I think most people know, Bill O'Reilly at Fox News claims to be a fair and balanced Independent with a no spin zone who is fair to both sides and fair to President Obama. MOD EDIT>>>ADVERTISING<<<I know Bill O'Reilly better than anyone. Yes I am a liberal, but I document his bias, lies, and spin every day. I use his own words and video to show he is a biased right-wing hack, and not even close to being fair and balanced. I am curious to know what people who actually watch his show on a regular basis think, do you think I am wrong? Does anyone here actually believe O'Reilly is fair and balanced? I watch his show every night, and I have pretty much for the last 12 years, and all I see if right-wing bias, 99% of what O'Reilly says is right out of the RNC talking points memo, 95% of the guests are Republicans who almost always agree with him, and almost all the show regulars are Republicans, Rove, Ingraham, Bolling, Goldberg, and on and on. All the fill-in hosts are also Republicans, most of the time it is Laura Ingraham, when she can not do it Eric Bolling or Greg Gutefld fill in for O'Reilly. Would a true Independent use them as fill-ins, I doubt it. <br><Br> In fact, whenever a new story hits the media I can tell what side of the issue O'Reilly will be on before he even does his show that night, because he always supports whatever the Republicans do. Then he claims to not have a bias or use any Republican talking points, as he is biased and saying the exact same thing the Republican talking points are. And he does it while slamming the rest of the media for bias, when he is as biased or more biased than any of them. He does a weekly media bias segment with the biased Republican Bernie Goldberg, with no Democratic media bias expert, just Goldberg. He does a weekly legal segment with two Republicans, and no Democratic legal expert. He does a weekly segment with Dennis Miller, and no Democratic guest for balance. He also does weekly segments with Karl Rove, and the two Fox News reporters, Carl Cameron and James Rosen, with no Democratic guests for balance. None of them are ever on with any Democrats, I even count the party of the guests and in a normal show it's 6 or 7 Republicans to 1 or 2 Democrats, and most of the time when a Democrat does get on they are on with a Republican to counter everything they say, and with O'Reilly supporting the Republican it's always a 2 on 1 with two Republicans against 1 Democrat, and that's in the 5% of the time a Democrat even gets on the show. But almost all the Republicans are put on alone and O'Reilly lets them say whatever they want, and almost never corrects any of their lies or spin, even though he calls it the no spin zone. So I am curious what you guys think, give me a yes or no then explain why if you want to, do you think Bill O'Reilly is a fair and balanced Independent with a no spin zone who is fair to both sides?
Oreilly is an opinion maker, although of all of them he does have some journalistic experience which he likes to use as a differentiator with other foxites. Of course he is not fair and balanced. He isn't paid to be fair and balanced. As to the no spin zone, he's paid to put the appropriate spin on it. His talking points memo is an example. His leading questions. His constant editorializing in segments. the way he both agrees with guests and disagrees with guests. He is a master at what he does despite the hypocrisy of both his mottos.
I would be interested in seeing the RNC talking points memo. How can I get on their subscriber list? Do you receive this memo? Does it come out daily? Is it available on the internet? Without seeing the actual memo to which you refer, it's impossible to know if Mr. O'Reilly is reading from his own notes or someone else's. Please share so I can make a fair and balanced opinion.
Well, in O'Reilly's defense, I guess you could say he's as fair and balanced as the main stream media, and the other cable news shows. Maybe the OP just doesn't like the side he chooses to be fair and balanced on. The reality is that Fox is the only channel that covers the Republican side of the story, so I guess that is what the liberals hate so much about it.
Juan Williams has a regular guest host stint, and he's liberal, But I don't think he says that his show is fair and balanced. It's an opinion show, and although he calls himself a traditionalist, I imagine if you did a Venn diagram of traditionalists and conservatives, there would be a lot of overlap. But why do you think an opinion show should be fair and balanced? That's not usually what they're about.
O'Reilly is a right leaning populist. As a member of the right wing, I sometimes cringe at the liberalism coming out of O'Reilly--on gun control, for exampl. Other times he's right on the mark.
O'reilly is a populist, neither principled conservative nor socialist, and is first and foremost a self-promoter. I dont watch him anymore. When I did watch im, O'reilly was generally a bit to the right of center, sometimes drifts more to the right on certain individual topics, and every once in a while goes a bit left of center. He is not nearly as far right as Glenn Beck, not even close. As a self-promoter he seems to go after the right and the center, so he lives in the center right to max his audience. I am strongly conservative, even libertarian in areas. I think O'reilly was far too deferential to obama - way to easy on him. But if he was too hard on obama, the "progressives" would boycott him. And I dont believe he takes talking points from the GOP. He is not a patsy or stooge but his own man. For obvious reasons, "progressives" (and you certianly sound like one) think all conservatives are stooges and dullards who are programmed by the GOP. Wrong. We dont operate like "progressives".
