Tag: TV

Whose Hands are Bloody Now?

Trish

Dr. George Tiller, right, accepts an award

Anti-abortion extremists (is there another kind?) seem confused about who the victim is in the murder of Dr. George Tiller during a Wichita church service. Despite a years-long coordinated campaign of threats, harassment and incitement of violence against the family planning physician, their main concern is that they will face a backlash from sensible people. Whoops. Should of thought of that a little sooner.

From a transcript of the Bill O’Reilly show from June, 2007 in which Dr. Tiller was ambushed and goaded while attempting to get in his car:

Bill O’Reilly in 2007: “If the state of Kansas doesn’t stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PORTER BARRY, “FACTOR” PRODUCER: Why are you one of the only doctors who does these kind of abortions?

TILLER: Nice day isn’t it?

BARRY: They call you Tiller, the baby Killer. Is that appropriate? .

TILLER: I’m think I’m going to get in my car and go to work.

BARRY: Dr. Tiller, don’t you think…

TILLER: Hi, is this 911? This is Dr. George Tiller. I am at Edgemoore and Harry at QuickTrip. I’m being accosted by the people from O’Reilly. Yes, and they are preventing me from getting in my car and leaving.

BARRY: You can get in your car and go, Dr. Tiller.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Bill O’Reilly, later in that same broadcast:

O’REILLY: Yes, I think we all know what this is. And if the state of Kansas doesn’t stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands as the governor does right now, Governor [Kathleen] Sebelius.

[…]

Was Cruella de Malkin Fired by Fox over Smear of 12 Year Old?

Jon Ponder

Is it possible there is a bottom to the depths of rightwing hackery? Probably not, but there is a rumor going around that Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit most likely to skin puppies to make a fur coat, has been fired as the occasional guest host for the Bill O’Reilly comedy hour on Fox News because of her vicious attack on 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family.

Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a car accident in 2004, after which SCHIP, the children’s health insurance program Pres. Bush has vetoed, covered the costs of their extensive hospital stays and rehab. On Sept. 29, Graeme gave the Democrats’ rebuttal to Pres. Bush’s radio speech in which he sought to justify vetoing SCHIP, and Malkin, along with Rush Limbaugh and their running dogs at sites like Free Republic and Redstate — and even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office and the Bush White House, no less — have been trying to silence and discredit the kid ever since.

Conservative bloggers even went so far as to publish the Frost family’s address online and, to no one’s surprise, the Frosts have been receiving death threats ever since.

The Malkin controversy arose just as the dust was settling after Bill O’Reilly’s racist comments about African-American restaurant-goers, and may have been too much for Fox executives and, more to the point, FNC advertisers.

If the rumor is true, Malkin’s cover story for her departure has it that she is leaving in a fit of pique because an apology she received from Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera on an unrelated matter was not sincere enough:

[…]

O’Reilly Unhinged: ‘I‘m Going to Hunt You Down, And I Mean It … I‘m Coming for You’

Jon Ponder

Keith Olbermann believes the controversy over Bill O’Reilly’s racism-embued comments about Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem have pushed O’Reilly to the edge of sanity:

“I think he‘s on the verge of having a breakdown. I think he needs psychiatric help.”
— Marvin Kittman, O’Reilly biographer

O‘REILLY on his radio show: I‘m going to hunt you down, and I mean it. The smear stops here. You‘re all on notice out there. I‘m coming for you.

Is Olbermann serious? Hard to say:

OLBERMANN: [It‘s] time to consider another question, is Bill ill? Not to equate racism with mental defect, although the argument can be made, but last night Mr. O‘Reilly demonstrated some classic signs of paranoia and an inability to distinguish between the rest of the world and the contents of his own head.

As an example of paranoia, Olbermann cites O’Reilly’s new enemies list:

REILLY: Besides CNN, the worst offender in the case is the “New York Daily News,” the CBS Early Show, which actually described Media Matters as a watchdog group. How dishonest is that? The “Chicago Sun Times,” the “Philadelphia Inquirer,” ABCNews.com, and the “Louisville Journal” also completely distorted the story.

