O'Reilly is a right-wing
blowhard of the schoolyard bully variety. He's not the only one. And he isn't
even the worst of them. So when, on his radio show the Monday following our
BookExpo panel, he said that if we had been in the Old West, "I would have
put a bullet right between his head [sic]," I couldn't resist a little
grin. It was just so Bill.
Al
Franken, from Lies...pp.
75-76.
In the above
quote, Al Franken is referring to an incident in which he and rival commentator
Bill O'Reilly were pitching their new books as part of a panel, and O'Reilly
verbally attacked Franken for an image of himself featured on the cover of Lies. Anyone who has watched O'Reilly's Fox
News program and has seen his picture on the Lies cover can see why O'Reilly was angered by
the nature of the photograph. This is just my personal opinion, but based on my
own comparison, it seems that the image on the cover of Al's book was
definitely altered to make O'Reilly look less appealing. I can't guarantee it,
though, and I won't continue to analyze it, because it's irrelevant to the
actual arguments of the book. All that it really proves is that Bill O'Reilly
has a short fuse, and anyone who has seen Bill O'Reilly already knows that, so
let's move on.
"Bill
O'Reilly: Lying, Splotchy Bully" is my favorite chapter in Lies. Aggressive political commentators like
Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity are easy targets, but watching Al Franken's
arguments against Bill O'Reilly was like watching a 90-pound weakling trying to
climb the rope in gym class. Al, you gave it your best shot and so I doff my
hat to you, but let's be fair. To summarize, Franken spends the first part of
the chapter rambling on about a declaration made by O'Reilly in regard to a
Polk award (or was it a Peabody?) O'Reilly stated on several occasions that
Inside Edition, a popular television show of which he was once the host, had
won a Peabody Award (or, in some cases, two Peabody Awards).
Since Franken, who
was for some reason obsessed with finding out whether the mundane claim was
true, could not locate any evidence to support O'Reilly's claim, he called Old
Bill and asked him about it. O'Reilly promptly called back and explained that
the award was actually a Polk, not a Peabody. The nerve of that filthy liar! To
be honest, I still confuse the Emmy with the Grammy, so I didn't see why it was
necessary for Al Franken to use this argument against O'Reilly as ammunition at
the BookExpo and in five full pages of his book. Franken seems most upset not
with the misinformation itself, but with O'Reilly's prideful, unapologetic
attitude regarding the matter. To that I have this to say:
He's Irish, Al!
You should be grateful to have survived the expo! You should be thanking God he
didn't punch you in the face or smash a whiskey bottle over your head!
In all fairness, I
think that people should be held accountable for their mistakes, and if you,
the reader, spot any mistakes or discrepancies on this website, I certainly
want you to bring it to my attention so that I can make the appropriate
changes. The point I wish to make is not that Bill O'Reilly's pride is
justified, but that Al Franken's argument against him in this case is
irrelevant to the message of the book. The book is not called Jerks, it's called Lies, and as far as lies are concerned, Al's
Peabody reasoning would not stand in a court of law. In the famous words of Mr.
Franken himself, "it gets worse."
Franken's next
accusation against O'Reilly is my personal favorite, because it represents Al
Franken as being living proof of Ann Coulter's claim that liberals hate all
religions except Islam (post 9/11). Now, I don't personally subscribe to this
belief. Some liberals (Jimmy Carter, for instance) are great men and women and
faith, and I do not challenge their integrity, but people like Al Franken are
the reason such generalizations and stereotypes exist. Let me elaborate.
Throughout the pages of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken bashes the Christian Coalition
(see chapter 44) and Pat Robertson (repeatedly calling him a lunatic), and in Lies
he mocks a Methodist
minister (page 354), attacks the faith of President Bush (pick a page, any
page) and stages a profane conversation with God (introduction: xv-xvii) that
any committed Christian would find blasphemous. Don't get me started on the
whole Supply Side Jesus thing.
AND YET
In his
seventeen-page skewering of Bill O'Reilly, he plays the part of Mr.
Compassionate, defending a Muslim who had called O'Reilly's show to accuse the
host of comparing the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf. Franken's argument in this case serves
two purposes:
1) To expose Bill O'Reilly as a liar for
making the comparison and then denying it.
