Mystery solved: why o'reilly is after the washington post, and other jokes

Billo denounced Washington Post editor Len Downie, Jr. with a vengeance on his teevee show today, accusing the paper of smear attacks and libel. He even put up Downie's picture in the screen with his name under it -- when he does that, you can be sure he's mad.

So what else is new, you ask?

This was unusual: he frequently calls the NY Times a far left smear merchant; or rails against the socialist Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or calls out the left-wing goons of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- but rarely does he blart about The Post.

When asked about it by a surprised Juan Williams who used to work at The Post, Billo wouldn't say much except that Downie should watch out: because it was rumored that "some Post employees have significant personal situations of their own." And if they don't wise up, he'd unleash the hounds of Fox upon them.

(O'Reilly loves to pretend he's like Walter Winchell who could make or break careers with a few broadcast words. Instead, he's a tabloid teevee sideshow who people tune in for the same reason they tune in to cagefighting. He also loves to pretend the parameters of his penile heft are NOT known all over the Net). 

Although Billo was being oblique on-air, didn't take us long to find what was what -- and in the process discovered the most important piece on media written this year.

It was the cover story on Sunday's Washington Post Magazine called "Cruel and Usual Punishment," by WaPo investigative humorist Gene Weingarten.

Here's the big idea, see... dressed in a tux, Weingarten locked himself alone in a room for 24 hours with 6 TVs, a laptop and two radios, "listening to and watching and reading only political shows and pundits and blogs, sometimes monitoring four or five things at the same time. Just to see if it can be done."

It didn't turn out well, as you might imagine, but in the midst of this info/opine hell, he I realized he was doing something no one else had done before, and "... something no one should ever do again..."

He was listening to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly simultaneously, on two radios!!!

Therein, he wrote the words that infuriated the Big Fat Head so much he uttered his bitter Irish oath of revenge on The Post and its hapless Mr. Downie.

Here it is... the emphases are ours:

Both Rush and Bill start out by disclosing that, earlier that day, Jane Fonda had used the c-word live on NBC's "Today" show; it went unbleeped and at least initially unapologized for.

Somehow, I'd missed it. Fortunately, the gaffe is all over the Web in streaming video, and, yes indeed, here she is, Hanoi Jane herself, the bete noire of right wing radio, flagrantly uttering the unutterable. Clearly, Rush and Bill are courageously willing to address this shocking and distasteful subject even at the risk of driving their audiences into multi-orgasmic rapture.

Limbaugh joyfully eviscerates Fonda and moves quickly on to other things, but O'Reilly is in high dudgeon and is all over this reprehensible event. He's morally outraged, and seems to want to wring all he can get out of it, as though it were, say, a luffa sponge.
 
As someone in the broadcasting business, he says, he doesn't want to become "the scold police," but he wonders just the same if someone ought to call the FCC and demand punishment. (Later at night, on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," he will devote an entire segment to the issue, practically sputtering in exasperation when he can't persuade his guest, lawyer Anita Kay, to agree with him that heads must roll. Kay will point out, reasonably, that Fonda wasn't using the word in a hostile manner; she was simply stating the actual title of one of the monologues from the play "The Vagina Monologues," which is, ironically, about how the word should be destigmatized.) B-b-but "this is the most vile word in the lexicon of obscenity!" O'Reilly protests. Laughing, Kay basically tells him to calm down and grow up, that the average 12-year-old girl has heard this word, and it's no big deal. It's my favorite moment of the day. (Anita Kay, the cure for the common scold.)  

The peril of listening to Limbaugh and O'Reilly at the same time is that you tend to compare them, and these are dangerous waters for an unapologetic, unreconstructed New Deal liberal like me. The comparison makes you actually like Rush. He's funny; O'Reilly is not. Limbaugh teases and baits his political adversaries; O'Reilly sneers and snarls at them. Limbaugh is mock-heroic; O'Reilly is self-righteous. So, when Limbaugh speculates that the Democrats in the House committee went after Roger Clemens because liberals hate cherished American institutions such as churches, the Boy Scouts and baseball, you know he's sorta kidding. When O'Reilly says liberals who oppose torture of prisoners just don't care how many people will die in a terrorist attack, you know he's as serious as an aneurysm.

Please read the whole piece, if nothing else of use is written about media ever again, we at least have this to covet.

And hey, the laugh's on Bill.

 

Comments

[mercifurious]

Weingarten locked himself alone in a room for 24 hours with 6 TVs, a laptop and two radios, "listening to and watching and reading only political shows and pundits and blogs, sometimes monitoring four or five things at the same time. Just to see if it can be done."

