{"id":25836,"date":"2015-02-25T15:37:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T23:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=25836"},"modified":"2015-03-10T15:20:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T22:20:22","slug":"to-rachel-maddow-fox-news-doesnt-give-a-fig-about-bill-oreillys-lies-and-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=25836","title":{"rendered":"To Rachel Maddow: Fox News Doesn’t Give A Fig About Bill O’Reilly’s Lies And Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scandal engulfing Fox News, and its star blowhard Bill O’Reilly, is picking up steam as well as new allegations of dishonesty and flagrant self-glorification. The latest episodes of O’Reilly inventing harrowing journalistic adventures include his false assertion that he was present at the suicide<\/a> of a figure associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and his claim to have witnessed nuns being executed in El Salvador<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The initial response to the evidence that O’Reilly repeatedly lied about his experiences in Argentina as a “war zone”<\/em> correspondent “in the Falklands”<\/em> was to launch an attack<\/a> on the reporters who exposed him and the so-called “liberal”<\/em> media overall. He called them “liars, guttersnipes,”<\/em> and “far-left zealots.”<\/em> Even worse, when approached by a reporter from the New York Times he warned her that if he was unhappy with the story “I am coming after you with everything I have. You can take it as a threat.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

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Last night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, the issue was raised to inquire as to whether O’Reilly’s turpitude might disturb his employers or colleagues (video below). Maddow did an excellent job of explaining the events that led up to O’Reilly’s threats, but then she entertained the following scenario:<\/p>\n

“Fox News has a bunch of folks like Mr. O’Reilly on their shows. It’s part of why I call them Republican TV. But they also have a lot of real reporters on staff who do real reporting all day long on real news. They have White House correspondents, and congressional reporters, and even media reporters. And I’m sure they don’t take kindly when their own reporters get threatened for trying to do their jobs. But it is hard to imagine what this is going to do to the work environment at Fox News Channel for the Fox News Channel’s real reporters, and they do have them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maddow surely has decent intentions in characterizing Fox News as a network that employs real reporters. However, there is scant evidence that it is true. Their main anchor, Bret Baier, presides over a daily roasting of President Obama. Their chief White House correspondent, Ed Henry, is a deeply biased right-winger with open hostility to the President. Their media analyst, Howard Kurtz, went out of his way to defend O’Reilly<\/a> in an embarrassing display that evoked either fear or fawning or both.<\/p>\n

But one thing in particular that Maddow said was way off the mark. It is not hard at all to imagine what this is going to do to the work environment at Fox News. It isn’t going to do a damn thing. As fake news guy Jon Stewart correctly pointed out: “No one’s watching [O’Reilly] for the actual truth.”<\/em> And referencing O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone”<\/em> tag line Stewart noted that “Misrepresenting the zone he is in is kind of his hook.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Fox News is a network born of deceit and devoted to the dissemination of propaganda. They couldn’t care less if they are discovered to be distorting reality because that is what they were created to do. Their founder and CEO, Roger Ailes, has no scruples when it comes to stuffing his roster with partisan clowns, as evidenced by the existence of Steve Doocy, Sean Hannity, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Keith Ablow, and, of course, Bill O’Reilly.<\/p>\n

When some of his mouthpieces began to fray at the edges of sanity, Ailes admitted<\/a> to keeping them on the air long after he had determined that they were detrimental with justifications that were purely political. The reason Ailes gave for putting off Beck’s departure was that he “didn’t want to give MoveOn and Media Matters the satisfaction.”<\/em> And with regard to why he re-signed Sarah Palin after first letting her contract expire, he said that he hired her back to “piss off the people that wanted her dead.”<\/em> How does that comport with the production of “real news.”<\/em><\/p>\n

As for O’Reilly, he is a known ratings winner who satisfies the lust for wingnut outrage that boils in the withering hearts of the Fox News audience. Ailes isn’t going to risk that without some intense pressure being applied, and maybe not even then. He knows that O’Reilly is a hate monger whose persona is dripping with animus and ego. A study done a few years back by Indiana University revealed the depth of O’Reilly’s bullying attitude<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The IU researchers found that O\u2019Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Consequently, Fox News is well aware of how O’Reilly behaves and they approve. The only thing that might impact their decision to stand by him is if advertisers bail out in droves, which is what happened to Glenn Beck. And then they still kept his show on for a period of time to avoid looking like they caved in. In O’Reilly’s case, they would more likely announce his retirement after some twenty years on the network. It would then be announced that he would produce occasional specials and continue to write books about killing people. Which is an especially appropriate legacy for a bully like him to pursue.<\/p>\n

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Media Matter and MoveOn have a petition calling for Fox News to Hold Bill O’Reilly Accountable<\/a>. Go add your name to it and let the advertiser community know that America’s television viewers aren’t going to stand for this.<\/p>\n