Sympathy for Bill O'Reilly

Slate ^ | 10 February 2006 | Jack Shafer

[Lorianne]

Plagued as he is with elephantiasis of the ego, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly relishes attacks from the New York Times or any other A-list media. So, when New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof swiped Fox on Dec. 11 ($) for its many reports and commentaries on the alleged "war on Christmas," you could almost hear O'Reilly's psyche crack, its outer protective area slough off, and expand two days later as he evened the score by calling Kristof one of the "usual committed left-wing ideologues."

Kristof returned to the riled O'Reilly on Dec. 18 ($) with a prayer for the Most Watched Man in Cable News, calling him one of those "demagogic table-thumpers who exploit public religiosity as a cynical ploy to gain attention and money."

Then, putting the non into non sequitur, Kristof challenged O'Reilly to use his media power to "stand up to genocide in Darfur" instead of contesting the nonexistent war on Christmas. "If you really want to defend traditional values, then come with me on a trip to Darfur," he wrote.

As Kristof readers know, he's such a frequent visitor to the Darfur slaughterhouse that he's purchased a time-share condominium there. I jest, of course, but there's something around the bend about Kristof's Darfur-instead-of-Christmas harping. Every journalist who chooses to report on Subject A receives critical mail and phone calls from folks who insist that the journalist should be reporting on Subject B if he thinks A is a problem. Kristof must think it's clever to stoop to a gambit that's beneath any self-respecting blogger.

[wildcatf4f3]

especially liked the end. thanks