Unless self-inflicted, I do believe that this is outlawed by Geneva... and used in GitMo, of course.

Ahhhhhh, reminds me of those late nights of yore listening to Styblehead. Good times.

[Central Concern]

I would like to see a real picture of Billo, liver spots and all

[abob]

Weingarten failed to acknowledge the most obvious reason for the spectacular success of Limbaugh and O'Reilly. They both possess extremely rare talent & skill as professional broadcasters.

No liberal radio host comes within light-years of Limbaugh's success or popularity. O'Reilly is by far the most dominant cable news commentator. Billo annihilates Olbermann and everybody else in cable TV news ratings on a nightly basis. Love them or hate them politically; there is no denying Limbaugh & O'Reilly are outstanding performers.

[Central Concern]

O Really doesn't have the market share he once thought he had, in fact his show has come in behind Olbarmann on more than one occasion.

The O'Reilly Factor came in third in ratings in the 24 to 54 demographic on Thursday, 4/19/07. MediaBistro reported that O'Reilly came in behind Keith Olbermann and Paula Zahn which must have inspired O'Reilly's Ridiculous Item segment Friday night, 4/20/07, where he thanked viewers for FOX's incredible ratings and then claimed NBC was in ratings trouble.

I haven't seen it lately, perhaps it is still falling.

[Central Concern News]

This too just in, Rush may have encouraged felony voting in Ohio
http://www.alternet.org/story/80392/

While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party's principles "under penalty of election falsification."

On Thursday, March 20, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the "Cuyahoga County Board of Election has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary." According to the report, "One voter scribbled the following addendum to his pledge as a new Democrat: "For one day only."

[AuthenticAndrew]

That article was a pointless piece of shit, the author is a fat asshole engaging in a lazy stunt to file a story on a slow news cycle. He even wore a tuxedo for fucks sake. This and other blogs cherry picked a minor excoriation of the wildly successful Bill O'Reilly which had NOTHING to do with the subject at hand.

I can't believe BlatherWatch recommended I read such tedious filler article. This is a classic case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", and you promoted garbage because you like'd a snippet of it. You're coming off like a liberal shill. Blogs are supposed to be independant generators of new perspective, this is self-insult big time. If I'm missing something please fill me in.

[joanie hussein for obama]

Weingarten failed to acknowledge the most obvious reason for the spectacular success of Limbaugh and O'Reilly. They both possess extremely rare talent & skill as professional broadcasters.

and from yesterday:

they refuse to acknowledge what all 4 men have in common; extremely rare broadcasting talent.

A-boob's having a tough week. Keeps getting stuck in that revolving door to the past and that repetitive rambling that goes with random nonsense.

Nice to have someone who knows about which he speaks, Central Concern.

Oh, Andrew, we liberals understand that clever writing is often difficult to read. Sophistication is not for everyone.

[KS]

Mostly agree with Authentic Andrew - the post is alot of blather about nothing.

Joanie sez:
"Nice to have someone who knows about which he speaks, Central Concern.

Says one progressive to another - love those conspiracy theories- right ? not to mention that O'Reilly typically outdraws Olberbite by at least 3:1 - after checking the most recent stats.

Oh, Andrew, we liberals understand that clever writing is often difficult to read. Sophistication is not for everyone."

Emotion gets in the way of comprehension though, as you frequently demonstrate :(

[Andrew]

That's the problem, it was clever but that's all it was. He works for the Washington Post; he could write a clever article about anything.

He begins by saying that spending too much time scouring news and commentary is unhealthy for some vague reason, and then he goes about doing that very thing for no particular reason, and then that's that, five pages later no conclusions of any kind. The article simply stops.

Joanie didn't even read it, she just showed up long enough to spray venom on anyone who might have criticized a liberal.

[joanie hussein for obama]

Isn't that what writers do? Observe and report? What did you expect?

And, Andrew, how do you know if I read it or not?

BTW, I got confused on all the Andrews. Are you the one from NW Progressive? Are you the one who taught me to hot link? Are those two one in the same?

And are you authentic Andrew?

[abob]

Bill O'Reilly self portrait:
http://tinyurl.com/37pjav

[sparky]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
I hope you all have gotten to see the video of Orally on Inside Edition when he goes ballistic over not understanding what " Play us out" means.
It is no longer on Youtube, but all you need to do is Google " Bill O'Reilly goes insane."