(O’Reilly’s enemies list used to be a lot more democratic. Back in 2005, we invited readers to write Bill and ask to be included on his list.)

Olbermman interviewed an expert on O’Reilly’s mental condition, Marvin Kittman, author of “The Man Who Wouldn’t Shut Up,” a bio of Billo:

KITTMAN: To use the technical word, [O’Reilly is] losing it. He seems more unhinged than usual. You can tell in his debates, for example, he has two people that are debating an issue, when we‘re lucky. But even when somebody is on his side, if they‘re slightly off, like one degree, he comes down on them and he‘s just about ready to implode, I can see looking at him.

Later, Kittman points to a contributing factor to O’Reilly’s coming breakdown:

And, you know, Keith … I do want to say that you are responsible for contributing to O‘Reilly‘s seeming to be unhinged. By your mentioning him all the time, you are making a star out of him. You know, he lives for media attention. It is spinach. He‘s like Popeye and he has to get involved with some network or some newspaper column or some book and you‘re doing it. I should point that out to you. You might not be aware of it.

Kittman’s bottom line:

I think he‘s on the verge of having a breakdown. I think he needs psychiatric help and, of course, he told me that he would never pay a psychiatrist money to listen to him. And I would suggest we have a telethon in his honor to raise money.

Earlier in the week, Olbermann floated the idea that Fox might fire O’Reilly just as MSNBC fired Don Imus over his racist comments. By Friday, Olbermann had backed off that prediction, however. If anything, the controversy has probably boosted O’Reilly’s ratings, and the tiny percentage of conservative blacks who watch Fox News probably aren’t complaining.

O’Reilly Goes to Harlem, Finds It Suprisingly Similar to America

Jon Ponder

Billo’s narrative about a recent trip to Harlem offers keen insight into the rightwing’s inner monologue on race:

You know, I was up in Harlem a few weeks ago, and I actually had dinner with Al Sharpton, who is a very, very interesting guy. And he comes on The Factor a lot, and then I treated him to dinner, because he’s made himself available to us, and I felt that I wanted to take him up there.

Note the adverb: He actually had dinner with Sharpton, which translates as “believe it or not, I had dinner with a liberal, and an African-American liberal, at that.” But the takeaway point: Bill paid for dinner.

And we went to Sylvia’s, a very famous restaurant in Harlem. I had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful.

Not just some dive nobody’s heard of. Bill went to one of the most famous restaurants in the African American universe.

They all watch The Factor. You know, when Sharpton and I walked in, it was like a big commotion and everything, but everybody was very nice.

Bill would have us believe that Sylvia’s was packed with Fox News watchers, but what he probably couldn’t imagine is that black people have cable television and may have seen him in his almost nightly presentation as Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World,” or in any number of other shows where he is mocked and lampooned.

And I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship. It was the same, and that’s really what this society’s all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference. There’s no difference. There may be a cultural entertainment — people may gravitate toward different cultural entertainment, but you go down to Little Italy, and you’re gonna have that. It has nothing to do with the color of anybody’s skin.

Is Bill O’Reilly truly as unsophisticated as he comes off here, or is this part of his everyman shtick? If he’s reporting his true impressions here, it appears he experienced more than a little trepidation in advance of his visit.

What is truly revelatory here is the fact that O’Reilly is so out of tune with his own prejudices that he would broadcast them to his audience without a trace of irony or self-deprecation.

Who Knew Wingnut Richard Viguerie Had a Sense of Humor?

Buck Banks

Richard Viguerie, he for whom all real conservative politics died with Barry Goldwater, is a favorite punching bag of mine. He tends to send out topical blurts that mainly serve to make him seem completely out of step with most Americans and with only a tenuous grasp on reality. But today he really surprised me by issuing a satirical press release that, while not a knee-slapper, is rather clever and much more fun to read than his usual screed:

Producers wanted to sign Thompson for the series because he was seen as a ‘natural,’ having already impersonated a conservative U.S. Senator for eight years.

