Bill O’Reilly used his weekly column this week to pump up his departing pal, Glenn Beck. Somehow I don’t think his heart was really in it because his argument was barely coherent. And why not? He does stand to regain his throne as the predominant Fox News bloviator after Beck slithers off.
O’Reilly’s chief defense of Beck is that he is just an average schmo – a harmless gadfly who loves his country. O’Reilly whines that…
The hue and cry about Beck is downright hysterical. Why do they care? Beck isn’t an elected official; he’s not even a journalist. He’s just a guy with an opinion. So what’s the beef?
Exactly! What’s the beef? Beck is just your ordinary street corner herald of Armageddon who sees communists in every Prius, thinks atheist Muslims are taking over America, and calls President Obama a racist who hates white people (I presume including his own mother). However, O’Reilly manages to contradict himself a few sentences later exhorting that we…
“Remember that he’s the guy who exposed President Barack Obama’s “green jobs czar,” Van Jones […and…] also drove a campaign against ACORN. […] Those are big accomplishments, the kinds of things that can get all sorts of powerful people upset”
So which is it? O’Reilly is appalled that anyone would complain about a nobody like Beck, then asserts that Beck has had a huge impact on major issues. O’Reilly attributes the animosity toward Beck as the left’s opposition to free speech. He condemns those who criticize Beck as intolerant ideologues:
“Many hard-core ideologues in both camps simply do not want to hear opinions other than their own. And if someone is successfully bloviating views that differ from their orthodoxy, they go ballistic.”
Exactly! And on this matter O’Reilly knows what he’s talking about because he has his own web site dedicated to going ballistic on media with whom he disagrees. This is the classic conservative complaint that grants freedom of speech to right-wingers but denies it to anyone who wants to talk back.
In the end, this is just O’Reilly’s way of patting Beck on the back as he waltzes him to the exit. And O’Reilly is getting a running start on his return to being the King Pinhead of Fox news.
Ever think this could just be a stunt to get his viewers back? A lot can happen in half a year, and this is being discussed A LOT all over the place. I’m wary, hopeful but wary.
(I’m referring to Joe Beck of course)
After reading that newsletter of O’Reilly’s, I wonder if he will extend the sort of “good will” he shows Beck to those “opinion” “non-journalist” folks at MSNBC who are, by the way, much less crazy, combative, or dishonest as the Beck has shown himself to be?
My guess is Hell No!
Did O’Reilly earn extra money for that “fluffer” article?