I have to agree with April's assessment. Bill O'Reilly is a jerk. A condescending jerk. She used a bit different terminology, but we're thinking the same thing. The way he abuses the good graces of the great Jon Stewart is just the latest example of his utter boorishness.
It shames me to have people like BOR associated with many of my ideological positions. Because I just want to kick his ass sometimes.
It goes back to 9/11. (Here's a fun story.) I was (like all of you) watching the coverage of the aftermath, and his program was on. He was interviewing rescue workers just coming off the line at Ground Zero. He kept asking things like, "did you see any bodies? did you see any limbs? did you see any blood?" And the shell-shocked workers, having just faced this horrific scene, could barely respond.
It was reminiscent of the scene in Mad City where Alan Alda, playing a network anchorman, hectors a similarly stunned and upset field reporter, played by Dustin Hoffman. The scene in the movie was disquieting. The scene in real life was infuriating. From that moment, I've despised O'Reilly. He is among the dregs of conservative television pundits, and I am ashamed of him.
(By the way, Mad City was a pretty decent flick. Nothing groundbreaking--there's a reason you probably haven't heard of it--but it does deal with the important question of how much our news coverage actually taints the situations it exploits.)
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