O'Reilly response to assertion that Tim Robbins made "valid" points: so did Nazi official Von Ribbentrop
During the December 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly questioned the decision by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to have actor/director Tim Robbins travel with him on the campaign trail, saying," Tim Robbins is such a radical guy. Why would John Edwards use him? I don't get it." He then played an excerpt from Robbins' December 12 speech in Iowa City, Iowa, in which Robbins said, "What if, instead of 24/7 coverage of the most recent pop star's fall from grace, we were to see 24/7 reporting of veterans returning from Iraq?" In response, Fox News contributor Jane Hall said Robbins' "criticism of the media ... is valid," to which O'Reilly replied: "But Von Ribbentrop in the Nazi hierarchy made valid points, Jane."
Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop was indicted for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. Ribbentrop was found guilty on all counts and executed. The tribunal found that Ribbentrop had "participated in aggressive plans against Czechoslovakia"; "played a particularly significant role in the diplomatic activity which led up to the attack on Poland"; was aware of or helped plan attacks against other countries, "urged the Italians to put into effect a ruthless occupation policy in Yugoslavia and Greece," and "played an important part in Hitler's 'final solution' of the Jewish question." The tribunal concluded that Ribbentrop "was in sympathy with all the main tenets of the National Socialist creed." O'Reilly did not cite any "valid points" made by Ribbentrop.
From the December 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Now, John Edwards, you -- I can't -- you know, this is just unbelievable. Tim Robbins is such a radical guy. Why would John Edwards use him? I don't get it. Let's roll the tape.
ROBBINS [video clip]: What if, instead of 24/7 coverage of the most recent pop star's fall from grace, we were to see 24/7 reporting of veterans returning from Iraq? What they feel about occupying a country and being caught in the crossfire of a civil war.
O'REILLY: What do you think, Jane? I mean, he's so radical, Robbins. And does Edwards think he's going to get cred? I mean, he might get a little bit in Iowa, but, boy, oh boy, you know, outside of that, Robbins is looked upon as an alien by most Americans.
HALL: Well, you know, he's known for his strong antiwar stance, and he was cheered by that audience, but I think he's a mixed bag. I mean, you know, Oprah Winfrey is not a mixed bag.
O'REILLY: No.
HALL: You can be all over the spectrum and still come out. And Obama getting her endorsement means something.
I think that Robbins is a mixed bag. I mean, if I were his advisers, I would say, if there's someone that's better known, frankly, and also known to appeal to a wider spectrum than this actor.
O'REILLY: What do you think, Bernie?
BERNARD GOLDBERG (Fox News contributor): As you might imagine, I'm not a fan of Tim Robbins' politics, but he is a bright guy, and I think he made a couple of good points.
As to your specific question about whether it's a good idea for Edwards to have him campaigning for him, you and I, Bill, think that Tim Robbins is playing deep left field, but to antiwar Democrats in Iowa, Tim Robbins is as mainstream as Mom's apple pie. So, I think -- I think in Iowa --
O'REILLY: But he's already got that. He's already got that, Bernie. I mean, Edwards has got the far-left vote. I mean, Hillary doesn't have it, because she's equivocated on the Iraq war. Obama, you know, hasn't really cut himself an image in Iowa; and Edwards has been there, I think, for 17 years in Iowa.
HALL: But, you know --
O'REILLY: So, he's got that already.
HALL: One thing I just wanted to say that they've --
GOLDBERG: But the celebrities can bring --
O'REILLY: Go ahead, Bernie.
HALL: One think that I think -- his criticism of the media, which was also part of what he said, I think is valid. They have decided this is a Hillary-Obama race, and he's having a hard time getting traction.
O'REILLY: But Von Ribbentrop in the Nazi hierarchy made valid points, Jane. It's a matter of image. It's a matter of image, and if Edwards wants to run in the Tim Robbins zone, he's crazy.