No human is fair and balanced, but they can work at it. O'Reilly does have people on his program with many view points. The MSM rarely have conservative people on and they seldom criticize liberals. O'Reilly often appears as a bully when he disagrees with a guest. But if you watch O'Reilly you will learn much more than if you only watch the MSM. Guests can't make up facts or use BS on O'Reilly's program because he will stop them and correct them. I like that.
Actually the nightly news on the networks tends to have less bias. Lumping them in with opinion shows is stupid. O'Reilly plays a character on TV. like Rush on the radio. I don't think he believes half of what he spews. Oh there is no Republican side of the story when doing news. And that is the problem with the right wing sheep of the noise machine. They think facts are irrelevant and that what people think about the facts is news.
Bill O'Reilly is a talk show host who caters to his audience. He is no better or worst than Hannity on FOX or Matthews, Maddow and Shultz on MSNBC. All are political talk show hosts trying to get viewers and commercial ad revenue from the number of viewers they entice. Fairness doesn't enter into it. Now I must admit there was a time I would watch O'Reilly and Matthews most days, but that was years ago before both as far as I am concerned went off the deep in. None of those I mention and several more on those networks host talk shows, they are not news reporters. They can spin the news anyway they like as talk show hosts. It is all legal.
What Perotista said. I have to watch them all, including Al Jezzera, to try and be informed. They all have their slants. Each network has their Hannity and O'reilly. O'reilly is about as fair and balanced as those on CNN or MSNBC. If you're looking for a true "We report objectly and you decide" , good luck, it just ain't out there.
O'Reilly is an employee of a news network. I believe he does give opposing view points a platform. It doesn't matter what he thinks as long as he allows someone who disagrees on air as well---something MSNBC woefully lacks. I don't watch either network often, but I find that of the two commentary driven channels, Fox at least makes the effort even though their opposing guests are usually lightweights.
O'Reilly often comments that he has asked 'heavyweight' opposing views but they routinely refuse to go on the show.
That probably is related to the format. A lot of intellectual heavyweights either cannot or refuse to do these soundbite only short segment shows where they will be unable to articulate a full thought even if they were not being peppered with interruptions. That is why I pointed out that he works for someone else. I doubt he has much say in these things. Even when he sat down with Obama, he was trying to push quicker responses out of him. It is the journalistic version of ADD. I do not agree with a lot of what Bill talks about in his things I have seen online from appearances--his worldview seems to be based upon his own anecdotal experiences without empathy for others--but I do not think he is unwilling to unable to hold his own with someone who disagrees with him and usually is respectful unless perhaps it comes to Al Franken (understandably so)
O'Reilly addressed why he was pushing for quicker responses...because if you let a politician ramble, you let them take over the agenda. Especially with Obama who is a professional politician.
A journalist shouldn't really have an agenda and I think what someone like Bill considers rambling and what most people consider rambling are different.
A journalist's 'agenda' is to ask questions. When the politician starts veering off in order to spew propaganda it is the journalist's duty to cut them off and/or re-direct to the salient issues at hand. Otherwise, they (the journalist) might as well be just another political wonk.
I've watched him a few times, not recently. My takeaway has always been that O'Reilly is a dumb, dumb, fella who seems intelligent only in comparison to Hannity.
Both O'Reilly and Hannity routinely host guests with opposing points of view. Both are extremely good at debating, something I don't see in other news-media places. I don't consider them 'dumb' at all. O'Reilly even goes on 'The View' and 'The Daily Show' and really holds his own. I don't agree with all of O'Reilly's stances (especially his constant bashing of legal Marijuana) but he is certainly not dumb.
I disagree. His knowledge is a mile wide and a half inch deep. He looks at a headline and wings it from there.
You won't find any talking head on FOX that is not a right winger. I long for the days when you couldn't tell what a talking head's political beliefs were. If FOX was actually fair and balanced, you would not be able to tell what the talking head was. The first time I watched Bill O, he may as well of had it tattooed across his forehead. FOX is the propaganda arm of the conservative republicans. MSNBC does the same for the liberal democrats. And so neither are actually news organizations, but propaganda outlets. Only non thinking people watch em.
Oh please. Any time any of the Mainstream anchors or pundits open their mouths they sound like stand-ins for the head of the DNC.
