Bill O'Reilly Attacks JetBlue and Gets Grounded

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Bill O'Reilly Attacks JetBlue and Gets Grounded

Posted Jul 17th 2007 12:38PM by Cenk Uygur
Filed under: Power Line, Media, Young Turks, Religion, Pope Benedict, Video, Bill O'Reilly

The primate error on Fox's part (the one you see in the video above) is not that big a deal, it's just funny. The real problem with O'Reilly's buffoonish attack against Daily Kos and Jet Blue is that it is based on pure fabrication, propaganda and ironically, spin! What happened, I thought it was the no spin zone?

Here's how O'Reilly spun this story out of whole cloth:
Daily Kos is a mainstream, liberal website that is the biggest political blog in the country. It is manyfold bigger than the largest conservative blogs. It is five times larger than the largest conservative blog/website, Newsbusters. It is over eight times larger than the venerable Powerline. And it is bigger than the top eight conservative blogs combined, according to blogads. Ouch. Who's mainstream now?

What O'Reilly did was take commenters from Daily Kos and pretend they were writing for the site. As you can see here, the commenters on the blogs are not the writers of the blog. They do not produce the content of the site and the site is not responsible for the crazy things they often say. Most blogs are open and allow the public to comment in any way they like, including the Newsbloggers here at AOL.

O'Reilly pretended these random, public commenters were the only thing on the site and that they spoke for all of Daily Kos. That is not only preposterous, it is a lie. Anyone who knows anything about blogs knows that's a lie.

For example, in my last post here on AOL someone commented:

"who cares...muzz on muzz killings have gone on for eons....every dead muzz is one less terrorist!!"

Does he speak for me? I am Muslim, so according to Bill O'Reilly, am I advocating my own death? Can I say that Newsbloggers at AOL argues that all Muslims (or muzzes as this gentleman so eloquently puts it) should be killed because they are all terrorists?

Obviously that's absurd and grossly misleading at best. O'Reilly does this to smear all liberal websites as extreme. It's a familiar trick. Everyone they disagree with is "extreme" or "radical" and they are "mainstream." These are clever talking points used to spin and smear. What happened, I thought we were in the no spin zone?

Then, they ambush this poor CEO coming out of his apartment and ask him absurd questions to which there are no reasonable answers. What is he supposed to say -- actually the Pope is a primate, technically speaking? This is also the height of irony because this is the same tactic that Fox News Channel has repeatedly criticized Michael Moore for using. Except Michael Moore has his facts straight before he goes in for an ambush interview.

By the way, notice that they couldn't get a real reporter to do this story. So, they had to send Jesse "Dirty" Waters, the intern producer to do it. Couldn't they find Stuttering John? Was he not available for the gag?

You can see the whole painful O'Reilly segment here. At one point, O'Reilly says he'll never fly Jet Blue again. Jet Blue should use that in their advertising. Their slogan can be: We promise you won't run into Bill O'Reilly if you fly with us.

There's no way they don't increase sales. In fact, I'm going to go out of my way to get a Jet Blue ticket next time. You can buy tickets here.

Fox News Channel has no shame. If you really want to boycott someone because they support malicious lies and hateful propaganda, you would do a lot better to boycott Fox News Channel, not Jet Blue.

Watch Young Turks Here

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Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 8)

Previous 15 Comments | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

31. Cable News is dying and people like Billo are the reason why. Who wants to listen to some old man whine and rant about how much America sucks?? If you cut through his spin and really listen to him that is all he is ever saying. My country sucks and this is why I hate Americans. I think most people caught on to that long ago. I have never heard a guy who hates America and Americans more than this pretentious gasbag does. I always wonder when I see a clip from his or some similar show what the family life must be like for the average viewer who sits night after night listening to Billo then following it up with Sean Hannity. Somebody needs to do a study and figure out how many divorces Fox News has caused. Honey lets spend a romantic evening at home whining about our country.. I laugh when somebody says he gets two million viewers ( which I'm betting he never does) My response is always yes and 298 million of us have better things to do. I am two thirds of one percent of the population... Hear me roar!!!

steve at 11:02PM on Jul 17th 2007

32. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Pope is a Primate (capital p). From their site:

"In the Western Church a primate is a bishop possessing superior authority, not only over the bishops of his own province, like the metropolitan, but over several provinces and metropolitans. This does not refer to episcopal powers, which each bishop possesses fully, but to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and organization, especially in national churches."

