Posted on 03/02/2010 6:31:51 AM PST by Daniel T. Zanoza
On Friday, February 19th, highly popular radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh played a little game with someone who called in to his program. The topic was President Barack Obama and his legislative agenda. Limbaugh proceeded to answer his listener's queries concerning why Bill O'Reilly, the host of the O'Reilly Factor (FOX News Channel) would never refer to Obama as a socialist. Limbaugh began to role play, saying, "I'm Bill O'Reilly. Barack Obama is not a socialist..." The message was clear. Limbaugh was aware of the game O'Reilly has been playing since Obama was elected to office. Well, some might say O'Reilly had been kissing up to Obama long before the 2008 presidential election which helped land him an interview with the then Democratic presidential nominee.
It didn't take O'Reilly long to react to Limbaugh's mockery. On Monday, February 22nd, O'Reilly devoted nearly half of his television program to address Limbaugh's comments. One of the first guests on that evening's Factor was Newt Gingrich. O'Reilly asked the former Speaker of the House if he thought the President was a socialist. Gingrich answered "yes" citing Obama's political agenda as representing a form of socialism which runs contrary to the free enterprise system America was founded upon.
O'Reilly's next segment included one of those panel discussions featuring National Public Radio's Juan Williams and a conservative counterpart where nothing much was decided. However, O'Reilly followed by interviewing Brit Hume, a FOX News senior political analyst and a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched.
Hume, noted for his level-headed approach to news commentary, agreed with Newt Gingrich by repeating that the President's political agenda was socialist in nature. Hume's words had to sting O'Reilly. Hume played a major role in setting up the FOX News division and though by choice he now has significantly less air time, Hume is still highly respected in the business.
O'Reilly was 0 for 2 and the segment with Bernard Goldberg was next. Goldberg, a frequent guest on the Factor and a best selling author of books including Bias, Crazies To The Left Of Me Wimps To The Right, 110 People Who Are Screwing Up America and A Slobbering Love Affair, provided O'Reilly some solace. Goldberg, who was formerly a leading journalist at CBS, refused to call Obama a socialist, but he qualified his answer by saying he was uncomfortable with providing such labels to anyone. Goldberg was being consistent in this circumstance, providing his answer in a strictly journalistic sense, though it was clear he agreed with Gingrich and Hume.
Now before anyone starts shedding tears for Bill O'Reilly, whose ego is as big as the great outdoors, don't pull out that handkerchief just yet. It is entirely possible O'Reilly knew what was coming before the show began. If there's one thing that can be said about the Factor's host it's that he's not stupid. O'Reilly was clearly playing to Limbaugh's conservative audience who were casting a weary eye towards the most highly rated news program on cable television. In fact, it wouldn't be at all surprising if FOX News Channel CEO Roger Ailes saw what might be coming after Limbaugh's mockery of O'Reilly and the forces were sent out to head off criticism at the pass.
But O'Reilly didn't go down easy. The "No Spin Zone" seemed like the center of a tornado after what the host concluded from the previous interviews. "So, Mr. Obama is being hit with the socialist tag and that's not good," O'Reilly offered. And that's the tune O'Reilly has been singing about the Obama socialist question ever since.
O'Reilly was trying to play the access game by soft-soaping Mr. Obama--before he was mocked by Limbaugh. O'Reilly wants Obama to come on his show again. Besides O'Reilly wanting to be invited to those elitist cocktail parties on Manhattan's Upper East side, he wanted to play basketball with Obama. But while playing this access game, O'Reilly is tampering with the audience which got him where he is.
In the following week since Limbaugh's shot across the bow, O'Reilly has been more aggressive in his criticism of Obama. Is it possible Mr. Bill ate a little crow to appease growing criticism among conservatives? We will probably never know for certain, but it sure looks that way.
O’Reilly is an idiot and Beck caught the disease. They are RINO talk show hosts aka fakes.
I guess Goldberg is a wimp, too, since he couldn’t commit to calling Bammie a socialist.
Now waiting for some idiot to come on here and say that O’Reilly is right or he was misquoted.....
O’Reilly spit on Free Republic and on the Swift Boat Vets. To heck with him.
“O’Reilly is an idiot and Beck caught the disease. They are RINO talk show hosts aka fakes.”
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Right on Target, pardnuh!
Semper Fidelis
Dick G
aka:
Gunny G
*****
Laddies, We’re Behind ENEMY WITHIN Lines...and surrounded, if ya can “grok” that!
I just do not understand clowns like O’reilly.
Calling Obama a socialist would be kind, but still wrong.
Obama is a GD Marxist, and has been for his entire life.
Some people just can not understand that the enemy is
now inside the gates.
I stopped watching O’Reilly a long long time ago. The fact that Obama was willing to show up on that show speaks volumes as to its legitimacy as an independent voice.
Caught a few minutes of Mr. O trying to cover his ass and kiss Odumbos. O’Righteous is trying to appear as an “island of moderation” in a network that the lame stream media has branded as “stupid conservatives”. This is Dick Morris/Bill Clinton’s triangulation strategy.
Actually he is a fascist!
I happened to be watching the BOR show those couple of evenings and wanted to throw up over some of O’Reilly’s remarks. Objectively speaking, any sane observer of POTUS Barack Hussein Obama knows that Barack Hussein Obama is a dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool socialist, with a tinge of communism/facism thrown in. All one had to do is catch a glimpse of Obama last week chairing his failed meeting with Republicans. O’Reilly best wise up and realize that Obama is out to destroy the American economy, first through pushing through his Obamacare scheme and then to continue to destroy private sector jobs in the overall American economy. O’Reilly, if he continues his foolishness will destroy his viewership and himself. I stopped watching BOR a long time ago, realizing, secretly he loves Barack Hussein Obama. I want nothing to do with anyone that supports this deeply anti-American, socialist POTUS that in his hateful, egotist, elitist heart wants to destroy the American nation!!!
Typical of all thin-skinned people who don’t take criticism well, O’Reilly is emotionally unstable / immature and cares __ waaaaaaaaay too much __ about what other people think of _him_. This makes him untrustworthy and unreliable.
Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, cares not a whit whether he is “the last man standing”. As long as that remains the case, it means that whether you agree with him or not, you can be sure he won’t deviate from his core beliefs. IOW: what you see is what you get.
O’Really is not a conservative. I guess he’s a populist. I rarely watch him anymore, except to see Dennis Miller and the body language woman Tonya Ryman.
BOR’s a pinhead spin meister who is NOT looking out for you.
I have another word that fits as well...
Totalitarian Socialism:
- Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political,cultural and religious organization is suppressed.
He’s a narcissist. Which is why he cozied up to fellow-narcissist Zero. That’s all one needs to know about BOR.
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