Salon.com > Bill O'Reilly http://www.salon.com Mon, 28 May 2012 00:30:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Communist accusations matter http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:28:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12908324 Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.”

It’s an odd charge. If we were living in the 1950s, amid Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts, O’Reilly’s accusation might have some bite and cause me real injury. But these days it’s hard to find a full-throated communist anywhere in the world.

O’Reilly’s accusation isn’t even logical. How can he know if I secretly adore Karl Marx, if it’s a secret?

For the record, I’m not a communist and I don’t secretly adore Karl Marx.

Ordinarily I don’t bother repeating anything Bill O’Reilly says. But this particular whopper is significant because it represents what O’Reilly and Fox News, among others, are doing to the national dialogue.

They’re burying it in doo-doo.

O’Reilly based his claim on an interview I did last week with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, in which I argued that because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. So, logically, government has to step in.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/feed/ 117 Bill Clinton handicaps Obama’s 2012 chances http://www.salon.com/2011/12/21/bill_clinton_handicaps_obamas_2012_chances/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/21/bill_clinton_handicaps_obamas_2012_chances/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:14:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10742281 Bill Clinton sat down for an long interview with Bill O'Reilly last night on Fox News, where the two discussed everything from economic and immigration policy, to the horse-race politics of the 2012 election. Clinton issued a favorable forecast for Barack Obama's re-election -- saying his prospects were better than 50/50 -- and commented that the president's current, tougher political posture would help him in the long run.

"[Obama's] out there running against himself now," Clinton said. "Soon as he gets an opponent, it will be about the next four years -- who do you think is going to take us in the right direction."

Clinton also weighed in a few of the Republican candidates, saying of one-time nemesis Newt Gingrich that he respected the man's ability to "think and do." The former president was, however, momentarily lost for words when O'Reilly followed up by asking if he respected Gingrich "as a man." Clinton tip-toed around the answer, then spent the next few moments criticizng the former speaker's "scorched-earth" political approach.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/21/bill_clinton_handicaps_obamas_2012_chances/feed/ 45 O’Reilly: No right to second-guess the police http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/oreilly_no_right_to_second_guess_the_police/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/oreilly_no_right_to_second_guess_the_police/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10247847 Bill O'Reilly brought fellow Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on his program last night to discuss the now-infamous U.C. Davis pepper-spray incident that occurred over the weekend. Kelly, a former lawyer, explained how the police might legally defend their decision to use the spray to disperse protesters. She stopped short, however, of unequivocally defending the police, saying the decision to use that sort of force was a "moral" as well as a legal question.

To which O'Reilly responded:

I don't think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police. Particularly at a place like U.C. Davis, which is, you know, a fairly liberal campus, and they're not running around. They camp to the point where ... the Chancellor said "Look, you gotta get them out of there. We can't operate a college like this."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/oreilly_no_right_to_second_guess_the_police/feed/ 83 O’Reilly lashes out at critics of Lincoln book http://www.salon.com/2011/11/15/oreilly_lashes_out_at_critics_of_lincoln_book/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/15/oreilly_lashes_out_at_critics_of_lincoln_book/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:57:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10218957 On his Fox show Monday evening, Bill O'Reilly dismissed as "gutter sniping" reviews of his new Lincoln assassination history that pointed out multiple factual errors in the bestselling book.

"We well understand our enemies are full of rage of [the book's] success," O'Reilly said. "We also know the media lies at will with no accountability. 'Killing Lincoln' in an honest book that you will enjoy and learn from, and that every American student should read."

Here's the video of the segment via Media Matters:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/15/oreilly_lashes_out_at_critics_of_lincoln_book/feed/ 50 Second Ford’s Theatre shop to offer O’Reilly book http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/second_fords_theatre_shop_to_offer_oreilly_book/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/second_fords_theatre_shop_to_offer_oreilly_book/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10216912 (UPDATED BELOW)

In response to the banning of Bill O'Reilly's new Lincoln assassination book at the official National Park Service bookstore at Ford's Theatre, a separate gift shop at the national historic site will be offering the book for sale, despite factual flaws.

As Salon first reported Friday, a National Park Service reviewer at Ford's trashed "Killing Lincoln" in a five-page assessment that outlined multiple errors of fact in the book. The reviewer recommended that the book not be sold in the official bookstore in the basement museum at Ford's "because of the lack of documentation and the factual errors within the publication." Another Lincoln expert found other inaccuracies in the book, which has been at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for weeks.

