Posted on 07/28/2004 1:19:49 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Some of the most heated political rhetoric televised on Tuesday came not from a speech made at the Democratic National Convention, but from a FOX News studio.
After running into one another outside of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Michael Moore finally agreed to step into the ring with Bill O'Reilly for the first time since the release of his controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Left-wing rabble-rouser Moore and right-wing conservative O'Reilly sparred on FOX News' "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday in an unedited interview taped on Monday. During the 12-minute interview, the two debated heated topics including President Bush's motivation for going to war, whether the United States should pull out of Iraq, and how to bring democracy to a dictatorship.
O'Reilly kick-started the interview, telling Moore that many politicians believe Bush was misinformed about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that he was not lying. "You want to apologize to the president now or later?" O'Reilly asked.
"Actually," Moore countered, "it's President Bush that needs to apologize to the nation for telling an entire country that there were weapons of mass destruction, that they had evidence of this, and that there was some connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11."
During the interview, O'Reilly referred to Moore as "President Moore" and called him Saddam Hussein's "biggest defender in the media." Each discussion hit a brick wall over issues of semantics. "It's not a lie if you believe it to be true," O'Reilly said.
"Bill, I can't think of a worse thing to do than to lie to a country to take them to war," Moore insisted. "He did not tell the truth."
Moore continuously asked O'Reilly the question he posed to a series of senators in "Fahrenheit 9/11": whether he would sacrifice his own child for the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
"I would sacrifice myself," O'Reilly said.
The question was revisited several times during the interview, and each time, O'Reilly explained that he would send himself, but did not say whether he would send his child.
Concluding a meandering discussion on how to properly introduce democracy to a dictatorship, O'Reilly began to close the discussion, saying he was glad they had the interview, and discovered that they see the world in different ways.
"Right," Moore said. "I would not sacrifice my child to secure Fallujah and ... you would?"
"I would sacrifice myself," O'Reilly said.
"Where can we sign him up?" Moore exclaimed, to which O'Reilly responded, "You'd love to get rid of me."
"No," Moore said softly, extending his hand slightly across the table. "I want you to live. I want you to live."
I disagree that Moore beat up O'Reilly, but O'Reilly didn't beat the crap out of Moore like he's capable of and should have.
"No one "sends their child" to war. its a volunteer military made up of adults."
That's what O'Reilly should have said to Moore in response to his repeated question.
I'm glad to see you say that for 1) I have a son on active duty and he knows EXACTLY what he's doing 2) If I were younger, I'd have signed-up after 9/11.
I only saw a few minutes, decided O'Reilly was pulling his punches like crazy, and clicked it off.
"I saw it. Unfortunately O'Rielly had his a** handed to him. He lost. Hands down. I thought he could have done better than that against Moore. Oh well."
MM insisted that Bush lied about WMD's because, even though Bush acted on info he thought to be true (as confirmed by the 9/11 commission), it still wasn't "truthful" information. Why, oh why, didn't O'Rielly counter with, "then Kerry and Clinton lied as well? They both told the public about Saddam's WMD's." Seemed like a no-brainer.
And that's another thing. Where's Geraldo?
Bill, I am 22 year Marine Corps veteran. I want to address the Moore interview.
You did SOME good with Moore, by letting the world see what a whinny, refuse-to-face-the-facts liberal, who is blinded by his own political ideology really is.
HOWEVER, you could have totally clobbered him, if you had just refuted Moore on the main point Moore kept saying: that young men and women in uniform died.
You could have slammed him with this statement: "Mr. Moore, there were ZERO draftees killed or injured in military operations in Afghanistan or Iraq. ZERO. PERIOD. They were NOT kids, they were adults who voluntarily joined the armed forces of the United States and answered the call to serve and protect their fellow countrymen. They joined for their own PERSONAL reasons of which you or I cannot even begin to fathom."
Your PROPAGANDA film, based NOT of FACT, but your own DISTORTED interpretation of reality, DEMEANS THEIR DEATH and SACRIFICE. You have insulted, offended, and injured all of their families by politicizing their sacrifice and loss. You add insult to injury, because you profiteered, to the tune of more than $100 million dollars, by their loss of life! These are the same people you profess to be 'looking out' for. That money has their blood on it. You misled the viewers and cheapened the political discourse. Michael Moore, you are DESPICABLE!
"No one "sends their child" to war. its a volunteer military made up of adults."
"That's what O'Reilly should have said to Moore in response to his repeated question."
Absolutely correct. BOR missed it completely. But thats par for the course with him.
O'Reilly was able to get Moore to expose himself as an blathering idiot!
Nobody sacrificed anyone for Faluja. We sent volunteers to fight a battle against terrorism, a battle that should have been fought when the WCT was bombed, when two Afican embassies were bombed, when the USS Cole was bombed, when the Khobar towers were bombed, and when 3000 innocent people were killed on 9/11/2001.
Now that we have a real leader nobody should apologize for fighting a battle that could have been won 12 years ago if the likes of Moore had not voted an innept idiot into office twice.
See reply #28.
Exactly. For O'Reilly, who made so much of Moore dodging him, to not have an answer for Moore's stock question was unbelievable to me. I have given the question some thought as my daughter is currently undergoing training as a combat medic, and was furious that O'Reilly did so poorly in answering such a basic question. I was never a fan, but he completely lost me.
Works for me!
What else could you expect? O'Reilly's really not in the same league as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Haniity, or Ann Coulter when it comes to thinking on your feet.
Mikey Moore knew this before he agreed to the interview.
------
Anybody hear Hannity's interview with Al Franken yesterday?
Blowhard vs. Blowhard.
And anyone that thinks O'Rielly is a conservative is a clueless imbecile.
O'Reilly blew the wmd question and the terrorism/Iraq question. He rolled over on whether he'd support his own son being in the battle. My son's there, and I was offended by his ridiculous dodge.
In fact, he simply accepted the "no wmd's exist" line. I thought the guy was well-read. Last night he was a cupcake.
Yeah, I was terribly disappointed. Bill O. got waxed and he knows it.
Great points - when Moore said Bush lied, BOR should have responded - "Bush did not lie. He responded like any leader would. Let's say you were responsible for the lives of 280 million Americans, and the British, Russians, CIA et. al tell us Saddam has WOD that he or his surrogates would use against us. You would do nothing?
And if something did happen - you would be hanged for gross imcompetence. Anyone in their right mind (no pun intended) would do what Bush did....
I thought it was a tie. O'Reilly went step by step down the path explaining how WMD was confirmed as being there by CIA, MI6, the Russian Intelligence Service. He also brought out Clinton, Kerry, Gephardt, Kennedy, and others statements that there were WMD. And Moore followed along and declared it a lie no matter what facts he is faced presented.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.