Sex, Lies and Videotape on the Internet

Fox News ^ | 6/16/03 | Bill O'Reilly

[amused]

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

Sex, lies and videotape on the Internet, that's the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo. Nearly everyday, there's something written on the Internet about me that's flat out untrue. And I'm not alone. Nearly every famous person in the country's under siege.

Today's example comes from Web sites that picked up a false report from The San Francisco Chronicle that said a San Francisco radio station dropped The Radio Factor. If anyone had bothered to make even one phone call, they would have learned that Westwood One made a deal with another San Francisco radio station, weeks ago to move The Radio Factor. Thus the word "dropped" is obviously inaccurate and dishonest. We'll see if The Chronicle runs a correction, but you can bet you won't be seeing many corrections on the net.

The reason these net people get away with all kinds of stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming.

[amused]

The bold face is mine of course. Frankly I am not sure what Bill is calling for here. He throws in some nasty stuff about NAMBLA but it's obvious that lefty sites wrongly trumpeting his being dropped from a radio station is what prompted this rant.

Freedom of the press used to apply only to those who actually owned the press. The internet has changed that and I for one feel it's for the better...warts and all.

Maybe it's just the tone of the article which I feel comes of as elitist.

[robjna]

he is definelty full of himself, no doubt about it. The old I'm special syndrom that comes from fame.

[gcruse]

O'Reilly is coming off as another crank who knows what's best for the rest of us. Then he devotes a chunk of each show to Geraldo and the Laci Peterson sensationalistic circus parading as a national interest story.

[Gabrielle Reilly]

Actually, do a search on his name on the net and you will see what he is referring to. There are many lies about him and just nasty stuff. It is one thing to dispute his opinion in debate but some of this stuff is just immature,nasty and counter-productive to society.

If half of these people spent their time constructively doing something for their family, community, nation or themselves rather than ripping others down we would all be a lot better off.

Sure O'Reilly will have people who hate his opinion and that is to be expected, but the internet has in many ways turned into a vipers nest of hatred that often looks like it is filled with the same crowds who would have gathered to watch Christians being thrown to the lions at the Coliseum. Some things never change over the course of history... just the vehicles that are used.

There is a very good reason Jim Robinson had to dedicate a post to remind people that there will be no personal bashing on this forum.

[amused]

I am sure Bill is made fun of, sometimes in a very vicious manner. And I agree with you that if people spent less time tearing down and more time building up we would have a better country.

But, and that's a big but, we know how government regulation works in regards to speech. If I want to say vile things about Bill Clinton...I can. If a lefty wants to say nasty things about Bush....they can. This is part of being in a free democracy(yes, I know that we are a constitutional republic but it is still a democratic institution and system of government) where the exchange of ideas can become nasty.

The internet has changed this a bit because folks no longer have to be polite or face consequences for their words. To me that's a risk one should be willing to accept with freedom. Just like someone popping off the most vile of racial epithets being an unfortunate side effect of freedom of speech, internet howlers and gossip hounds are an unfortunate side effect of a free press(in this case the internet).

Bill is mad that some people really don't like him and his response is to call the medium they use "dangerous" even throwing in the evil of all evils child molesters to show us how "dangerous" the internet is. He's acting like a leftist...if they don't like something politically they try to shout it down, shame it and if at all possible shut it down. For someone who claims to stand up for the little guy, he's throwing his big media weight around.

[amused]

O'Reilly is coming off as another crank who knows what's best for the rest of us. Then he devotes a chunk of each show to Geraldo and the Laci Peterson sensationalistic circus parading as a national interest story.

You can take the man out of A Current Affair but......

[Gabrielle Reilly]

I think bashing on the net is about as right a calling an African American the "n" word... it is just wrong. I hope it becomes as socially unacceptable also... just left for the grotty little fringe groups that represent organizations such as the KKK. It is taking a good thing too far. I would not want to regulate it but like Jim Robinson's approach, we are here to debate if you want to bash go elsewhere.

Your right though, O'Reilly does take it too personally. If he realized half the people were going to hate him before he opened his mouth as they do any public profile he could just consider them one of the statistics acting in the expected manner rather than anything personal. That way he can keep his eye on the target and do what he believes is right. I love the way Bush handles his foe's with such inner personal strength and dignity.

[amused]

I think bashing on the net is about as right a calling an African American the "n" word... it is just wrong. I hope it becomes as socially unacceptable also... just left for the grotty little fringe groups that represent organizations such as the KKK. It is taking a good thing too far. I would not want to regulate it but like Jim Robinson's approach, we are here to debate if you want to bash go elsewhere.

I think we are very much in agreement here. The problem I have with Bill's approach as opposed to Jim Rob's is Bill seems to be calling for government action not community restraint.

I love the way Bush handles his foe's with such inner personal strength and dignity.

