The Billiken's Bluff

I was watching The O'Reilly Factor last night for as long as I could bear it. O'Reilly is rude, sarcastic, smug and has a proclivity for interupting his guests, but I realize this is all part of his appeal (if you can call being obnoxious appeal). Bill is a straight shooter, like a Don Imus, or a Howard Stern. At times I do enjoy O'Reilly's show. For instance I loved when he took issue with Jenna Jameson and her peddling of pornography, or when he criticized Pepsi for using the rapper, Ludacris, to sell soft-drinks. Those were some funny interviews.



Last night's focus of Bill's ire was The New York Times. It was also the topic of his latest column on his website. O'Reilly took issue with the way in which The Times has covered a number of recent stories. He claims the Times has misled the public by reporting that no links have been found between Al Quaeda and Iraq. Bill criticized The Times for focusing too much on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. He claims the sole purpose of The Times plethora of stories on the topic was to make the Bush administration look incompetent and cruel (O'Reilly completely ignores the possibility that the Abu Ghraib scandal was a legitimate, and vital news story). O'Reilly also went on the offensive against a Monday Times article which suggested that the intelligence received from the detainees at Guantánamo Bay has not been as significant as the Bush Administration has suggested. Additionally, O'Reilly took Times business reporter Geraldine Fabrikant to task for referring to him as a conservative in an article she wrote about him a few months back. I don't watch The O'Reilly Factor every evening but I have gotten the general impression that Bill is, to say the least, a conservative.

This is all fine and well. I tend to agree with the The New York Times and its "liberal" slant. But, O'Reilly is entitled to point out what he perceives as biases. However, if O'Reilly, really maintains that his show is "Fair and Balanced," then he should submit The Ny Post to the same degree of scrutiny. If The Times is tilted towards the left, then The Post is completely slanted and threatening to fall through the floor towards the right. Lest you forget I pointed out the Bush propoganda splayed across the front covers of The NY Post last week.

Granted, I don't watch The O'Reilly Factor nightly, but I seriously doubt that Bill has been critiquing the The NY Post the same way he has The Times. Not only does The NY Post promote his conservative agenda but it happens to be owned by the same media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News Channel which broadcast The O'Reilly Factor. That sounds like a conflict of interest to me. Come on Bill, I thought yours was supposed to be the "No-Spin Zone".

I really am sick of watching these news programs critiquing other news media, newspaper reporting on other newspapers, and all this incessant politcal bickering. I also hate writing about it but can't help being drawn into this adolescent game of name calling. It really has taken on the feel of a 4th grade classroom--

Your newspaper is so stupid it locked itself in a supermarket and starved to death.

Yea Well--

Well your parent company is so fat it got on the scale and it said, "To be continued..."

Oh Snap!