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Are you saying Oprah, a big contributer to the Obama campaign and has gone on tour with him, is biased? Color me shocked.

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O'Reilly's show is way better than Olbermann's by a mile, at least O'Reilly will clobber everyone equally.

 

While O'Reilly isn't nearly the shill for the GOP that Olbermann is for the Democrats, I can't say I agree with the notion he clobbers "everyone equally."

 

His "talking points memos" are usually just recitation of the Republican Party's conventional wisdom, and his "no-spin zone" doesn't keep him from making some ridiculous and partisan declarations.

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Guest Brady's Torn ACL

The O'Reilly Factor could've been something if the guy didn't turn out to be a complete hack with a metastatic ego. Eight years ago, all the brash "no spin" talk seemed kind of interesting especially on the Fox News Channel, and I think he did a good job with some of his Jesse Jackson coverage, but somewhere along the line he went into that crazy talk about "secular progressives" and declared himself a "culture warrior." Ask Kellen "Fuckin' Soldier" Winslow: ascribing any sort of bellicose role to yourself is a career kiss of death. Now he's a youtube meme, kind of a creep, and basically a fraud. And a bad writer, too! Ever see any excerpts of Those Who Trespass? It was the worst kind of transparent fiction, an idealized concept of O'Reilly as protagonist with a bunch of really awkward sex scenes. Drugstore paperback bad.

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The O'Reilly Factor could've been something if the guy didn't turn out to be a complete hack with a metastatic ego. Eight years ago, all the brash "no spin" talk seemed kind of interesting especially on the Fox News Channel, and I think he did a good job with some of his Jesse Jackson coverage, but somewhere along the line he went into that crazy talk about "secular progressives" and declared himself a "culture warrior." Ask Kellen "Fuckin' Soldier" Winslow: ascribing any sort of bellicose role to yourself is a career kiss of death. Now he's a youtube meme, kind of a creep, and basically a fraud. And a bad writer, too! Ever see any excerpts of Those Who Trespass? It was the worst kind of transparent fiction, an idealized concept of O'Reilly as protagonist with a bunch of really awkward sex scenes. Drugstore paperback bad.

Awesome post.

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Dammit, I hate it when other people get to the O'Reilly jokes before I do. "Falefal!"

 

Are you saying Oprah, a big contributer to the Obama campaign and has gone on tour with him, is biased? Color me shocked.

What, nobody else gonna even bother with the obligatory OMGRACYST~! comment?

 

That's the first time I've ever seen anyone say The View is a "tough interview."

To be fair, that's also the first time I've ever seen an interviewer literally say that a presidential candidate wants to reinstitute slavery, to their face, on live national tv. Bawbawa's "us white people will take care of you" was a fine punchline too.

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To be fair, that's also the first time I've ever seen an interviewer literally say that a presidential candidate wants to reinstitute slavery, to their face, on live national tv.

Jonah Goldberg interviewed Obama?

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Guest Vitamin X

 

Here's that View interview for anyone interested.

 

Guh, John McCain says "Democrat Party."

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Guest Brady's Torn ACL

A thought on Fox News Channel: they may be consistently bad, but they're consistent. (Whether or not this is analogous to the stubborn Bush admnstrtn is up to you.) Thinking back to my comment about O'Reilly showing promise eight years ago, I realized that their afternoon/prime time schedule hasn't changed at all in the last eight years. This whole time, it's been Neil Cavuto, Brit Hume, Shepard Smith, Bill O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, and Greta Van Susteren. The only change in their lineup was replacing Paula Zahn in late 2001 with "War on Terror" coverage until they got Van Susteren. Compare this to CNN, which dumped Crossfire, Aaron Brown, and pretty much revamped the entire approach with all that Situation Room stuff; or MSNBC, which has been shuffling the deck chairs on almost a month-to-month basis. There are at least three failed Dan Abrams programs alone.

 

In short: have ratings bred stability, or has a firm approach to programming helped them?

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Guest Vitamin X

Doesn't that seem to reflect liberal/media bias anyways? Progressives/Liberals change things up and evolve and all that. Conservatives fear change, they like stability and don't believe in evolution.

