Roger Friedman, the entertainment columnist at FoxNews.com has reportedly been fired for an unforgivable breach of Fox’s ethical standards. He disclosed in his column (since deleted) that he had acquired and viewed a bootleg copy of 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” A statement from Fox said:
“This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically.”
Friedman chose the wrong ox to gore. He ought to have known that Fox would view dimly any action that might impact their bottom line. There would have been no problem if he had joked about assassinating Barack Obama (as Fox contributor Liz Trotta did), or read Republican Party press releases on the air as if they were actually news (as anchor Jon Scott did). He would still have a job today if he had only expressed a desire to strangle competing reporters (as Bill O’Reilly did), or to choke Michael Moore to death (as Glenn Beck did). The problem with Friedman’s transgression was that it put future corporate profits at risk, not mere human lives. So, obviously he had to go.
As it turns out, Friedman has been asking for it for years. In previous reviews of the aforementioned Michael Moore, Friedman praised both “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Sicko”:
On Fahrenheit 9/11: “It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.” He continued, “…a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty – and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice.”
On Sicko: “Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, ‘Sicko,’ deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.”
Perhaps Fox was looking for an opportunity to boot this Commie out the door. But since even threatening the lives of public figures doesn’t warrant termination, they were stuck with him. Until now, when he was caught watching a video that has been circulating on the Internet and was freely available to web surfing movie fans around the globe. It was that ethical infraction that cost him his job.
I suppose we should just be grateful that Fox is demonstrating any ethical standards at all. Now if they would just look into Beck’s fomenting of armed rebellion.
Last month I composed an analysis of the ratings success at Fox News this year. Amongst the reasons I posited was this:
“…by heating up the aggressive tone, Fox has fashioned a hearth around which despondent conservatives can huddle. In 2006 they suffered the loss of both houses of congress. Now they have lost the presidency as well – and to what they view as an unpatriotic, Muslim, elitist, intent on driving the nation to Socialism in a Toyota hybrid. So now they congregate in the warm red glow of the Fox News logo that provides them the comfort that comes from numbing propaganda and the righteous smiting of perceived enemies.”
Guess what? My theory has now been affirmed by none other than Fox News Senior VP Bill Shine:
“…one suggestion for FNC’s strong showing is that, to a degree, it serves as comfort food in troubled times for loyal viewers.
‘I think that is somewhat the case,’ said Bill Shine, the network’s senior vice president of programming. ‘There are people who want to check out or read or look at places where they feel comfortable.'”
Thank you, Bill. That validation will serve to lend credibility to my other observations regarding how Fox News repeatedly misrepresents their status in the media. You know, the Mainstream Media that they constantly castigate for being biased despite their prominent role in it.
As a recent example of their deceit, Bill O’Reilly has spent much of the last week parading around the dial in celebration of his 100th month as the top-rated show in cable news. He even went so far as to make comparisons of himself with groundbreaking historical TV programs:
“I don’t think it’s ever been done in any kind of TV milieu. We had our people research all programs going back to the 50s, like Gunsmoke and things like that. Nobody’s ever stayed on top this long.”
Keith Olbermann, however, revealed that O’Reilly isn’t even close to the record he claims. The Today Show has been #1 for 166 months, and Meet the Press for 131. Even worse, the comparison to network programs like Gunsmoke is deliberately dishonest. Gunsmoke was #1 against ALL network programming. O’Reilly never did that. The Factor was never even #1 against all cable programming. He has merely been #1 against cable “news” programming – a much smaller pond.
This is the sort of self-deception that losers have to exploit to maintain their self-esteem. So O’Reilly will continue to boast about feats he has not achieved, and Fox News will continue to provide a home for America’s orphaned conservatives. They will give each other solace as they strive to disseminate falsehoods about creeping Socialism and leftist monsters hiding under the bed.
Fox News is like chicken soup for socially stunted right-wingers.
When Rush Limbaugh says something, you can take it to the … well, the AIG subsidiary that manages credit default swaps.
On his radio program yesterday, Limbaugh went on an extended tirade over taxes in New York. Seeing as how hundreds of millions of dollars, and villas in New York, Florida, and probably more, aren’t enough to satisfy his thirst for opulence and Oxy-Contin, he is threatening to abandon the Big Apple and relocate elsewhere:
“I’m gonna look for an alternative studio somewhere outside New York. I’ll sell my apartment. I’ll sell my condominium. I’m gonna get out of there totally because this is just absurd, and it’s ridiculous.”