Fred Thompson Under Contract to Play “The Conservative”

(Washington, D.C.) Fred Thompson, well known for his role as the District Attorney in NBC’s wildly successful “Law and Order” series, has been signed by Faux Productions to star in its new political soap opera, “The Conservative.”

The prime-time soap will appear on the Political Network.

The series’ debut is expected any day, after summer production mishaps that saw the replacement of many top staff executives. Financing for the show also proved harder to obtain than originally expected. But Faux Productions President Howard Baker maintains a steady optimism about the new soap’s prospects for success.

“We have done massive research into what the American public wants in a politician today,” says Baker, “and we’re going to give them everything they want.”

“They want a strong national-defense conservative, so we’re giving them a strong national-defense conservative.”

“The public wants a fiscal conservative, so we’re giving them a fiscal conservative.”

“And most of all, they want a social conservative, so we’re giving them a social conservative.”

One Faux executive confided to The Washington Insider that the producers wanted to sign Thompson for the series because he was seen as a “natural,” having already impersonated a conservative U.S. Senator for eight years. It is not yet known whether the new production will bring back the old stage props, such as Fred’s red pickup truck. That may be fine for Tennessee, the executive said, but too unsophisticated for a national show. Rumors are also rampant that Jeri Thompson, who plays the leading distaff role as The Conservative’s child bride, doesn’t like pickup trucks.
[…]

Public Service, GOP Style: Tony Snow Will Quit White House ‘When Money Runs Out’

Jon Ponder

Tony Snow left his job as a mid-profile but extravagantly paid GOP propagandist for Fox “News” radio to take an extremely high-profile job with a salary in the measly $150,000 range as a GOP propagandist for the White House.

It is shocking to hear a top White House official say he’s quitting because the pay is lousy. It not only reveals a lack of class, it shows that the man who speaks for George Bush appears to hold a smoldering contempt for him.

Now he says he has warned his betters at the White House that he will only stay on as press secretary until his government salary no longer supports the lifestyle he became accustomed to as a media elite:

HUGH HEWITT: Your intention to go the distance, Tony Snow?

TS: No, I’m not going to be…I’ve already made it clear I’m not going to be able to go the distance, but that’s primarily for financial reasons. I’ve told people when my money runs out, then I’ve got to go.

HH: How long will that be?

TS: I’m not going to tell you.

HH: Well, come on, make some news.

TS: No.

HH: All right.

It is shocking to hear a top White House official say he’s quitting because the pay is lousy. It not only reveals a lack of class, it shows that the man who speaks for George Bush appears to hold him in contempt. Normally, a White House official making this sort of statement would hasten to add that it is an honor and a privilege to serve the president and so forth, even if he didn’t mean it. Snow didn’t bother.

Ann Coulter: With Rove Gone, We’ll Learn Who to Blame for ‘Stupid Things’ Bush Does

Jon Ponder

And she said this on Fox “News,” according to Raw Story:

“What I think is going to be fun,” she said, “is finding out how much of the architect Karl Rove actually was. I’ve gone back and forth between blaming Karl Rove for the stupid things Bush does and blaming Bush for the stupid stuff Bush does.”

And:

“Rove, they were looking at indicting for a felony [in the outing of Valerie Plame] … which suggests to me that he was not the one involved in that, that that was entirely George Bush’s idea.”

And:

“So you start thinking everything you like about Bush was Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, and the stuff you don’t like is George Bush,” Coulter concluded. “So now we’ll find out.”

FOX Called on Compact Fluorescent Hatchet Job

Trish

The Sierra Club’s “Mr. Green” rebuts the FOX News (motto: “Don’t ask me, I watch FOX News”) slam against compact fluorescent bulbs. FOX’s own “Junk Science” columnist says the bulbs, which contain mercury, require hazardous materials clean-up if broken and that mandating their use denies consumers choice. After all, if people want to burn up scarce resources we might have to invade other countries to secure, it’s their own business.

Mr. Green corrects the misinformation.