GOLDBERG: Hey, Bill, I don't think Edwards, if he ever got the nomination -- which isn't going to happen -- but I don't think he'd want Tim Robbins all over the place in a general election.
O'REILLY: Yeah, but he can't go away.
GOLDBERG: But in a primary election --
O'REILLY: He can't get away from him.
GOLDBERG: -- in a place like Iowa --
O'REILLY: Can't get away from him.
I thought they were serial killers, now they are nazis also?
So Von Ribbentrop and Robbins have made some valid points.
When will Bill start making some?
When pigs fly? ;-)
I'd love to know what those valid points were. That cattle cars were a better mode of transportation than Pullmans?
Why does BillO think about nazis so much?
Nazi - It’s just another of Bill’s favorite and overused “scare”, “hate”, or “double-meaning” keywords or phrases. For example, I think I came up with a response for this article using just 58 words where more than half of them are classic Bill O’Reilly.
This is big! Now, we're living in a complex time where ideologues think they can get away with all kinds of stuff - but this bum and his ridiculous smear tactics is unpatriotic and anti-American. His vile rantings will promote anarchy unless we boycott this traitor and stop this enormously complicated Nazi communist demonizer from concocting his piffy smears.
Keith Olberman would be proud of me.:)
Pretty good, but an O'Reilly rant isn't complete without a reference to "secular-progressives". ;)
Funny stuff: Tim Robbins makes a direct statement (on tape) about the "media"...
ROBBINS: "What if, instead of 24/7 coverage of the most recent pop star's fall from grace, we were to see 24/7 reporting of veterans returning from Iraq?"
The folks in the audience laughed at the "pop star" reference, and then applauded strongly the Iraq reference...
...and o'reilly immediately takes it, and makes it all about Tim Robbins being "radical" and an "alien".
What about what Robbins said, which was entirely about the "media"... what about that?
And as soon as the woman on o'reilly's "panel" invokes the substance of what Mr. Robbins said, about the "media", o'reilly reaches for his trump card to play on Tim Robbins:
nazi.
Funny stuff.
Agreed. O'Reilly has to be in control of where the topic is going which, despite that being something that someone in his position would do, he does to the extent of megalomania. The point that he wants to get across must be made at the expense of everything else. Even if Goldberg made a comment that didn't quite fit in with O'Reilly's agenda, he would get cut off before he could finish.
Has anyone been paying attention to Goldberg? I don't know what to make of him. The last time I saw him, he was telling O'Reilly not to have Coulter on the show because she's not a theologian. Thoughts?
Bill O'Reilly has millions of mindless followers who are unable to think for themselves.
You know who else had millions of mindless followers who were unable to think for themselves?
Hitler! That's who!
This game is fun.
Bill, again, Nazis are right-wing!!!! Call him a communist or a marxist, but please at least be on the right side of the spectrum.
Mook,
I'm afraid your mistaken. The official name of the Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, I think you'll agree that a socialist party is not in keeping with conservative thought.
Nazism was a socialist, fascist, nationalist, and racist ideology revolving around Hitler's views.
To say it was on the right is as absurd as saying it is on the left.
Except that the Nazi's tore apart the trade unionists, so the workers party part of the Nazi title is a lie. Mook is right.
As for who the Party of nationalists in our country is and who appeals to the racists and homophobes and who supports the fascist agenda of corporatized, privatized government... I'll leave that up to the free thinkers at MMFA.
AA, does that mean that the folks running the Peoples Republic of China are Republicans?
Oh Christ, who the hell do you think you are fooling? Hitler could call his party of murderous thugs anything he wanted. They were never Socialists.
But of course, I'm sure you knew that already and were just tossing a Limbaugh-Hannity line out there. Facts be damned, right?
But...but...it says "socialist" in the name, right? He must be left wing!