I’m going to go record now as being completely and utterly skeptical that Limbaugh will keep his word and flee the city. It is just another example of his boorish posturing that is more theatrical than truthful (which pretty well describes his whole act).
Although I don’t for a second believe that Limbaugh will bail, Jon Stewart (and millions of New Yorkers) are hoping that he will:
The latest installment of the ongoing episodic series, Letterman and the Goon, aired last night, and the madcap misadventures of this odd couple didn’t fail to entertain. The program began with David Letterman revealing how the show got it’s name when he told Bill O’Reilly that…
“I’ve always thought of you as a goon”
From there it segued into an endearing scene that demonstrated the touching bond between the two men, with Letterman obviously lying as he told O’Reilly that…
“You’re too smart to believe what you say.”
That compassionate attempt to spare the feelings of O’Reilly certainly drew a few tears from viewers (or at least Glenn Beck). Everyone knows, of course, that O’Reilly isn’t that smart at all, and likely believes everything he says, no matter how dishonest. But Letterman took the high road on behalf of his friend, just as he did when O’Reilly hilariously declared himself to be a journalist:
O’Reilly: “Glenn Beck is a talk show host. Rush Limbaugh is a talk show host.” Letterman: “What are you?” O’Reilly: “I’m a journalist.”
And how do we know that O’Reilly is a journalist? Because he “got a degree” that he “paid a lot of money for.” Well, that settles it then.
The pair did endure a bit of drama when Letterman raised the specter of Al Franken. O’Reilly tried to dodge the issue, saying…
“I’m gonna recuse myself because I don’t like Al Franken and it’s not fair to me to go on and say bad things about him and I don’t want to do that.”
Letterman challenged that position, pointing out that O’Reilly says bad things about people he doesn’t like all the time. O’Reilly insisted that it happens “very rarely.” By very rarely, he must have meant just about every night. Not only does O’Reilly frequently bash his perceived enemies (just ask Sean Penn, Helen Thomas, Jeffrey Immelt, the Dixie Chicks, and any of the hundreds he has labeled “Pinheads”), he has been particularly hard on Franken:
“You don’t get any lower than that man, Franken.”
“That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in American politics – is this man maybe becoming a senator.”
“It’s personal with me. He’s lied about me. He’s slandered me.”
“The fact that he was even competitive […] depresses me about America.”
Those are all just love notes from a man who now says that it would “not fair to me to go on and say bad things about him.” No wonder Letterman closed the episode by saying…
“I’d like to see you in about six months for a cleaning.”
Precisely. A visit with Bill O’Reilly was pretty much the same as a visit to the dentist.
Glenn Beck, who has been reduced to tears more often than Tammy Faye Bakker, says that it’s because he loves this country – and fears for it. Apparently he feels that the country he loves is dangerously weak and will collapse, but for his weepy entreaties.
However, his expression of that love always seems to have a disclaimer attached to it. He only loves America if it conforms to his delusive vision. And it isn’t just a few principles or values. In fact, he adds new criteria every day. Here is how he opens every episode of his Fox News program, along with some of his qualifications for loving his country:
If you believe this country is great, but…
…progressive fascists are trying to destroy it, this is your wake-up call!
…you believe these weasels are really only as trustworthy as far as you can throw ’em — then your voice needs to be heard.
…you feel like the government is trying to steer us to mob rule lately, then it’s time to get back on the road.
…our government is trying to demolish everything that our founders stood for, it’s time to take our country back.
…fear the tyranny that’s starting to take hold, don’t stay silent.
…the government is clamping down on your freedom, now’s the time to throw the shackles off.
…the government’s solutions are the problem, what do you say we get the government out of the way.
…the government is putting our lives, liberty and fortunes in jeopardy, it’s time to say enough is enough.
That’s just a sampling of the many flaming hoops America must jump through to earn Beck’s affection. And it is no coincidence that most of them express an overt antagonism and require some sort of adversarial activism on the part of Beck’s disciples.
So what does Beck love about America? Well, on his program yesterday he hosted Burton Folsom Jr., a revisionist historian who believes that robber barons were beneficial to the country, and that FDR exacerbated the Depression. In the course of the dialogue, Folsom and Beck praised Henry Ford for opposing labor unions and refusing to participate in FDR’s National Recovery Administration. Of course, it was the labor movement that rescued America’s work force, and FDR’s recovery program that restored economic stability.
