Day: 9/25/2006

Fox Pulls Clinton Video From YouTube

Posted by on September 25, 2006 at 3:51 pm. NO Comments :

This weekend’s big interview was the Chris Wallace ambush of Bill Clinton. After promising to divide the time between Clinton’s Global Initiative and everything else, Wallace sandbags Clinton by asking why he didn’t do more to get bin Laden. Clinton wouldn’t take the bait, but did lay into the Fox correspondent, calling it a “conservative hit.”

Ever since, the piece has been replayed and talked about throughout the TV, radio and Internet universe. So, predictably, it ended up on YouTube where its various submissions received more than a million views.

That was until Fox got jealous and insisted that it be removed. This is a perfect demonstration of a corporate media megalith misunderstanding the new media playing field. And it also underscores the necessity of keeping Internet media independent. Just imagine the kind of censorship that would prevail if Fox owned YouTube (or if Viacom, who is currently sniffing around it, did).

T-Warrior In The House

Posted by on September 25, 2006 at 3:15 pm. NO Comments :

Bill O’Reilly’s new book, Culture Warrior, comes out today. OK, just sit your butt back down. There’s plenty of copies for everyone.

I tried desperately to get a pre-release copy, but they had the distribution pretty locked-up. That didn’t stop Media Matters, who did get a copy and have published a comprehensive debunking. Here’s some appetizers:

“My goal is to expose and defeat people who have the power to do you great harm. My weapons will be facts and superior analysis based on those facts”

If his weapons are facts and superior analysis, he is entering the battlefield unarmed.

“If you are on the traditionalist side, the S-Ps [Secular-Progressives] will reject you and perhaps try to inflict pain upon your person.”

“…inflict pain upon your person?” Who talks like that? No wonder Bill feels rejected. He even told Newsweek that he doesn’t get invited to parties and that, “Nobody Wants Me.”

“I don’t have to be a culture warrior. I could make millions doing straight anchor work or just writing books. But I’m on a mission.”

He’s on a mission to make millions of dollars as a mercenary in his invented war on culture.

The Media Matters article goes into great depth citing the falsehoods, mischaracterizations, slanders, and delusions in this book. They have carefully documented every assertion they put forth while pointing out that O’Reilly seems to have an aversion to doing so. For those of you who don’t have the stomach to read the book itself, Media Matters is providing a valuable public service.