You guys keep trying this tripe its ludicrous. The Nazi party was socialist in NAME ONLY. Hitler put REAL socialists into concentration camps. Nazis were fascist, CLEARLY rightwing politically. Pro corporate, authoritarian, rightwing all the way.
The comparisons are scary.
Hitler was for good highways: America has the best highway system in the world.
Hitler had a mustache: some Americans have mustaches.
We have become Hitler's Germany! Save us, Bill!
O'Reilly has jumped the shark. I doubt he even knows who von Ribbentrop was or what he did. (he was Hitler's foreign minister).
The following from Wikopedia regarding Von Ribbentrop.
While not recorded in the trial transcript, Göring was said to have remarked, after hearing these words, [von ribbentrop incriminating Hitler, Goering, and himself,] that Ribbentrop deserved to hang, if only for his stupidity.
At one point during the trial proceedings, US Army interpreter for the prosecution Richard Sonnenfeldt asked Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, Ribbentrop's second in command, how Hitler could have made him a high official. Weizsacker responded "Hitler never noticed Ribbentrop's babbling because Hitler always did all the talking" [15
I think the von Ribbentrop analogy could easily be used in refernece to B.O.
OoooooOOOoohhhh- I get it!! People who make valid points are mass murderers.. wow... good to know...
That includes you, Mr. L...
What valid points Bill? What were Von Ribbentrop's valid points? I think Bill saw the movie Team America and thought it was a documentary instead of a puppet movie. Bill, Alec, Tim and Jeannine aren't really FilmActorGuild memebers and they didn't go to a Kim Jong Il festival in Pyongang either. And guess what Bill, there is nothing kooky or alien about opposing this president's policies. There is something sick, on the other hand, about those who do support those policies by wrapping themselves in the American flag by equating love for country to how vociferously one supports this Adminstration. Go stick a loofah up your twot Bill O
BAHAHAHAHA
Wait... Team America isn't a documentary? why does it look so real then? Durka durka mohamed jihad...
Can I play "ignorant Nazi comparisons" too? Bill O'Lielly writes books, and so did Adolf Hitler.
Do you guys recognize sarcasm only when it's used by liberals? His point is that using Robbins is a poor choice to garner widespread campaign support, notwithstanding the fact that Robbins may occasionally render valid comments. Tell me you guys aren't naive enough to believe that BO actually considers Robbins a nazi. Why does O'Reilly so easily offend liberals? Don't you think that he said those comments on purpose, after he got your ire up with the remarks about glover and serial killers . . .?
I think the main reason is his claim to be a man of the people. He denies his water carrying for the GOP. Has he ever went after a so called fringe element on the right? Of course not, because there is no such thing, plus who do you think his loyalists are? The whole darn right is frigne to the mainstream. How else do you explain a man who 15 years ago said AIDS patients should be quarantined leading the GOP race? Because GOPers used the Christians to seize power and 35 years later, Roe vs Wade is still on the books and there is no constitutional ammendment banning same sex marriage. The GOP could not win an election without those folks. Now, the GOP won't win an election because the fringe has taken over the nominating process. Ted Haggard as his running mate? We know how much forgiveness Aw Hucks has in his heart.
Comparing Robbins to Ribbentrop is sarcasm?
Please explain further, because I just don't get it.
But, in the same vein, Bush is a war criminal. Oops, that the truth.
Thomp Steve: You ask whether any of us are naive enough to believe that O'Reilly considers Robbins a Nazi. Of course we don't. But isn't it obvious that throwing out a comparison to a Nazi was meant to just insult and degrade Robbins unnecessarily? Isn't that the point with all these right-wing blowhards--as soon as they disagree with someone's politics they attack that person personally rather than address what they actually said or did. What has Tim Robbins ever said or done that makes him a "radical", or an "alien" or comparable to Ribbentrop? I, like Robbins, consider George Bush a terrible president, in fact the worst in American history. You might think I am wrong, which you have every right to do. But does that make me an "alien" or a "Nazi?" The intellectual vapidity of O'Reilly and other blabbers who are incessantly on our TVs and radios should be highlighted. The fact that O'Reilly does not truly believe the ridiculous comparisons that he makes should not be used to defend him, it should be used to condemn him.
