I saw the show (only because I hastily set up a season pass for "Oprah" so I wouldn't miss... Madonna!). It was extremely well-done, with strong participation from audience members. Oprah was gracious to Bill O'Reilly, but still asked hard questions. O'Reilly complimented her for being nice while doing a show with someone she clearly disagrees with. Not like that jerk David Letterman who -- here's the clip -- went on and on about how O'Reilly wouldn't bow down to the moral superiority of Cindy Sheehan.
Oprah's website has lots of coverage of the show:
In his latest number one bestseller, Culture Warrior, Bill warns that America is in the midst of what he calls a vicious culture war between two factions.I like the slickly inclusionary "I believe you, too."
Oprah: What is the war?
Bill: The war is between traditionalists like me, and I believe you, too, by the way, who think the country is noble. America's a noble nation.
Here's a good example of O'Reilly in full-out stream-of-consciousness mode -- with Oprah getting in one exquisitely specific line:
Bill: You know, we have our military fighting for our country overseas. We at home have to fight for our country. Do you want to be Denmark? Do you want to be Holland? That's what the S-Ps [secular-progressives] want. Anything goes: euthanasia, legalized narcotics, unfettered abortion, on and on and on and on. Look, when you and I were growing up, what kind of music did we listen to?Oh, no! There's the blob!
Oprah: I listened to The Temptations. …
Bill: What are the kids listening to now? Ho's. Glocks. Drugs. We've come a long way, haven't we? … These are the kids at 9, 10 …They know all about it. There's no more Temptations. They're obsolete. How about movies? What did we go to see? We went to see The Blob. Steve McQueen running around going, "There's the blob." We had a lot of laughs. Popcorn. Now they have a chainsaw guy cutting off people's arms. That's what kids are seeing. Oh, we've come a long way, haven't we? This country is under siege.
ADDED: I'm just checking out the Letterman appearance. Before bringing out O'Reilly, Letterman had a chat with Paul:
It occurred to me: I know very little about anything. I mean, it's not like you have to have a license to run one of these shows. But then when a guy like Bill O'Reilly comes on... I ... I believe he probably doesn't know what he's talking about either. So.. it's just... when you get right down to it, it's a couple of dumb guys out here... just yakkin'.AND: Dave was prickly but O'Reilly did a good job of going back to humor and Dave would come back too. They kept taking breaks to say they really are good friends, but you could also see Dave -- like a lot of people -- is quite upset about the war. It's appropriate to show real anger there. It's a war. It's no joke. I thought the two of them did a decent job. I liked when Dave said he hadn't read the book, but "What's it about? Sailing?" (You have to see the jacket photo to get the laugh.)
(I note that the show I'm watching from last night is not the same one O'Reilly was talking about on "Oprah," shown in the linked clip.)
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20 comments:
Will someone inform O'Reilly that the movies with the chain saws were made by those benighted souls who watched Steve McQueen chase The Blob!
Director: "...and thank goodness we don't have to do that nonsense anymore. Hey! Put a little more blood on that stump!"
The blob never scared me. Godzilla, now that's a different story. Thank God, for the brave Japanese.
Freder Frederson makes shit up and when he is called on it he tells his guests to shut up. When he goes on someone else's blog where he doesn't control the microphone and they call him on it he acts like a five year old...
Frederson is nothing but a deranged bully. I don't know why Althouse would even give him the time of day. Ann obviously only has him on to mock him, which he deserves. One day Frederson will figure that out.
Anyway!... It's fitting that the billionaire misery vampire interviewed the angry talking cudgel (and former "Inside Edition" host). They're quite similar, actually. They both take advantage of their audience's ignorance and neuroses for financial gain. They should do a show together, like Regis and Kelly. Bill could scream at guests and make them cry and then Oprah could get them to talk about it while the tears are still wet.
The myth of a cultural war is so tiresome. While clowns like O'Reilly make these broad, sweeping claims, the average person in America--left or right--lives the quiet, dignified of a decent, law-abiding citizen. I would no doubt fit O'Reilly's specious "S-P" definition because I live in a blue state, vote Democratic, and attend a liberal church. Meanwhile, I have been married to the same woman for over 20 years, I teach Sunday school and coach sports, my children are active in their church group, and I contribute my time and money to a number of civic and charitable causes. And I am nothing special--there are millions of people out there just like me on both sides of the aisle. I think it is time we recognized our common good traits and rejected the loud, irrational voices on both sides who work so hard to divide us.
I agree with Max.
I am not a fan of O'Reilly, but I could not sit through the Letterman interview. Here is Dave, who makes a living out of being a self-proclaimed moron, pontificating on matters of national security. Nice lefty dogma but simply idiotic to anyone who is paying attention.
What are O'Reilly's qualifications on national security matters?
Zero.
What are O'Reilly's qualifications for anything for that matter. I find incredibly ironic he lectures us every night about moral values --after he paid 10 million bucks to a subordinate employee that was about to go public with phone recordings of O'Reilly's sexual fantasies with her.
Next up on The Factor - Toe suck prostitute hiring Dick Morris!
"The myth of a cultural war is so tiresome."