What Beck didn’t mention is that, at the very same time, Ford was helping to finance Hitler’s rise to power. While American workers were desperate for jobs, Ford opened a new plant in Germany. His anti-Semitic tract “The International Jew” was a Hitler favorite. And the Nazi regime awarded him the highest honor that a civilian can receive.
What, then, is the message that Beck intends to convey? Is it that we should turn to corporatist (i.e. Fascist) policies to allow the robber barons to return and save the nation? You would think so by his defense of AIG executives’ salaries and bonuses. Beck’s personal interest in this was obvious. Despite the fact that he makes tens of millions of dollars a year, he likes to pretend he’s a man of the people, and he had the gall to articulate this stuporously insensitive complaint:
“As a small businessman, I don’t know what they’re going to do next. I don’t if they are going try to come after me, if they are going to raise my taxes, if all of a sudden I’ve got to pay a new carbon tax, or I’m an unpopular… So you don’t know.”
That’s right, Glenn. You’re a small businessman, they’re all out to get you, and you’re an unpopular…(?). Thanks for enlightening us.
After all that, all I can say is … if you believe this country is great, but wealthy blowhards who produce nothing but hostility and division are distorting American values with their self-centered griping … Come on, follow me.
This morning there was a disturbance in the Force. The Fox Nation debuted amidst fanfare and the gnashing of teeth at tea parties everywhere. However, reports of the Fox News secession movement appear to have been a little overblown (by me, mostly). The reality of the Fox Nation is significantly less substantial than previously predicted.
The Fox Nation is apparently not an attempt to abandon the Union (although my satirical representation of it as such was actually taken seriously by some right-wing conspiracy theorists across the InterTubes). It is merely a low grade, right-wing, knockoff of the Huffington Post. The partisan character of its Fox News parentage, however, is plainly visible. The “fair and balanced “ collection of articles featured at the top of its page (see picture above) present the President as “scary” and promote the rightist triumvirate of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Beck (oh my). Digging down further we find a plethora of partisanship in reporting:
Chris Dodd’s cavalcade of scandal
Lobbyist scandal to ensnare Murtha?
Dick Morris: Obama soft on terror, hard on charities
Daily Beast: Who did Pelosi’s face?
Affirmative Action for Muslims in the White House?
Stacked!! Obama fills town hall with supporters
Hannity holding Tea Party on Tax Day
WaPo interrogation story ‘rife with misinformation’
Video: Bill Maher smears US troops
Limbaugh ratings skyrocket after Democrat attacks
Of course the headlines on Fox Nation must not be taken too seriously. For instance, the article about Obama stacking his town hall with supporters doesn’t actually produce any evidence of that being done. In fact, it reports that invitations were sent to many groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. With regard to the Huffington Post, Fox Nation takes a swipe at them as well, with an article derogatorily titled, “Huffington Post to rummage through your trash.” The actual article is about a new investigative journalism venture by HuffPo, not some dumpster diving sensationalism. We’ll leave that to Fox. Recall also that O’Reilly has compared Arianna Huffington to Nazis. I don’t expect it will be long before he and the rest of the Fox lineup will escalate their war against HuffPo as a competitor the way they have with NBC.
Obviously the intent of Fox Nation is to inject a negative tone whether or not anyone ever clicks through to the articles. And it’s revealing to take a look at the heavily right-weighted array of news sources employed on Fox Nation – including four owned by Rupert Murdoch:
New York Post (Murdoch)
Wall Street Journal (Murdoch)
Fox Business Network (Murdoch)
The Sun (Murdoch)
Townhall.com
Michele Malkin
Andrew Breitbart
Washington Times
NewsBusters
National Review
Conservative Express
NewsMax
Matt Drudge
In the end, the Fox Nation is nothing more than a dressed up version of the Fox Forums that already pollute the web. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a potential threat to civil discourse and domestic tranquility. Fox Nation aggregates the Fox audience under a single banner that gives them an identity and a flag to fly. The comments section is as ideologically monochromatic as you would expect from the Fox stable of so-called “news” enterprises. It is also overtly hostile to anyone not sufficiently attuned to neo-Dark-Age conservatism. The community, hyped as “a place to call home,” is as rabidly anti-Obama as it is bewitched by Beck.
It’s still early, and perhaps this is just the first phase of the eventual division of America. It goes without saying that Fox has as its purpose to be divisive and that Fox Nation is in alignment with purpose. It just remains to be seen how far they will go. And for this reason it remains important to keep an eye on future developments.