The answer to why O'Reilly so offends liberals? BECAUSE HE'S SO DAMNED STUPID! Hope that answers your question.
I think a few things. That I dont care WHY he says such stu[pid and offensive things. They dont make what he said LESS stupid or offensive. I think its dumb to pretend we ought NOT to be offended when O'falafel equates a liberal with a Nazi. When Bush was compared to a Nazi the rightwing to apoplectic.
Well, in O'Reilly's mind, Poland was kinda asking for it. You know, just like Andrea Mackris did.
And the Volkswagen's rear engine put enough weight above the axle to help create a "No Spin" zone for the rear tires. This is all coming together.
And Volkswagen? A notorious Nazi company! Coincidence? I think not!
Was this before or after his "No Spin Zone" ? Isn't that the cycle where the clothes are bombarded with violet bursts of soapy whitewash that they soak up like a sponge?
I have always believed that people who make Nazi comparisons are fools. But it's not just idiot BILLO.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1006-08.htm
I have often wanted to be made dictator just for a few years so I could put an end this kind of stupidity.
But don't be alarmed, I would be a 'compassionate' and 'benign' dicatator'!
(Honest! You would like to live under my autocratic rule!)
Some persons find themselves offended by the strangest things!
There are VALID comparisons to the Nazis to be made in Corporate / Repugnant America, so I applaud those who make those comparisons, so long as they supply that requirement of validity. I am always far more offended by those who deny the obvious similarities despite themselves evidencing every element of the comparison.
Unfortunately there are valid comparisons between the Fuhrer and the Decider. In this context I strongly recommend Naomi Wolf's receht work subtitled: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.
10-4, Conley. P*ss on that stoopid Godwin's Law, if it quacks like a Nazi, I'm going to call it a Nazi, even if I have to qualify it as more of a larval Nazi, so as not to diminish the acts of the actual Nazis.
I will also point out when the accusation or comparison is made without justification (as here, by BilldO).
If you need a special rule to prevent others from calling you a Nazi, you may want to start behaving in a less Nazi-like manner.
Ever notice that when Bill starts gesturing with his hands, it looks like he's doing a skit with naked sock puppets?
I wonder if Billy-O has ever heard of Godwin's Law, or reductio ad Hitlerum...
Actually, the funniest line her is when O'Reilly says : "Tim Robbins is looked at like an alien by mosy Americans." Has there been such a poll taken that I did not hear about? And what does O'Reilly know about what "most Americans"think? He is watched by approximately 2 million people a night, which is about two thirds of one percent of the American population, and his average viewers age is around 70. Boy that is a broad cross-section of America, isn't it? The fact is, a lot of "average Americans" do not even know who this gas-bag is (lucky them) and he has no idea at all what "most Americans" think about anything.
Some people say (BillO catch phrase #1026) those big-headed pictures shown of him when he wins "Worst Person" honors are hilarious. What they don't know is that those pics aren't doctored!
I would venture to say the reason the Big Giant Head offends liberals is because he is so mind numbingly stupid not to mention a serial liar that claims he "speaks" for the common man. I could go on but this post would be far too long.
Exactly! The main reason I loathe O'Reilly, Hannity et al isn't their political opinions, it's that they are so INCREDIBLY STUPID and have to lie constantly in order to make arguments, and even then they barely manage to make them coherent. I would seriously like to see BillO take an IQ test, he seems so amazingly unintelligent.
Isn't O'Reilly the same one who claimed it was OK for US troops to commit atrocities in Iraq because the 82nd Airborne had massacred German troops at Malmedy (totally reversing the actual events of the infamous event)?
Yeah, I'd sure trust him to evaluate things in relation to WWII.