Riiiiiiiiiiight. And when Catholic Charities is forced to end adoptions because they only refer gay couples to other services instead of their own, and when they're forced to provide contraception and abortificent drugs in their health plans, and when the Boy Scouts are sued because they don't want to associate with gays.... is that all part of the "myth" of the culture war?
Do you think it should be illegal for anyone who has the power to perform a marriage service to refuse to perform that service to gays?
Do you think it should be permitted for a teenage girl to have major surgery - an abortion - without her parents' knowledge or consent?
Why should it be ok for a school guidance counselor to hand out contraception to a teenager? Should that activity be permitted only with parental consent?
"Myth" of the culture war indeed.
Having just read O'Reilly's recent book:
Max, that is why O'Reilly would call you a traditionalist, and would urge you to understand what those he calls the 'secular progressives' are up to.
It's specifically not republican-democrat.
But to use examples from your own post, in a 'secular progressive' world you would instead have a list of 'required' charities that you would have to devote your time to, or pay a fine from your government-designated salary. Your church would be denigrated if not eventually outlawed, and your children would be required to go to a school where the textbooks had examples in them of routine divorce, multiple partner marriages and 'social arrangements' and all kinds of 'mandated diversity.'
"Here is Dave, who makes a living out of being a self-proclaimed moron,..."
Different Dave referenced but a possible career path nevertheless.
We all have our faults and skeleton laden closets. At least O'Reilly correctly identifies the good and evil. Oprah and Letterman seem to have difficulty with enemy recognition as do you!
Yes Dave, O'Reilly correctly points out who the real enemies are. By and large, other Americans. And is it no surprise who he tells us is the "enemy", just so happen to be exactly the ones who take him to task, and ridicule him the most often? If he is "really looking out for me" - why do I give a shit about all these incessant gossipy catfights with Clooney, Ludacris, O'Donnell, Soros, Media Matters -- and basically anyone that's pissing him off at the time?
It's nothing more than one-hour of unabashed wingnuttery, cloaked in an independant-truth-seeking-looking-out-for-you sermon -- ripe with nightly McCarthy-esque paranoid theories about -- (that just so happen to be) left of center groups, finacieers, actors, lawyers, "shadowy" websites, op-ed columnists, tv personalities, and on and on. So basically any-thing, or anyone that is left wing, that either have too much money, or too much power in his view.
He is a polished, slightly better looking, (albeit talented) David Horowitz. Nothing more. Nothing less.
BTW, McCarthy was right. You might not want to use him to make your point.
"Macht alle kaputt."
Fenris -
The stars do seem to align together under O'Reilly, Coulter, and McCarthy.
One lied to advance totalitarian forces in Europe against American interests, and also lobbied to commute death sentences to Nazi war criminals that massacred 84 American POW's
One lied that it was the *Americans* who massacred German POW's in said atrocity
One is just dreamy about the other two.
If you really want to see how brilliant O'Reilly is, go to the transcript of him facing off with Bill Maher.
O'Reilly trounces Maher.
Bill Maher's kind of a lightweight anyway, just a comic, but falls apart when confronted ....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216041,00.html
Peace, Maxine
Where does the Trilateral Commission fit into all this, Cedarford? The Illuminati? The Masons?
David,
Using the word "secularist" makes you sound stupid, because you pretend to make an argument when all you do is whine about people who don't take religion seriously.
In the meantime we can't say Merry Christmas or display the Ten Commandments in public even though we still use "In God We Trust" as a defining slogan.
This makes no sense--largely because the first part is not true. No one is stopping you from using "Merry Christmas" or the Ten Commandments in public. You are not the government. If you were, there is a very simple reason why it is unconstitutional to do so.
I guess, I am one of those "librulz" who believe that the annoying addition of God to the pledge of allegiance should be removed and the statement should be restored to its original state. I don't really care much for the slogan on currency. It bothers me, but not enough to have it removed.
But, David, do remember that the USA is NOT a Christian nation. The US was the first state to ban religious test for office (and only second to ban religious test for citizen participation, following the Dutch Republic). Jefferson and Madison were ardent opponents of letting the government get into the business of organized religion--for the protection of both the government AND religion. If you feel otherwise, perhaps you'd feel better if you were surrounded by people who take religion more seriously. Would the Taliban be OK?
Derve: I need you to stop posting and find something else to do with your time. I will delete all your posts. If you adopt a new pseudonym, I will continue to delete you.
Fenrisulven said...
Soros funded MoveOn just got busted peddling anti-jew propaganda. Keep looking the other way...
Fenris, I'm not sure where your source material is coming from, but I noticed you never cite any, after you drop the most hellacious bombs.
Just cuz you're paranoid, it doesn't mean George Soros is always out to get you.
Ignoring most of the issues discussed in the comments, all I can say is I think it's telling that one of the countries O'Reilly lambasts as an out-of-control, "anything goes," Sodom or Gomorrah, The Netherlands, (or, in O'Reilly-speak, "Holland," which does indeed have the most liberal abortion laws in Europe) in fact has the second lowest abortion rates on the continent (behind Ireland). Those rates aremuch lower than American abortion rates, and the Netherlands also has lower rates of teen pregnancy and STDs than the U.S.
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