This just in: Fox News Senior VP Bill Shine says of Fox Nation, “We’re calling it a mix between the Huffington Post and Drudge.” Hmmm.
Posted by Mark NC on March 29, 2009 at 7:47 pm.
NOComments :
Bill O’Reilly gets funnier by the day (or scarier, depending on your perspective). His latest broadcast falsehood is that MoveOn.org has wielded its mighty power to “force” NBC/Universal CEO Jeff Zucker to hire Howard Dean as a contributor to CNBC. This display of domination was allegedly in response to conservative commentaries by CNBC’s Jim Cramer and Mark Haines.
Even if someone was stupid enough to believe that a relatively small political activist group could boss around the chief of a major entertainment and news empire, the accusation is completely without foundation. In fact, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, who did some actual reporting, unlike O’Reilly, found that:
“…the decision to bring the recently departed DNC Chair on board, the source says, was finalized well before the current wave of CNBC-angst. So while grassroots groups have sprouted up in recent weeks petitioning the network to make wholesale changes, Dean’s hiring can’t be viewed as a direct result of public pressure.”
O’Reilly’s stupidity, however, extends even further. The source he quotes for his baseless and false allegation is Noel Sheppard. O’Reilly identifies him as the author of a column in the Washington Examiner. What O’Reilly doesn’t tell you is that Sheppard also happens to be the Associate Editor of NewsBusters, an arm of the uber-conservative Media Research Center. The MRC was just revealed to be the source for many ideologically twisted stories on Fox News, a fact that former anchor Brit Hume confessed just last week. Now O’Reilly has admitted that he too is disseminating MRC propaganda as if it were news. It should be noted that neither O’Reilly nor Sheppard produced any evidence that either MoveOn or Zucker played any role in Dean’s employment.
As if that were not enough, O’Reilly went on to disparage Dean saying that he “know[s] little about economics.” Where O’Reilly gets the gumption to knock Dean’s credentials is beyond me. Dean served as governor of the state of Vermont for twelve years. For a portion of time he was Chairman of the National Governor’s Association. Prior to that he was a Wall Street stock broker. And his father was a top executive at Dean Witter Reynolds. But O’Reilly, who expounds on economics every day is a former tabloid TV news reader. So on whose advice would you prefer to rely?
On the comedy tip, O’Reilly is even having trouble organizing his outrage. For years he has been hammering NBC and its cable units as being irredeemably compromised by wicked leftists. He reveled in characterizing them as despicable purveyors of group-think. The following quotation, however, reveals a psyche that is sorely starving for air.
“Now many on Wall Street believe Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric which owns NBC, has completely lost control of his company, including the actions of Mr. Zucker. The evidence of that is that MSNBC is supporting and promoting the same far-left loons that are hammering the sister outfit CNBC. I mean, how rich is this?”
First of all, the “many on Wall Street believe” canard is an example of a lazy intellect. O’Reilly won’t, and can’t identify these imaginary critics. Secondly, his complaint that MSNBC is critical of CNBC contradicts his contention that all NBC units think alike. Even worse, by mocking this diversity of opinion, he is implying that he would prefer it if they did think alike. Of course, he would prefer no such thing. He would simply go back to accusing them of being blindly and uniformly liberal. It’s the O’Reilly way
It was just a matter of time. With all of the white-hot, ultra-hyperbolic invective radiating from Fox News screens across the land, there was really no escaping the obvious end game. The usual suspects in the Fox Confederacy have been so filled with revulsion by the neo-Socialist path that they believe the country is on, that they can no longer abide nor accept it. So now Fox News is preparing to depart from the union with a fanfare, a blast of light, a loud swoosh and gong. And an advertising campaign.
On first viewing of this ad I thought it may have been a joke akin to the Colbert Nation. It begins by declaring that “It’s time to say ‘NO’ to biased media.” Was Fox News coming clean and denouncing itself? No such luck. It was just that old “fair and balanced” Foxian doublespeak. Instead, Fox was announcing the birth of a nation – The Fox Nation.
This should not come as a surprise. There has been much foreshadowing of this inevitable outcome. Glenn Beck proclaimed his intentions last month when he said:
“…don’t get me wrong. I am against the government, and I think that they have just been horrible, and I do think they are betraying the principles of our founders every day they’re in office.”
Not to be outdone, Bill O’Reilly joins in with his view of a nation that is coming apart:
“We’d love to see America become more unified, but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. There’s a struggle going on to redefine America. And in 2009, that struggle will become even more intense.”
