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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's Bio
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 6 of 8)
76. To #60, Matt: Did you finish third grade? Perhaps you should pick up a dictionary once in a while and learn to spell.
D at 9:59PM on Jul 18th 2007
77. These guys are so awesome....
marilyn at 1:28AM on Jul 19th 2007
78. Muslims tolerating the extremists ways reminds me very much about the way the Catholic Church tolerated the child molesters among their ranks and even moved them around from parish to parish to protect them. Children were not killed, but their lives were destroyed just the same.
MIKE BUCKLEY at 2:06AM on Jul 19th 2007
79. I watched the young turks clip. I know you are bloggers, but what is up with the goofy tv set and the fake laughter over the O'Reilly clip? I felt like I was watching some college tv station in Lubbock, Texas or something, no offense to Lubbock. You guys are cheesy.
NorCalHills at 2:23AM on Jul 19th 2007
80. I have to totally agree with Bill O'Reilly, but on the other hand, I have laughed my arse off as I read Cenk's blog. I almost emailed Bill to tell him (word for word) that although I loved the confrontation of Jet Blue's CEO, he was completely ruining his credibility as it reminded me of Howard Stern's Stuttering John and his tactics instead of something credible.
Bonnie at 2:40AM on Jul 19th 2007
81. "Bill O'Reilly is the Senator Joe McCarthy of our day. Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Yeah, I notice you left-wing scumbags tend to attack those who expose you for the communist traitors you are.
Eddie at 2:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
82. "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?"
Thank you for proving my point that today's so-called "liberals" are nothing but nazis (and yes, for all you public school morons who know nothing about history, nazism is a LEFTIST ideology). Fortunately, their own laziness has kept them from committing any nazi-like atrocities (when will fags fianly start the violent revolution yoiu call for every single time you lose an election? Lets just get it over with since it will probably last a about an hour).
Eddie at 2:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
83. "Oh no, it looks like Jet Blue might loose a few customers judging by the responses on this site. However, I'm sure they would rather not have all you right wing douchbags on their flights anyway. Anyone who doesn't see that Bill O is a hypocrite, probably did not finish third grade. If there was any justice in this world Bill would be drug into the street and beaten in front of the "folks." Now lets have it, call me a commie, pinko, or whatever makes you sorry pieces of crap feel better about your pathetic lives. Get a clue."
Matt, go fuck yourself you worthless piece of shit.
Eddie at 2:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
84. "Daily KOS is, in my opinion, an literate, intelligent blog, and I would encourage anyone to check it out."
I hope your swastika tatoo isn't covered by your clothes. I wanna be able to identify sick fucks like you in public.
Eddie at 2:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
85. I would feel a lot safer if Cenk was locked up in Gitmo for the rest of his life.
Eddie at 2:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
86. Cenk Uygur is a liar -
He claims the the Dialy Kos is "mainstream, liberal website that is the biggest political blog in the country. It is manyfold bigger than the largest conservative blogs"...
According to Technorati (the website that measures popularity of blogs based upon incoming links), Daily Kos generates only approx. 2,000 hits more than conservative Michelle Malkin --
If this fool is not truthful enough to detail a simple fact that any person can verify, why would you waste your time believing anything he writes?? Especially in expressing the moronic opinion that the Daily Kos is 'mainstream'...
Uygur - get a brain: Perhaps the left-wing fellows at AOL think you are hot stuff; but you sound like a fool who was given a podium to express you left-wing foolishness!
Dr. Will at 4:26AM on Jul 19th 2007
87. YOU PEOPLE MUST BE RETARDED IF YOU THINK OUR MEDIA IS LIBERAL. JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING DOESN'T SLANT COMPLETELY TO THE RIGHT, DOES NOT MEAN IT SLANTS TO THE LEFT. YOU'RE SO BRAINWASHED BY HEARING RIGHT-WING OPINIONS ALL THE TIME THAT ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T RESEMBLE THAT IS SEEN AS LIBERAL, AND THEREFORE WRONG.
I agree with the republicans are douchebag comments.
Heather at 9:23AM on Jul 19th 2007
88. Bill O'Reilly would not know the truth if it hit him in the face. He uses the typical right wing tactics of condemning those who don't agree with him as extreme or radical or even better "unAmerican". Bush has been doing this for 7 years. Although I am unfamiliar with any crimes JetBlue has committed, I fly a quite a bit. They are a breath of fresh air in airline travel. My experiences with them have been superior to the old guard in the airline business. They use humor, they are FLEXIBLE, and serve food/beveridges without giving you a hard time. They have always treated me with respect. The old mainstream airlines have a lot to learn from JetBlue.
Joanb4 at 9:51AM on Jul 19th 2007
89. if the daily kos is the place to go to get the "mainstream" liberal viewpoint, that is a pretty sad state of affairs.
if the daily kos is "mainstream", you can bet the republicans will be a majority in the house and senate again in 2008.
robert at 9:56AM on Jul 19th 2007
90. there would have no need to to ambush anyone if the ceo had been willing to go on the show
but since democratic candidates for president appear to be afraid of fox---why would the ceo of jet blue be any different?
robert at 9:57AM on Jul 19th 2007