The people at Fox News are either brain-damaged from huffing mercury (they do seem to have a fondness for the highly toxic) or they have unscrupulously cherry-picked their facts…

Imagine that all 4 billion residential lightbulbs have become CFLs. Even in the incredibly unlikely scenario that every single dead bulb were smashed and its contents released into the environment, switching to CFLs would yield a maximum 3.1 tons of mercury each year. Coal-burning power plants emit 50 tons.

This classic example of enviro-bashing is full of flaws. First, the Fox writer trots out one report of one environmental bureaucrat’s overreaction to a bulb breakage to make it sound like a busted CFL will turn a house into a Superfund site. The fact is, CFLs do contain mercury, but nowhere near enough to provoke panic or evacuation. If you break a bulb, you can do the cleanup yourself, without renting a moon suit or contacting authorities.

The EPA advises the following treatment:

1. Open a window and leave the room for at least 15 minutes (to let the mercury vaporize).

2. Remove all materials (i.e., the pieces of the broken bulb) without using a vacuum cleaner. You don’t want even a small amount of mercury lurking in your vacuum. To do so:

* Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available. (Never touch the bulb pieces with your bare hands.)
* Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard (you don’t want the stuff to get on your broom or dustpan either).
* Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe. Sticky tape, such as duct tape (yet another use for the versatile material!), can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.

3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it. If your state permits you to put used or broken CFLs in the garbage, seal the CFL in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash (if no other disposal or recycling options are available). If your state doesn’t allow this, consult the local hazardous-waste authority for safe-recycling information. Some hardware stores will also accept old bulbs; to find a recycler near you, try Earth 911, or (800) CLEAN-UP…

4. Wash your hands after disposing of the bag.

5. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash…for normal disposal.

So much for that part of Fox’s story, but I’m not quite done with calling them on their hokum.

[…]

After Railing against DailyKos, O’Reilly Finally Goes after Rightwing Hate Postings on Free Republic

Jon Ponder

This video was edited by Freepers, so who knows what was omitted

Update: This story was originally about Bill O’Reilly’s hypocrisy in going after random comments left on DailyKos while ignoring hate-filled comments left on the Free Republic site. Last night, O’Reilly did half-heartedly criticize Free Republic for the hateful postings in its comments section, but really just focused on them briefly in order to provide himself with the opportunity to go through his litany of comments from DailyKos.

Freepers are already claiming that the quotes O’Reilly read from their site were fabricated. And not all of them are O’Reilly fans, which is ironic since he is first and foremost a righwing tool:

Bill O’Reilly has a really silly, pathetic hatred for any site that criticizes him. that is what it is really all about.

And:

I can’t believe O’Reilly is going after Free Republic. Any vile or inappropriate comments on this site seem to be removed within a split second – the moderators here are the best! And I also feel like a dope for all the defending of O’Reilly that I’ve done on this site.

The excerpts that follow are from Free Republic’s comments, with links back to the original sources.

Here’s my original intro from yesterday, followed by the Freeper comments.

Bill O’Reilly has ramped up his fake outrage over DailyKos again yesterday, calling it “that hate site,” “vicious,” “beyond shameful … very offensive” and “haters.”

ALL dims [Democrats] are allies of bin laden and worshipers of satan… no exceptions… they are pure evil and motivated by a hate of GOD and Country!

It strikes me that O’Reilly is purposefully ignoring the granddaddy of all hate sites, Free Republic. But then he could hardly be expected to criticize his core audience.

As usual, O’Reilly’s hypocrisy in going after DailyKos while giving a pass to Free Republic is never mentioned by the “liberal media.” One of his tactics is to have an intern read the DailyKos comments and cherrypick inflammatory excerpts to read on the air.

Taking a cue from Pam’s House Blend‘s regular feature “Actual Freeper Quotes” (see specific examples here and here), I rounded up a small sampler of comments from the Free Republic site.

Keep in mind that Free Republic is heavily moderated, so these comments have been given a pass by the site’s operators:

[…]