“I’m coming after you…I’m going to hunt you down […] if I could strangle these people and not go to hell and get executed…I would.”
Bill O’Reilly directed that threat toward figures in the press whom he considered his enemies. In light of the obvious hostile intent O’Reilly harbors, the statements in his recent column sound even more ominous:
“There is a chance that before this presidential election year is over somebody is going to get hurt.”
The chance of that increases the more O’Reilly is involved. By now most people have heard about O’Reilly’s assault on an aide to Barack Obama at a recent campaign event. O’Reilly’s column goes on to say…
“Knowing that partisan hostility is boiling over in America, the Secret Service is tense because the candidates are exposed when they campaign in public. Hatred is definitely in the air and the media is partially to blame.”
The Secret Service has cause to be tense with boorish media demagogues like O’Reilly fomenting partisan hostility and hatred. And yes, he is partially to blame.
But the column sinks even deeper into disinformation as O’Reilly seeks to exalt himself and his delusional view of the world. He brags about the success of Fox News as if that’s an affirmation of their credibility. Quality is not measured by sales receipts. If that were true, then McDonald’s serves the highest quality food in America. But that doesn’t stop O’Reilly from making misleading statements such as his inane analysis of GE’s stock price:
“General Electric, which owns NBC, has seen its stock price remain stagnant for the past six years, a humbling fact for the corporate giant.”
First of all, NBC represents about 10% of GE’s revenue, and that includes properties like Universal’s movies and theme parks that have nothing to do with television or news. So the suggestion that NBC is responsible for GE’s fiscal woes is ridiculous. Secondly, O’Reilly arbitrarily picks a six year time frame for his analysis. Obviously he did this to manufacture the results he desired. 2002 was the year of the first Bush recession and GE, along with just about every other stock, declined significantly. Had O’Reilly used a five year span, he would have had to report a 40% increase in GE’s stock. Would NBC get the credit for that?
O’Reilly spends much of the rest of the column making excuses for Fox News’ failure to garner respect as a news provider. He laments the disinclination that some Democrats have to appear on Fox or participate in their debates (note: the more he complains about this, the more proof that it is working). He heaps the majority of the blame for this on the all-powerful Internet lefties:
“The reason the Democratic candidates boycotted Fox News was that the far-left Internet crazies told them to do it. Websites like the Daily Kos and Media Matters, which spit out anti-conservative hatred every day, made it clear to the Democrats that anyone dealing with Fox would be punished. The creepy radical-left organization MoveOn, which raises serious money for liberal candidates, seconded the motion.”
Isn’t it quaint how O’Reilly condemns hatred by calling those with whom he disagrees “crazies” and “creepy” and characterizes them as spitting radicals? However, I would agree with the warning that “anyone dealing with Fox would be punished.” By Fox! Any Democrat appearing on Fox News can expect to be treated with disrespect and disdain. Sometimes not until after they have left the studio so that they cannot respond (note to Dems: Stay the HELL off of Fox News).
O’Reilly is still tormented with the affair in New Hampshire where, in defense of the Constitution, he had to “remove” an Obama staffer. Only now he is complaining that nobody is on his side:
“In the subsequent coverage of the story, not one media outlet criticized the Obama staffer, not one.”
Presumably that includes conservative media outlets like the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, the New York Post, etc. It never occurs to O’Reilly that if no one else sees the incident as he does, perhaps he is the one who is not seeing it correctly. But asking O’Reilly to see things from a perspective other than from his natural state of egomaniacal paranoia may be expecting too much. The results from a poll on his own website asking whether he was right to shove Obama’s aide were 57% Yes / 43% No. That wasn’t good enough for O’Reilly who dismissed the results as having been tainted by (again) thousands of far-left loons who were “instructed” to vote “No.” And if the research by NewsHounds is accurate, the loons received their instructions from ME! Tremble in awe of my omnipotence, I command thee.
It is mind-boggling how a man so filled with rage and hate can ascribe these traits so cavalierly to others; how a man so predisposed to lying can accuse others of it so blindly; how a such a partisan ideologue can complain about the partisanship of others. He seems to have no self-awareness whatsoever, save for self-importance. In some respects, his conjured up enemies and his overtly threatening tone make him an easy target for ridicule. On the other hand, it’s hard to find humor knowing how potentially dangerous he can be. I hope he gets the help for which he is so clearly crying out. Maybe a room next to Britney’s at the asylum (humor…I found some).