I must add; What a bunch of maroons!

tom at 10:57PM on Jul 17th 2007

33. Oh boy.... I see dumb people! Except for the Author, Scotts very smart and funny comment and a few other people here with some brain matter between the ears. The rest... you are a waste of oxigen to this planet. WAKE UP!

realjunglekat at 11:03PM on Jul 17th 2007

34. You lost me when you called Daily Kos "mainstream." Such comments show how out of touch all of you are with the real mainstream. As for your alleged numbers of members, IF true, all it means is that there are more members of the Angry Left online and with time on their hands.

Martin at 11:07PM on Jul 17th 2007

35. Well, more spin from the closet terrorists on "Young Turks." So we're led to believe that the term "primate," to describe the pope, is a respectable term of endearment? This is the typical spin that O'Reilly points out frequently.
Perhaps, if I call Turks "Neanderthals," they can spin that into something like: "well, they were some of the first to walk the earth, so maybe he's calling us 'pioneers'" in deep thinking?"
Just so my impression of Young Turks is clear, I think they are ("F" word) idiots, with nothing but sophomoric, ad hominem responses to serious events.
In other words; typical liberals.

Bill at 11:32PM on Jul 17th 2007

36. O' Reilly, is one of the only people in the media who questions the left. If you watch PMSnbc or CNN the only questions asked of lefists are scripted and simple, there is no questioning of Hillary for her pro woman stances yet she called the women telling the truth about Bill liars. No one questions Edwards about his two America's bull crap yet he lives in a 28,000 square foot hosue and admits to $1200 hair cuts. No one questions Barack when he says we must get out of Iraq yet provides no strategy or contingency plan especially if we are attacked again and no one questions an leftists for voting for the war then turning thier backs on the soliders cause its isn't as easy as they thought it would be. Wake up America, please or one day there will not be an America left. Stop giving power to Socialists, Communists and the Keith Ellisons of the world who call us all Nazi's.

ericcappo at 2:59PM on Jul 18th 2007

37. Americans are about as dumb as brick...yeah, to say that the comedian Bill O'Reilly is credible is like saying George Bush tells the truth. LOL...oh yeah, most dumb ass Americans are reading this so they will think that is true.

sfsunset4me at 12:40AM on Jul 18th 2007

38. Post#29 Doug. Since you're trying your hand at word semantics, why don't you look up the word "context," and report back to us...

Bill at 11:57PM on Jul 17th 2007

39. # 33 Martin LMAO! Good point. One I've often thought about when I see all of the left-slanting AOL polls.

Bill at 12:02AM on Jul 18th 2007

40. Have you ever read the shit on that stupid ass website. Anyone associated with Daily Kos 9or Democratic Undergound or any of those loony bins) is a certified nazi and should be locked up in a nuthouse at the very least.

BTW pol, Islam IS the problem. A reading of the Koran anda little studying on the life of Muhammad should undo the pc-brainwashing you've recieved and reveal the truth.

Eddie at 12:07AM on Jul 18th 2007

41. These "Young Turks" seem more like "Young Turds".
So smug and egotistical. They arent even qualified to shine Bill O'Reillys shoes.

houchens at 12:06AM on Jul 18th 2007

42. #39 sfsunset4me That's a lot of American bashing.
C'mon Michael Moore, we know it's you.

Bill at 2:10AM on Jul 18th 2007

43. Bill O'Reilly is the Senator Joe McCarthy of our day. Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

michele at 2:17AM on Jul 18th 2007

44. Hmmm... "created by God, not a primate?" If "man was created in God's image" and man is a primate, then how do you classify your so-called God? Is God a vertebrate, higher or lower, or were vertebrae and ribs a matter of convenience at the time for slathering clay onto? Eh, Goombah? As for the Muslims, bring in Godzilla. He's hungry.

Ariel at 2:45AM on Jul 18th 2007

45. As usual Cenk Uygur is lying.

There was no ambush of the JetBlue CEO. JetBlue was informed over a week ahead of time that this story was coming and was asked if they would like to respond, they ignored the invitation to respond so The Factor sent someone to ask some questions, that is how investigative journalism works. Speaking of ambushes though Cenk's beloved left-wing mainstream media organizations have been ambushing people in parking lots for years and apparently Cenk has no problem with that, he only becomes upset when Fox catches one of his leftist hero's in the lurch. Typical hypocritical stance from a leftist.

DailyKos only seems "mainstream" to utter leftist loons like Cenk Uygur. DailyKos is as far left kook as it gets. When there are posts on the opening page of DailyKos calling for the murder of the VP of the U.S. and other political leaders and you don't remove them then everything Bill O'Reilly said is true. Of course those on the left think it's perfectly fine to advocate the murder of political opponents as did the Communists and Nazis.
The excuse that "we get so many posts blah...." simply doesn't fly because the software has the ability to flag such things.

Robert Byngham at 3:26AM on Jul 18th 2007

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.