything or even being capable of understanding an opposing viewpoint. And, look at his match-up- the Dixie Chicks (Musicians who propably spend enough time each day paying attention to know we have a lousy President) and Ann Coulter- a GOP propagandist who spends, I'd guess by the crack-head face and figure, 23 1/2 hours a day screaming about the ulterior motives of anyone who sees the idiocy of this Commander-in-chimp. Using O'Reilly's judging scale for debate (loudest,shrillest, most impressive leaps in logic wins), I wonder who Bill would give the debate to. This is the network that gave more than one Presidential debate to Bush over Kerry. Har Har!
that Coulter has already had two public debates with Al Franken, and even her most ardent admirers say she lost big-time.
Apparently the advice in her book, "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)" doesn't hold up very well.
But maybe we should cut her some slack. Things have never been the same since that house fell on her sister.
Somebody remind Bill that George Clooney offered to have a one-on-one discussion of the issues with him on the Charlie Rose show. So if he's gonna dangle this bait in front of a singer, wouldn't it be fair and balanced for him to explain why he hasn't acceptedthe sit down. 'What's the matter, Bill, can't handle it if someone else is calling the tune?
The reason Bill went off the deep end for the 5oooth time is Natalie Maines said he was a phony in the NY Times. BO can not take any public criticism at all, It is all a smear!!!! But any criticism he dishes out is "News Commentary."
By the way anyone notice on his "Far Right" list conspicuously absent is the Washington Times owned by Rev Moon the same guy who has performed mass marriages involving 5000 people and also says he has converted Hitler and Stalin to Jesus in the afterlife.
Sasami was correct, but did not go far enough.
It's hard for most people to grasp extreme self-centeredness, even when we know, intellectually, that it exists, and even when we spot specific cases. It's very possible that O'Reilly does not understand why the Dixie Chicks made the cover, but he has not.
If he were a real journalist, he might be able to make a dispassionate assessment of newsworthiness and a lot of intangibles. If his world view were not so completely O'Reilly-centric, he would not automatically relate everything to himself.
The combination, however, means that he probably feels slighted whenever covers show personalities in fields remotely related to his own, particularly in this case when the subjects are young, female, and have interacted acrimoniously with him or been the subject of his ire.
This is like saying, "who wants that stupid award, anyway," or "screw it, I didn't want to go there anyway." He is proffering a pre-emptory reason in advance of any questions he imagines the whole world wonders: why not him?
Never underestimate the capacity of this kind of person to see everything in terms of HIM. One of Janis Joplin's biographers wrote that the singer was extremely upset when Eisenhower died, pushing her off the cover of Newsweek--and displayed her fury loudly and to all within range.
While many in a comparable situation might be a little upset internally, what distingishes the egocentric is the absence of mental brakes about how others perceive the situation. In other words, it doesn't occur to them that others might see the comparison (between a 20-something singer with several years of public exposure and a former president who had coordinated D-Day) as ridiculous or offensive.
While O'Reilly's perception of reality may be somewhat stronger, it's probably the same kind of emotional reaction. Since he's somewhat more aware--but only somewhat--of what's appropriate to say and what's not, he lashes out indirectly.
Seriously - what purpose does she serve on his program?
Go through an O'Reilly transcript you could set up a drinking game based on every time ED Hill pipes in with a "yeah" or an "uh huh" - I know Murdoch pays well (ask Susan Estrich), so why is she so stingy? Give your audience at least two cents' worth.
He simply doesn't live in reality anymore.
O'Really: "there are so few far right loons anymore. They're just not around and they have no access to the media. "
Apparently, they have just barely enough access for MMFA to justify a website, which, as of late, has been running a marathon on a daily basis to keep up with the sewage that the neocon nutjobs are spewing.
O'Really: "In a debate on geopolitics between Natalie Maines and Ann Coulter, who's going to win?"
Last time I checked, Natalie was just another American angry with the direction this country is headed and who happens to be a musician. I never heard her claim to be an expert on geopolitics so I think the basis of Bill's hypothetical is absolutely loony. Pitting someone who spends her days brewing up baseless hate diatribes against someone who lives and breathes music is nothing short of ludicrous.
So, Coulter is far right, Maines is far left, and Bill of course is right down the middle. Yet Bill gets along so wonderfully well with Coulter, but not Maines. How can that be? It just doesn't make sense!
Why do think O'Reilly is so down on the Dixie Chicks, to say nothing of Barbra Streisand, Susan Sarandon, George Clooney and a host of others. Probably not because they're really that extreme but because they have opposing viewpoints to his own AND !!!because they have an audience probably larger than his. O'Reilly doesn't mind people in a free democracy having differing views as long as they are the homeless, the displaced, the minorities, the indigents who have no voice anyway. He had no problem with Cindy Sheehan until she started to become a celebrity. On the other hand why is Bill so high on Ann Coulter? Probably because she is such a raving lunatic that she makes him look sane by comparison. AND THAT'S THE MEMO!