Beck, O’Reilly, and others at Fox News and across the conservative landscape, have been employing their airtime to turn Fox into a rallying point for rightist revolutionaries. They are recruiting “Culture Warriors” who will be dispatched to “Tea Parties” until they can shout victoriously that “We Surround Them.” The battle lines are drawn and the broadcast brigades are deployed and armed for combat.
This is an unprecedented, and frightening, initiative to use a major television network as an organizing tool for political activism. The sort of advocacy work normally done by independent organizations like MoveOn or Freedom’s Watch is now being conducted by a billion dollar media enterprise with a well known partisan agenda. No matter how much the right wallows in their delusions of NBC or the New York Times being mouthpieces for the left, those institutions have never set themselves up as coordinating committees for social movements.
But this goes far beyond conventional interest group pandering. There is a strain of hostility that runs through the conservative ranks that borders on the violent. Just last April, Rush Limbaugh was encouraging riots in Denver at the Democratic Convention. Now the Fox Nation invites viewers to…
“Be a part of the REAL NEWS of America and join in the online community that believes in the right to express your views, your values, your voice.”
Indeed, the Fox Nation will be a “community that believes in the right.” For a taste of what to expect, just take a look at the community that Fox already provides on their Fox Forums:
Tom BB: America’s enemies rejoice now around the world and in the US. Obama the terrorist is in charge.
Steven: Hell No! Obama is of the devil!
drwoo: MAY OBAMA’S WIFE AND KIDS BE THE FIRST TO BE BLOWN UP, BURNED ALIVE OR HAVE TO JUMP OUT OF A WINDOW ON THE 88TH FLOOR (SPLAT). MAY OBAMA REAP WHAT HE HAS SOWN> AMEN!!!
Jim: The Antichrist has arrived and is doing well in the White House. Say goodbye to what we all know as a free and God loving America.
Jim P: WHEN THE BOYS FROM GITMO GET HERE OBAMA WILL GIVE THEM WELFARE,SECTION 8 HOUSING AND EVERYTHING ELSE THE STUPID ASS PEOPLE WHO PUT HIM IN OFFICE GET. LET THEM LIVE IN DC. THEY WILL BLEND IN WITH THE REST OF THE DC RESIDENTS! HOPE ALL THE LOW LIFE AND WELFARE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA ARE HAPPY. BY THE WAY, WHEN WILL THE TICKETS TO THE FORD THEATER GO ON SALE?
Don Brown: Obama needs to be checked to see if he has a 666 somewhere on his body.
It is not presently known exactly what form the Fox Nation will take (We’ll find out on Monday, March 30). As a self-described “online community” it could be modeled on MySpace, which is also owned by Fox News’ parent company, News Corp. But the purpose of the Fox Nation is not hard to surmise. It is just another brick in the great wall dividing Americans from one another. It will likely tap in to existing movements like Beck’s 912 Project and the Tea Partiers. Then these fanatics will be able to accumulate friends and form alliances. One thing is known for sure: There has never been anything like it from a social movement perspective.
Fox News has a large and faithful following. Their daily exhortations to rise up against the Socialist hordes they imagine are occupying Washington could be channeled into an army that is loyal only to the hallucinatory paranoia of the Foxian mindset. Beck, O’Reilly, and Hannity, don’t view themselves as commentators so much as they do as saviors. O’Reilly has confessed that he believes that he was “blessed with talent” and that he is “here for a reason.” Beck beseeches his viewers at the start of every program to “Come on, follow me.” Hannity leads into his All-Star Panel sermonizing with a preachy “Let not your heart be troubled.” An evangelical fervor literally drips from these would-be prophets like a poisonous sap.
So now Fox wants to start a new nation populated with believers and disciples. The nation that the rest of us inhabit is far too corrupt and sinful. It is infested with Secular-Progressives and far-left loons. There is no course left for the righteous, but to secede. The mysterious video that Fox is airing to promote the launch of the Fox Nation ends with this comforting enticement that seems deliberately crafted to appeal to lost souls:“Finally, a place to call home.”
From March 10, 2009 to March 26, 2009, the Dow Jones has advanced 1,377 points. That’s a 21% increase in 16 days – a feat that has not been recorded in modern stock market history. Yet despite the right-wing howling over weak market performance since President Obama’s inauguration two months ago, there has been no subsequent praise for the more positive turn taking place. To the contrary, the right’s biggest megaphone is broadcasting failure on a daily basis. These are all recent quotes from Fox News:
Sheppard Smith: We’ve been in what I guess a lot of people figure is a bear market rally, though nobody really knows, it sort of feels like a bear market rally to most of the experts. I don’t know. But that’s what they’re saying.
