Okay, so this feud between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann has now exploded all over the internet. Both TV Newser and Inside Cable News are all over this story, and especially the article written by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post. Newsbusters has the story as well, Murdoch's US newspaper, The New York Post has also weighed in and not surprisingly, Olbermann Watch has spun the story so hard, that they think they're about to acheive orbit!
Unfortunately, none of them have hit the target! Most of them get close, but like a bad marksman, they cannot hit the bullseye! They haven't realised what has really been going on. Allow the TruthSeeker to explain.
Bill O'Reilly has made a career at Fox News Channel out of presenting himself as part of some no-spin zone. In reality, he's spinning the items in his show to favour right wing thinking, not necessarily the Republicans, but right wing thinking in general.
Like most people who have a conservative/right wing mindset, Bill O'Reilly is incapable of admitting he ever makes a mistake. It is part of the conservative/right wing mindset to blame someone else for their error, even when it is their fault exclusively, they will blame someone else, just because they refuse to ever blame themselves.
You will occasionally see or hear an apology from some conservatives for some of the really dumb things they have done, but not every time, and in all the times I have watched Bill O'Reilly's programme, I don't think I've ever seen him issue an apology on his show.
Keith Olbermann on the other hand, when he has made a mistake on air, has apologised on air. In fact, he's even awarded himself some bronze medals in his "Worst Person In The World" segment for doing so. The Bill O'Reilly equivalent would be to see Bill call himself a pinhead in his "Pinheads and Patriots" segment, for something like the "Malmedy" incident when he got the details mixed up twice! But there was no apology then, just an attempt at a get out of jail free card! And Bill O'Reilly has never called himself a pinhead.
Now, I said most of them got close, but kept missing the reality. Here's why.
The New York Post rightly pointed out that...
"...Olbermann walked out of MSNBC years ago in a huff after also blowing up at ESPN, so TV insiders are curious if this recent behavior is a sign that history will repeat itself."
But, they also say that...
"...Olbermann recently encouraged management to oust the cable channel's lone conservative, Tucker Carlson, and it's also no secret among producers that Olbermann refuses to introduce Dan Abrams' show, which follows his own."
Those statements cannot be backed up by any independent source. Also, please note, that the New York Post belongs to the same News Corporation that Fox News Channel belongs to, so if there was a definite dirty tricks campaign eminating from Fox, the New York Post would be an obvious outlet.
Now to Inside Cable News, which is one of my favourite blogs, and Spud, who runs that has a lot of respect from me, for going against the corporate spin that eminates out from the corporate news operations in New York and DC. But this time, he's missed the mark. His commentary on the Washington Post story began thusly:
"...The problem for NBC is that Bill O’Reilly has become as adept and skilled at distorting and misrepresenting NBC and GE as Keith Olbermann is at distorting and misrepresenting O’Reilly and Fox. It was all fine and dandy for NBC when it was just O’Reilly and anything Murdoch getting beat up. But now that it’s a two way street, NBC is whining."
This sounds like something out of an O'Reilly Talking Points Memo, or something Fox News' anti-Keith Olbermann specialist John Gibson might come up with. Spud fails to mention that Bill O'Reilly has always been adept and skilled at distorting and misrepresenting people, organisations and companies he didn't like. But from what I have seen of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith hasn't misrepresented anything Bill O'Reilly has said. In fact, he's been very specific with quotes from the mouth of Bill O'Reilly himself. Bill O riles against what he sees as "hate speech from the left", but rarely ever touches on the mass of right wing hate speech that comes out from people like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and many other right wing talk show hosts and columnists continue to spout on an almost daily basis.
And by the way, Keith Olbermann is the only so-called "left wing loon" that Bill O'Reilly never has mentioned by name, on air. Not once. Yet he's happy to name the likes of Rosie O'Donnell, Al Franken and many others. Instead of directly challenging his opponent, he shoots all around him, at every other target possible closely associated with Keith Olbermann, hoping that one of those damages Olbermann too, but as before, like a bad marksman, he keeps missing the target. He needs to refocus on dealing with Keith more directly, then he'll look like less of a coward.
Basically, Bill O'Reilly can stop this feud immediately, by stopping lying to his viewers. He can stop the distorting, the misrepresenting, and start dealing in facts and truth, not lies and spin. His so-called "No Spin Zone" is spinning so fast, the centrifugal force inside it must be close to fatal levels!!!
But as I pointed out earlier, those of a right wing mindset, will never admit they've made a mistake, so Bill O'Reilly and his so called "No Spin Zone" will end up spinning so fast that it will end up destroying The O'Reilly Factor and Fox News with it.
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