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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.
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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.
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Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 8)
46. I wish Bill Moyers would expand his list of establishments he will not patronize to include restaurants he will not eat at, tracks he will not bet at, grass he will not walk on, hookers he will not boink etc etc etc...that way I would know where I would be eating, betting, walking, boinking etc... I mean I'd pay extra to be in a certified Moyers - free zone anyday.
craig at 3:33AM on Jul 18th 2007
47. We need to start thinking about where we should move all of these idiot conservatives in 2008 after they lose all power. Should we ship them to Iraq or Afghanistan? Or maybe we should build them an srtifical island near a nuclear test site in the middle of the Pacific and call it Dumfukistan.
Joe Davis at 4:19AM on Jul 18th 2007
48. i have not seen an o'reilly show prior to your snag.
there's purposely no contextual integrity, the facts are out of alignment, the intonation is bloated and the intent comical: that cat-caught-the-mouse smile worn after each remark get more and more damaging. I thought it was a rendering of some patently bad sketch from commedia dell arte. As for which wrung of hell this deserves, i'll have to get in touch Dante.
boredwell at 4:19AM on Jul 18th 2007
49. I say nuke em till they glow and use their asses for runway lights
Madman at 4:55AM on Jul 18th 2007
50. It's as simple as this.
Soros is a socialist, a Communist. He funded this airline. It's a poorly operated airline (I'm an airline veteran & should know). The CEO is inept for more reasons than those which are associated with this most recent incident. The rise of FOX News continues & is a direct result of decades of leftist bias, propaganda & outright lies by folks whom are jealous & frightened now that they're being
exposed with success --- the ultimate hypocrite Moore included. If blogs such as this wish to claim
superiorities of some sort over its competition, let 'em. This greatest of nations is still trending
conservative, thank God, despite lies to the total contrary. A fluke will occur next year with the election of 1 of those "lesser of 2 evils" in the wench Clinton. I look forward to the demise of lib'
blogs such as this then as conserv' blogs trounce it
into submission --- for we all know that blogs that are created by your typical anti-American lib' loon don't have the balls to critique their own kind.
Semper Fi', komrades.
IguanaMike
PIT PA USA
IguanaMike at 5:44AM on Jul 18th 2007
51. Jet Blue is one of the turds in the airline industry anyway. So who really cares? It's just more bad publicity for an airline which has no compassion for its passengers. But,,,they probably have foot baths for the majority of their ethnic clientele?
YOWza at 6:27AM on Jul 18th 2007
52. Judging on the basis of my experience with O'Reilly, I kind of agree with Cenk Uygur, who started this blog subject.
I used to listen to O'Reilly's program and to respect his critic as one of the opinions in an argument, until the following incident that happened after Yasser Arrafat's death: I sent him an email remarking that I and my friends are surprised at his and channel fox's way of speaking highly about Arafat, the killer of innocent women and children, who has actually invented modern terrorism. His answer was that the opinions of people like us does not count.
He has never heard from "us" before I have sent him my comment. I'll let you, bloggers, judge. My opinion is that it was people like Oreilly, that let Arafat speak at the U.N. with a gun in his belt, creating a heroe from a terrorist. As an Israeli, who followed his career with much concern, I have noticed how immediately after this event, new groups of terrorists have popped up one after another in the Middle East, where terrorism became the most popular profession. O'Reilly could have mentioned also this side when mourning the death of Arafat instead of sticking to the new model of heroic terrorism Arafat has created. There is no heroic terrorism; terrorism is cowardice and if we had treated that in this way, no youngster would have wanted to follow this model.
Please send your comments to ICHPATLI@AOL.COM.
Mina Mishel at 8:13AM on Jul 18th 2007
53. Boy, O'Reilly just buries himself deeper with each stunt and "expose" he pulls, which is pretty surprising, because I honestly thought he was smarter, or at least a better showman, than that.
There's certainly honest and insightful conservative criticism out there, but O'Reilly isn't within a million miles of it.
bribaby at 9:44AM on Jul 18th 2007
54. I can't wait to vote for Hillary in 2008! Maybe now we can actually take care of social security and healthcare AND pay down the deficit...again! I won't even look back to see our old regime hit on its ass on the way out! Woo hoo! Hot dog! I am so happy! Keep it goin' Hillary! Bush won't know what hit him. I am so elated that we can actually get behind some positive people for a change who actually want progress for the American people.
sophia at 10:30AM on Jul 18th 2007
55. Spin this "Young Jerks":
Ninety Nine percent of the time I reply with a Conservative Ideology on Boards & Blogs my comments are removed. These same Liberal Leaning sites allow the most vile and repugnant speech to be posted as long as it fits the Bash Bush, Hate America, Revile Republicans template of the Liberal Agenda.
No Spin-Just Fact!!!
Paul Sparcello at 11:05AM on Jul 18th 2007
56. Billyboy forgot to mention that the only way to comment on his blog is to pay him. He is the personification of hate and bad media spin.
snarlos at 10:55AM on Jul 18th 2007
57. "52. I can't wait to vote for Hillary in 2008!" Sophia, what part of this blog was this comment referring to or are you just like a lot og liberals who think you can ignore all rules and attack the opposition any time you want while you trounce on them if they don't follow the rules?
Joe at 11:45AM on Jul 18th 2007
58. "52. I can't wait to vote for Hillary in 2008!" And what part of this blog is this comment referring to? Are you really Michael Moore or just one of his admirers who think it's OK for you to ignore rules while trouncing on the opposition if they do that?
Joe at 11:29AM on Jul 18th 2007
59. " Except Michael Moore has his facts straight before he goes in for an ambush interview"
Yeah right he does!! Just like Dan Blather and his created facts during the past election!!
Joe at 12:24PM on Jul 18th 2007
60. Its about time the FTC and FCC gets involved and pulls the licensing to broadcast from Fox 'News'. Hopefully JetBlue sees this for what it is, as an attempt to disrupt and interfer with a business and sues both Fox and O'Reilly into bankrupcy.
Dale F at 12:36PM on Jul 18th 2007