But a Ford's Theatre spokeswoman sent out a press release today announcing that a separate gift store in the lobby of the historic site will carry the book.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/second_fords_theatre_shop_to_offer_oreilly_book/feed/ 7 Second expert trashes O’Reilly’s Lincoln book http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/second_expert_trashes_oreillys_lincoln_book/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/second_expert_trashes_oreillys_lincoln_book/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10203135 On Friday I wrote about the decision of Ford's Theatre not to offer Bill O'Reilly's bestselling new book on the Lincoln assassination at its bookstore because an expert National Park Service reviewer found the work to be riddled with factual errors.

Now, in a review in a leading Civil War magazine, a second expert has flunked O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln," calling it "somewhere between an authoritative account and strange fiction."

The review (which is not online) appears in the November issue of North & South, the official magazine of the Civil War Society.

"The narrative contains numerous errors of people, place, and events," writes reviewer Edward Steers Jr., author of more than five books on the Lincoln assassination. He goes on to list about 10 errors of fact in "Killing Lincoln," which O'Reilly co-authored with Martin Dugard and which has been atop bestseller lists for weeks.

A farm where John Wilkes Booth hid after the killing was not 500 acres, as O'Reilly says. It was 217 acres, according to the review.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/second_expert_trashes_oreillys_lincoln_book/feed/ 57 Ford’s Theatre flunks O’Reilly’s Lincoln book http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/fords_theatre_flunks_oreillys_lincoln_book/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/fords_theatre_flunks_oreillys_lincoln_book/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10198193 [UPDATE 11/12/11: A second expert reviewer trashes O'Reilly's book, finds more errors.]

A reviewer for the official National Park Service bookstore at Ford's Theatre has recommended that Bill O'Reilly's bestselling new book about the Lincoln assassination not be sold at the historic site "because of the lack of documentation and the factual errors within the publication."

Rae Emerson, deputy superintendent at Ford's Theatre, which is a national historic site under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, has penned a scathing appraisal of O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever." In Emerson's official review, which I've pasted below, she spends four pages correcting passages from O'Reilly's book before recommending that it not be offered for sale at Ford's Theatre because it is not up to quality standards.

For example, "Killing Lincoln" makes multiple references to the Oval Office; in fact, Emerson points out, the office was not built until 1909.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/fords_theatre_flunks_oreillys_lincoln_book/feed/ 68 Letterman, O’Reilly finally agree on something http://www.salon.com/2011/10/14/letterman_oreilly_talk_iraq_high_five/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/14/letterman_oreilly_talk_iraq_high_five/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10113130 Bill O'Reilly stopped by "Letterman" last night to promote his new book on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. While the he was there, the two hosts got to chatting about current events. And though they didn't agree on everything, Bill and Dave found some common ground in their mutually held view that, in retrospect, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was ill-advised. This led to what we imagine is one of the more awkward high-fives ever televised.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/14/letterman_oreilly_talk_iraq_high_five/feed/ 4 O’Reilly quarrels with Tavis Smiley, Cornel West http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/oreilly_quarrels_with_tavis_smiley_cornel_west/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/oreilly_quarrels_with_tavis_smiley_cornel_west/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10108805 Bill O'Reilly is no stranger to conflict on his nightly program -- but, even by his standards, last night's interview with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West was a wild one. The Fox News host invited the liberal commentators and civil rights advocates, to talk about the disparity in opportunity between the haves and the have-nots in America. The tenor was combative from the get-go, but things really came to a head when O'Reilly claimed that no Wall Street executives ever committed crimes in the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/oreilly_quarrels_with_tavis_smiley_cornel_west/feed/ 8 Icons that would shock today's right http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/american_icons_conservatives/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/american_icons_conservatives/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:01:00 +0000 Boogeymen are everywhere these days, if you believe the conservatives' Perpetual Paranoia Machine. A few years ago, WorldNetDaily and the American Family Association warned that Barney the Dinosaur was trying to "surreptitiously indoctrinate young children into [homosexuals'] lifestyle." Then, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly warned that "secular progressives" were waging a "War on Christmas" and pressing the "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will [and] gay marriage." Now, schools are busy banning books for their "filthy" messages, while Fox and Friends warns that SpongeBob is leading a sinister plot to convert kids to Al Gore's eco-crusade.