Tobin Smith: By definition, this is a bear market rally.
Damon Vickers: We could have a rally that could take us up to 8,000. It wouldn’t change the fact that we were still in a bear market and that the trend was still down.
Peter McKay: The stock market bear market rally resumed on Tuesday.
Gary B. Smith: My primary concern is that the markets rose straight up this past week. Often, this is what we see in a bear market rally.
Neil Cavuto: What if, playing the other side of that coin, the market is telling us something of substance here, and that this does represent more than just that presumed – presumed bear market rally?
Note to Cavuto: You and your network are the biggest promoters of the bear market presumptions. When Obama spoke gloomily about very real dark days for the economy, Fox berated him for his negativity and implied that such talk would lead to even worse times. Now that there has been bona fide cause for optimism, it is Fox who is gloomy and negative. This is really just their way of joining in with the crowd that is hoping for Obama to fail. Fox News is heavily invested in failure.
Whenever Bill O’Reilly has some dirty work to do that doesn’t involve a loofah, he sends his trusty minion, Stuttering Jesse Watters. In the field, Watters pretends he is the progeny of Mike Wallace (whose real progeny, Chris, is also a Fox News toady). Watters plots elaborate ambush “interviews” with people who wouldn’t otherwise get within spitting distance of him, or O’Reilly either for that matter.
This past weekend, Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress was literally stalked by Watters while she was on vacation.
Terkel:Watters and his camera man accosted me at approximately 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, in Winchester, VA, which is a two-hour drive from Washington, DC. My friend and I were in this small town for a short weekend vacation and had told no one about where we were going. I can only infer that the two men staked out my apartment and then followed me for two hours.
This harassment was orchestrated by O’Reilly as payback for Terkel’s reporting on O’Reilly’s appearance before the Alexa Foundation, a rape victims support group. It was a personal assault that had no news value, just the desire to harm someone he believed to be an enemy. The action taken against Terkel violated even O’Reilly’s criteria for ambushing:
O’Reilly:[W]e do not go after people lightly. We always ask them on the program first, or to issue a clear statement explaining their actions.
However, Terkel was never contacted for either a statement or an invitation to appear on the Factor. This is typical O’Reilly behavior. Remember, this is the same guy who pushed an Obama aide and threatened him not to “block the shot.” He is a textbook bully, as well as a paranoid narcissist. Dispatching so-called “producers” to harass people you don’t like is closer to organized crime than to journalism. Perhaps O’Reilly and Watters could be prosecuted under the RICO statutes.
Update: O’Reilly’s segment with the Watters ambush just aired and it was a stunning piece of sensationalistic, libelous, garbage. The encounter with Terkel, whom O’Reilly branded a villain, was edited so as to paint a thoroughly dishonest picture of her, while permitting Watters to spew a running commentary of vile character assassination. Then O’Reilly took a cognitive leap to turn his fire on Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC, without explaining what he had to do with any of this. Clearly, O’Reilly just wants to take every opportunity to bash NBC as a proxy for his nemesis, Keith Olbermann, who also had nothing to do with this.
Also notable in the segment was O’Reilly’s description of the rape trial for the perpetrator of the crime committed against Alexa Branchini, for whom the Alexa Foundation was created. O’Reilly said that the defense put on a case intended to “prove the rape was consensual.” That is, to say the least, a curious phrasing. He did not refer to whether the “sex” was consensual. It appears that O’Reilly thinks that sometimes a rape victim may have consented to being raped, or was otherwise responsible. And that is precisely what Terkel noted in the article that started all of this – that O’Reilly was an inappropriate speaker to a rape victims organization because of his previous insensitivity for implying that some victims are responsible for bringing about their own assault. Somebody needs to tell O’Reilly that rape is NEVER consensual.
It was just a matter of time. With all of the white-hot, ultra-hyperbolic invective radiating from Fox News screens across the land, there was really no escaping the obvious end game. The usual suspects in the Fox Confederacy have been so filled with revulsion by the neo-Socialist path that they believe the country is on, that they can no longer abide nor accept it. So now Fox News is preparing to depart from the union with a fanfare, a blast of light, a loud swoosh and gong. And an advertising campaign.