Fool's Philosophy - by Nate Bartling

Fool's Philosophy - October 2006

Bill O'Reilly is a Pretentious Twat

October 14th 2006 14:58

Fox News Fair & Balanced (Wikipedia)

I have just been watching segments of Fox 'News' for the first time and its fair to say that I am appalled! The last clip I viewed involved Bill O'Reilly chastising a university professor and calling him a loon, a nut and a disgrace to his country for daring to question the official version of events surrounding the 9/11 tragedy, while not allowing his guest the opportunity to speak, interrupting him every time he tries to do so and drowning out any attempt at argument with shouts of opinionated drivel that reminds one of a child putting his fingers in his ears and chanting to overpower anything he doesn't want to hear. Surely, this is not only a case of biased journalism, where only one side of the argument is provided with the soapbox required to state the reasoning behind a particular opinion, but also evidence that Mr O'Reilly is lacking in the most basic of manners.

I have always lived in the UK, where the BBC is generally accepted as a main source of news, however, being unhappy at the lack of coverage of relevant events (the 5th anniversary protests by the 911 Truth campaign, as a recent example) I have always searched the internet to find all the opinions through various independent news sites and made my own mind up regarding such matters. It would appear that I did not appreciate just how relatively liberal British news is. The BBC, while being far from perfect, at least allows their guests the opportunity to speak without being berated like a naughty schoolboy.

Bill O'Reilly - Self proclaimed warrior (Wikipedia)

Intrigued by the fact that the media could be allowed to become so obviously one-sided, I decided to look up Bill O'Reilly and found that he has now released his sixth book, 'Culture Warrior'.A segment of this book can be read here . In this book O'Reilly states that "At times you have to fight" but that "few of us....seek out conflict". Luckily for those of us that do not really want to be involved in any further conflict Bill has "chosen to jump in the fray and become a warrior in the vicious culture war that is currently under way in the USA". I assume that the war which Bill talks about is a war of information of which he is in the front line as a newscaster, as I can find no record of Mr O'Reilly ever being in the military or being involved in any physical battles at all.

Now, I have a problem with this statement with regards to my definition of a 'fight'. As a martial artist I was under the impression that a fight is a contest between two or more individuals to ascertain who is the superior, whether it be physically, mentally etc depending on the nature of the battle. My experience of Bill O'Reilly's techniques, getting the sound people to turn down/off opponents microphones so that Bill can get his argument across and then cutting the guest off before they have a chance to respond, seems more akin to the kind of fight where one person holds your oponnents hands behind their back so you can punch them and amounts to bullying as opposed to a fair contest.

O'Reilly Tzu (Wikipedia)

O'Reilly then attempts to cement his image as a warrior by stating that many of his Irish ancestors were warriors, seemingly unaware that almost everybody born in the UK (being British I dont wish to speak for the US but Im sure the situation is the same) in the last century has at least one relative involved in some war or another, most notably both World Wars. Carrying on in the vein of the warrior Bill then quotes Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' and in a stroke of remarkable arrogance refers to himself as O'Reilly Tzu (Tzu being a chinese title meaning 'Master' reserved for the most revered of teachers and usually used in cases of philosophical or spiritual brilliance as with Sun Tzu or Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism). Unfortunately Mr O'Reilly does not specify exactly in which field he has attained a level of mastery equivalent to that of the great teachers of old.

In conclusion, I am absolutely shocked at the miserable excuse for media that America has accepted as its standard and am concerned that children may grow up seeing this as the norm and thinking that it is not only acceptable to have such opinionated media but that it is general practice for people to invite guests to speak and then show a complete lack of manners and etiquette towards them. I would implore anyone who watches this drivel as their main source of news to start using the internet to find independent news, I have attached sevreal links below, and make your own mind up about matters that are so important to the future of our world. If you can't do that, at least you can sleep well knowing that you have 'warriors' such as O'Reilly fighting for you and expressing your opinions so you dont have to!

Alternet
The Free Press
Information Clearing House
Infowars

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Posted By: Gareth - Category: No Category

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by postmoderncritic

October 19th 2006 15:42

Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc

Hi FP,
Have you ever seen The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? JS often features clips from Fox News which are then wittily deconstructed (the channel is referred to as 'Faux News'). It's the only time I ever see snippets from this highly disturbing network!

Comment by Gareth

October 19th 2006 15:46

Hi Postmodern

yes I have, Jon Stewart does a great job of ridiculing people like O'Reilly (which is exactly what they deserve). Keith Olbermann (from the show Countdown) provides a more serious counter to Fox News due to the rivalry between him and O'Reilly. I also just watched David Letterman tell Bill O'Reilly that "60% of what you say is crap". thats an awesome interview and you can watch it in youtube. Letterman really speaks his mind and belittles O'reilly to the amusement of the audience. Great!

Thanks for the comment

Comment by postmoderncritic

October 25th 2006 08:40

Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc

Hi again,

I was just thinking that it's possible Stephen Sackur of BBC's HardTalk could be seen as Bill's equivalent. He also interrupts his interviewees more often than not and employs similiar insensitive investigative tactics.

Comment by Gareth

October 25th 2006 10:00

Hi again,

Yes, the BBC are getting worse every day. They haven't quite reached the depths that Fox have but they seem to be trying.

Comment by someone with more brains than you

January 24th 2008 01:57

Thanks for the laugh, as yanks go you are one of the bigger dickheads

Comment by On the right and proud of it

September 14th 2008 03:11

Just like the 'yank" at the recent MTV awards, level your dribble at your Countrymen, not ours.I find your commentary vacuous and offesive. Trash the Britts - O'Reilly is one of us and his relative contribution to our cultrure (namely American) and our journalism is our business, not yours. Go home, stay there.

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