2) To expose Bill O'Reilly as a bigot for
making the comparison in the first place.
But wait just a second! On PlanetFranken:
Mocking Christians = funny, and Challenging Islam = bad. Wow, so Ann Coulter
isn't such a nutcase after all. Well congratulations Al! You have just proven a
controversial point made by the very woman you're so obsessed with
discrediting. Way to go!
Now is Bill
O'Reilly a right-wing blowhard, as Al so affectionately calls him? That seems
to be the thesis of the whole O'Reilly chapter, so it certainly deserves our
attention. First of all, it should be noted that there are many parallels
between the views of Bill O'Reilly and the positions of mainstream
conservatism. Like many conservatives, O'Reilly is critical of the Clintons,
Jesse Jackson and (surprise!) Al Franken, among others. Like many
conservatives, O'Reilly has issues with the ACLU and Hip Hop Culture. He is a
man who believes in free enterprise, thinks abortion is an unfavorable
practice, and claims to admire Charlton Heston. If you go by that information
alone, how could Bill O'Reilly not be a right-winger? Well, whenever liberals
go after O'Reilly (no, it's not just Al), they only include half the story.
Let's take a look at some of the man's other views:
1) On page 18 of The O'Reilly Factor (available in libraries and bookstores
everywhere), Bill writes, "Nassau County, New York, where I live, has
literally been bankrupted by the Republican-controlled cronyist government,
which paid huge salaries to public workers and loaded the payroll with
patronage jobs." Gee, this is a quote that sounds like it could have come
from Franken himself. Doesn't sound very rightwing to me. Let's move on.
2) On page 25, Bill affectionately quotes
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the great liberal heroes of the twentieth
century.
3) Page 34, "...religious fanatics who
demonize gays and other alternative groups aren't covering themselves with
glory, either." Wow, don't tell Pat Robertson! Franken himself admits to
agreeing with O'Reilly on the homosexuality issue (Lies... page 74), but he certainly doesn't
dwell on that bit of trivia the way he dwells on Bill's "conservatism."
4) On page 51, Billy O makes an observation
that would cause Rush Limbaugh to have a heart attack: "Why are the most
successful talk show hosts conservative? Well, it's probably because liberals,
whatever you think of their views, are usually nonjudgmental." Somehow I
have a feeling that Bill changed his mind on this issue after Lies was published. He goes on to say,
"Hell, some right-wingers would have to see desert sand dunes in their
backyard before they'd cop to that" [referring to global warming].
5) On page 140, Bill praises former Democratic
president Jimmy Carter for his humanitarian work, noting that Republican hero
Reagan did not engage in such activities after his two terms. On the same page,
Bill commends Susan Sarandon, one of the conservatives' great enemies. 1988
Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis is also commended in the book.
6) Apparently, Bill O'Reilly doesn't like
Reagan at all. On page 153, he scolds the ailing ex-president for having
accepted charity from friends when his second presidential term came to an end.
I don't know too many right-wingers who would appreciate O'Reilly's harsh, and
arguably unfair, criticisms of the man who brought an end to the Cold War and
saved the Republican Party from the sour reputation it had acquired thanks to
the Watergate scandal.
7) And while we're discussing Watergate,
O'Reilly doesn't let us forget about that scandal either: "Richard Nixon
knew that his 'plumbers' were breaking laws, and he encouraged them" (O'Reilly
Factor, page 153).
8) On page 206, he describes Robert Kennedy
Sr. (a Democrat, in case you've been living in a cave since the Eisenhower
administration) as a man who "tried to right wrongs." In Bill's
words, "He did what all politicians should be doing."
All of those
examples were taken from just one book. His other political publications
contain similar examples. In The No Spin Zone, for example, he describes an instance in
which he interviewed George W. Bush, who at the time was campaigning for the
presidency. During the interview, he directly disputes our now-president's
position on the death penalty (pp. 99-105). On page 174, he offers a list of
his specific political views on various issues, to once-and-for-all put an end
to the accusation that he is, once again, a "right-wing blowhard."
You decide for yourself.
More great
analysis pertaining to this topic can be found at frankenlies.com and lyingliar.com.