When you let taunters know they are getting to you....they get exactly what they wanted in the first place.

[bart99]

I don't think you have to look up his name and see what he's subjected to...... he wasn't referring to that in his article..... he was referring to a host of other somewhat disturbing and perverted things that the internet is used for, by groups with agendas and they know they can't be touched.

Actually, he has a good point. He only started out the article with the personal refernece to point out that even the Chronicle will not take personal or corporate resonsiblity for their mistake. Nor will the many of the "bashing" (as you all are reffering to it here) sites that simply do it for kicks. I don't think he's worried at all about personal insults. I DO think he cares about kids being molested and abused because of pro-abusive kiddie web sites like NAMBLA (?) that he mentioned. That angers him, and many don't blame him for that.

Now if our good congressmen would focus on those types of sites that contribute to crime against kids, rather than downloading music, we'll all be better off.

Nice to see you again.

B..

[StockAyatollah]

NO one listens to the Radio Factor. No matter how much they paid stations to put it on the air. O'Reilly is a pompous windbag who should go back to Entertainment Tonight or whatever tripe he used to do. Even Alan Colmes has a better radio show than O'Reilly.

[JCG]

NO one listens to the Radio Factor.

I got off the O'Reilly wagon when he tried that smarmy attack on a wounded Rush Limbaugh and then lied about it. Rush was momentarily deaf and somebody, Drudge I think, outed O'Reilly as being in the process of putting a competing radio show together. O'Reilly denied it but as soon as Rush recovered he launched his show.

I occasionally click into O'Reilly's tv show when I'm channel surfing. He does some great work -- Sami Al-Arian for example -- but I'm not going to listen to him on the radio.

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://video.ire.org/10650.ram (Requires RealPlayer)

Who is Steve Emerson?

[Porterville]

Don't forget, Bill is from Harvard. So as a journalist, he is a liberal b!tch in sheep's clothing.

[Sonny M]

You can take the man out of A Current Affair but......

I'm sorry, but I thought he worked at "Inside Edition".

[Sonny M]

O'Reilly is coming off as another crank who knows what's best for the rest of us.

The best way to describe Bill, if you follow all of his opinions or go through his book, is that he is of the "populist" category. He likes to be Populist on conservative views, i.e. the right wing views that everyone and everybody agrees with except the far left. A good example would be immigration.

He also does not believe government is bad, that it can do good, and he likes some programs, but not others, i.e. the most popular government agencys or programs he supports and wants to always expand.

He does a good job of selling to mainstream what is mainstream. He rarely deviates outside of that. The left however is so far out of whack with america that even anything in the middle is Rush Limbaugh to them. They can't see the difference.

Believe it or not, if you polled america on political views, most people, in general come out right of center, and there are more hard righters then hard lefty's. The reason the dems do so well, and have what they have now, is because they use scare tactics, bribary and good strategy, plus they have the media on there side.

[IncPen]

I'm sorry, but I thought he worked at "Inside Edition".

It was Inside Edition.

Right around the time he left this show- just before, if I recall- I had a reason- business- to spend an evening with him.

Much whisky (?) was downed by both of us (Irishmen).

I should look at the pictures again.

[gcruse]

Yes. The left has to be getting edgy, as revealed in their increased yearning to get into talk radio. Even with 99% of the newspaper biz, the taxpayer paid radio/tv they usurped to their cause, they see the country peeling inexorably to the right. Their big mistake, I think, is to entrench in their leftist foxholes rather than move right with the electorate.
I really thing the increasing distance between the right and the entrenched left is going to open up space just left of center for a strong third party. Nature isn't the only thing that abhors a vaccuum.

[Sonny M]

I really thing the increasing distance between the right and the entrenched left is going to open up space just left of center for a strong third party.

I don't think that can happen without totally destroying them. They are trying to claim they are mainstream or at best left of center, if you watch the dem primaries, they refuse to even call themselves "liberal".

Deans quote was that he was from the "democratic wing of the democratic party", notice he did not say liberal.

They would rather people see the green party as the extreme left, and them as the left of center. Its however driving some of them nuts, in that, they have stayed where they are, and yet, they are being considered farther and farther left, without even changing a position.

The best bet for a 3rd party, would be a strong right of center party, but even that is to difficult, as the republican party has both hard right wing, and right of center, and even Rino's. John Ashcroft or a Tom Delay, if you went with just there political views and nothing else, would have more in common with americans then say a Hillary Clinton or Ted Kennedy.

The reality of the democratic party, was best said by a democrat, years ago. "In any other country the democratic party would be 5 different parties". That was Mitchell and he is right, they have so many inherent contradictions and inconsistances. They are not a ideology of there own, they are just the opposite of the republican party. Its a party that survives by changing and using and exploiting. The fear factor has done wonders for them, but play time is running out and the fear factor is about to get cancelled.

[I got the rope]

Well said. BTTT!