Welcome to America at the edge of insanity, where even the most innocuous items are now considered diabolical threats to the culture.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/american_icons_conservatives/feed/ 58 Stewart and O’Reilly debate Common’s WH invite http://www.salon.com/2011/05/17/stewart_oreilly_common/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/17/stewart_oreilly_common/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 11:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/05/17/stewart_oreilly_common Jon Stewart has already publicly derided several Fox News pundits for their horror over rapper Common's invitation to a recent White House poetry evening. Last night he went a step further, debating the matter with Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor."

O'Reilly argued that people who sympathize with convicted "cop-killers" -- such as Joanne Chesimard, whom Common has visited in Cuba -- should not be allowed to entertain at the White House. Stewart fought back powerfully, pointing out that other singers who have performed at the White House (notably Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan) have also voiced support for convicted criminals. He railed against O'Reilly's perceived inconsistency: "There is a selective outrage machine here at Fox that pettifogs only when it suits the narrative that suits them. ... You've got a lot of people that aren't allowed to sit in the White House because they've written songs about people convicted of murder."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/17/stewart_oreilly_common/feed/ 26 Right-wing pundits show how not to react to a catastrophe http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/right_wing_japan_response_round_up/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/right_wing_japan_response_round_up/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/16/right_wing_japan_response_round_up The nuclear crisis in Japan has most of the news-viewing population anxiously enthralled and deeply concerned for the well-being of the Japanese people. Network news anchors, for the most part, have responded to the catastrophe with even-keeled and sober-faced reporting and commentary. With such an overwhelming demand for coverage, pundits struggle to find a fresh angle, and some have come off sounding downright disdainful. A small collection of right-wing pundits have put on a master class these past few days in saying precisely the wrong thing during an international disaster. 

One of those voices was Rush Limbaugh, who mocked displaced Japanese people in a Diane Sawyer report because they were recycling, and thinks it's funny that such a cataclysmic natural disaster has struck such an environmentally conscious country:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/16/right_wing_japan_response_round_up/feed/ 33 Bill O’Reilly cries foul over Bill Maher Quran comment http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/o_reilly_maher_quran_double_standard/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/o_reilly_maher_quran_double_standard/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/15/o_reilly_maher_quran_double_standard The media can sometimes be very sensitive -- and rightly so -- about news pundits who openly disparage Islam and its adherents. (Just ask Juan Williams.) But when Bill Maher said on his program Friday night that the Quran is a "hate-filled holy book," little controversy ensued. 

Bill O'Reilly dedicated a portion of "The Factor" last night to dissecting the media's inarticulate response to Maher's incendiary speech. He even brought Juan Williams onto his show to cry "double standard!" To O'Reilly's credit, he qualified his own opinion on the matter by pointing out that the tragedy in Japan has overshadowed basically every other news story since Friday. (He also managed to sneak in a dig at Maher's presumably mediocre viewership.) Still, the overriding tenor of the segment seemed indignant. Said O'Reilly:

If a conservative, or even a moderate, journalist criticizes the Quran, all hell breaks loose in the media. But a left-wing comedian can pretty much skate on that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/o_reilly_maher_quran_double_standard/feed/ 28 O’Reilly speculates on President Obama’s inaction on Wisconsin http://www.salon.com/2011/02/26/o_reilly_obama_wisconsin_protests/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/26/o_reilly_obama_wisconsin_protests/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:27:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/26/o_reilly_obama_wisconsin_protests Much has been made over the past couple of days of a promise President Obama made when he was a candidate in 2008 -- that he would join picketers on the frontline if ever someone tried to deny workers their right to organize or collectively bargain. Many are saying that Obama has reneged on that promise with his relative passivity as the labor battle in Wisconsin rages on a week-and-a-half since protests began. This, needless to say, would be an issue near and dear to the heart of conservative pundits far and wide. Bill O'Reilly weighed in with his thoughts on the issue on his program last night.

 

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/26/o_reilly_obama_wisconsin_protests/feed/ 44 Bill Maher responds to claims of hypocrisy over Bill O’Reilly comments http://www.salon.com/2011/02/20/bill_maher_o_reilly_unpatriotic/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/20/bill_maher_o_reilly_unpatriotic/#comments Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:21:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/20/bill_maher_o_reilly_unpatriotic This week in tiresome media showdowns: Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly have been firing shots at one another since the "Real Time" host called the "Factor" host "unpatriotic" two weeks ago. The charge stemmed from the Super Bowl interview in which O'Reilly seemingly would not let President Barack Obama finish a sentence. Maher, needless to say, found this distasteful.

The comments prompted a number of pundits -- including O'Reilly himself -- to level charges of hypocrisy against the HBO host. Critics point out that Maher himself managed to call former President George W. Bush nearly every four-letter word in the book during that presidency.

On his show on Friday night, Maher struck back.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/20/bill_maher_o_reilly_unpatriotic/feed/ 72 Karl Rove says birtherism is a White House trap http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/rove_birthers/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/rove_birthers/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/02/17/rove_birthers Despite the fact that birthers make up some ridiculously large -- and growing -- portion of the Republican base, I really don't think there is any downside to prominent Republicans pointedly declaring birtherism to be a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Karl Rove is smarter than John Boehner, so where Boehner grumbles that it's not his job to tell deeply misinformed people that they've been deeply misinformed, Rove comes out and says birtherism is stupid. Plus, he spins it perfectly: It's not just a conspiracy theory, it's a liberal trap.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/rove_birthers/feed/ 84 Bill O’Reilly doesn’t even believe Glenn Beck’s theory about the Middle East http://www.salon.com/2011/02/12/glenn_beck_egypt_bill_o_reilly/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/12/glenn_beck_egypt_bill_o_reilly/#comments Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/02/12/glenn_beck_egypt_bill_o_reilly On Friday night's "O'Reilly Factor" Glenn Beck tried his best to talk Bill into how the communists and the extremists were about to take over the Middle East.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/12/glenn_beck_egypt_bill_o_reilly/feed/ 93 Bill O’Reilly refused to let the president finish a sentence http://www.salon.com/2011/02/09/oreilly_interruptus/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/09/oreilly_interruptus/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/02/09/oreilly_interruptus Wonkette's Jack Stuef actually counted the number of times that Bill O'Reilly interrupted President Barack Obama during O'Reilly's pre-Super Bowl interview. And it was a lot of times. If you were watching at home, you may have noticed that O'Reilly rarely let the president finish a sentence without interjecting, but you probably did not realize that it happened nearly 50 times in what was, honestly, a fairly short interview.

My favorite part is that half the time the thing O'Reilly just has to say right now is something completely inane, like "those are tough boys, the Muslim Brotherhood." Good point, Bill.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/09/oreilly_interruptus/feed/ 72 Obama vs. O’Reilly http://www.salon.com/2011/02/06/o_reilly_obama_interview_fox/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/06/o_reilly_obama_interview_fox/#comments Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/06/o_reilly_obama_interview_fox Bill O'Reilly sat down with President Barack Obama just before the White House Super Bowl bonanza. On the whole, the conservative pundit and liberal hero seemed to -- wait for it -- get along really well. Topics ranged from Egypt to tax cuts to political persuasions. Frankly, nothing earth shattering happened so we've keep this round up brief and posted the interview in full at the bottom.

On Egypt:

O'Reilly: "Mubarak, is he gonna' leave soon?"

Obama: "Egypt is not gonna' go back to what it was. The Egyptian people want freedom"

O'Reilly (when announcing his suspicions regarding the Egyptian revolt): "Mubarak knows a lot of bad things about the United States. I’m sure you’re aware of that… Those are tough boys, that Muslim Brotherhood."

On tax cuts:

O'Reilly: "Are you a man that wants to redestribute wealth?"
Obama: "Absolutely not."

 On political persuasions:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/06/o_reilly_obama_interview_fox/feed/ 55 Obama hosts Super Bowl party, Bill O’Reilly interview http://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/us_obama_super_bowl/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/us_obama_super_bowl/#comments Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:14:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/05/us_obama_super_bowl His beloved Chicago Bears aren't in the big game, but President Barack Obama is swallowing hard and throwing a Super Bowl party anyhow, in a bipartisan celebration of the nation's biggest sporting event.

But it's hard to know which part of the evening will give him more heartburn -- seeing the Bears' archrivals, the Green Bay Packers, clashing with the Pittsburgh Steelers for football's crown, chewing on the Wisconsin sausage the mayor of Milwaukee is bringing or sitting for a pregame interview with Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

The conservative show-host and pundit has been granted the interview since Fox is broadcasting this year's game from Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. It's certainly not out of love for Fox, which has been denounced by Obama aides as a vitriolic mouthpiece for his foes. Last year, when CBS had the game, Obama was interviewed by Katie Couric.

Ahead of his interview, O'Reilly forecast it'll be "the most watched . that's ever been done in the history of mankind."

Despite the sometimes hard feelings, it's hardly Obama's first interview with Fox, and not even his first with O'Reilly. The two faced off in September 2008 when he was a candidate.

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