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Guest Brady's Torn ACL

Eh, that's a reach, especially considering one of the many bumps in the MSNBC road was trying to go hardline conservative in prime time with Scarborough and Buchanan and so forth. Evolving and tinkering aren't the same thing.

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A thought on Fox News Channel: they may be consistently bad, but they're consistent. (Whether or not this is analogous to the stubborn Bush admnstrtn is up to you.) Thinking back to my comment about O'Reilly showing promise eight years ago, I realized that their afternoon/prime time schedule hasn't changed at all in the last eight years. This whole time, it's been Neil Cavuto, Brit Hume, Shepard Smith, Bill O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, and Greta Van Susteren. The only change in their lineup was replacing Paula Zahn in late 2001 with "War on Terror" coverage until they got Van Susteren. Compare this to CNN, which dumped Crossfire, Aaron Brown, and pretty much revamped the entire approach with all that Situation Room stuff; or MSNBC, which has been shuffling the deck chairs on almost a month-to-month basis. There are at least three failed Dan Abrams programs alone.

 

In short: have ratings bred stability, or has a firm approach to programming helped them?

 

Fox News is a business, and they're not going to keep things on the air that don't get satisfactory ratings. I don't care for their network, but they've definitely figured out how to appeal to a loyal audience.

 

MSNBC has been pretty consistent for years with Countdown and Hardball. Whoever comes on at 9pm eastern has to compete with both H&C and Larry King Live...not an easy feat.

 

I can't stand Situation Room, but not because of the format. I just think Wolf Blitzer is a horrible, horrible anchor. And you have Lou Dobbs, which has been on for years, but went from (I think) a show about business news to the "Xenophobic Hysteria Hour."

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In short: have ratings bred stability, or has a firm approach to programming helped them?

People don't want news, they want entertainment. With the exception of Brit Hume (who is leaving at the end of the year), every one of those shows is merely entertainment with an icon that syas "news" spinning around in the corner to make you feel informed. I hate to make a post that comes so close to using the word "sheeple," but this is a trend in all of news recently.

 

I like Lou Dobbs, kind of.. Right after Katrina he went to town on exposing connection-based promotions and cronyism in the administration. I've stopped watching his show now, though, because he's programmed against two of the last news shows in this country which report actual news: BBC World News America, and our PBS affiliate's HDTV broadcast of the NewsHour. Those are my number one and number two US-oriented news shows.

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Tracy: I need sixty-thousand dollars, or I’m gonna lose my house.

Jack: Which house?

(Tracy thinks to himself)

Tracy: I need a hundred-thousand dollars, or I’m gonna lose both my houses.

Jack: Tracy, I don’t understand. You’ve starred in fourteen films. You don’t have any money saved?

Tracy: No, I lost all of it.

Jack: Really? Who’s your money manager?

Tracy: Grizz.

Grizz: Worldcom, man. Worldcom.

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That's an awesome exchange.

 

I hadn't seen the McCain interview on The View until just now, and it'd be great if the media as a whole had the kind of balls Barbara Walters sprouted for a moment. And I mean that with both candidates. I might love Obama, but the FISA vote bugs me as well as any notion of bailing out the auto industry. I want everyone to be tough as nails with both candidates, but I end up getting fucked since they're in love with one and too timid to question the other.

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Despite my disagreement with his views, Beck seems like a geniunely nice guy. The thing about Fox that bothers me most isn't their bias, but that all their hosts seem like assholes.

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Despite my disagreement with his views, Beck seems like a geniunely nice guy. The thing about Fox that bothers me most isn't their bias, but that all their hosts seem like assholes.

What's up with Glen Beck constantly doing some stupid cartoon voice every time he tries to make a sarcastic point. It's really irritating and definitely doesn't help the point he's trying to make.

It's like when John Stewart got into doing a Jerry Lewis interjection or a 'stereotype Jew voice' after every single joke he'd make. Really irritating.

 

Oh, and we have a real hard hitting news story as the lead on the Fox News website right now.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/17/mc...ht-appearances/

Apparently Leno and Letterman are part of the liberal media elite! Have they no integrety?

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Despite my disagreement with his views, Beck seems like a geniunely nice guy. The thing about Fox that bothers me most isn't their bias, but that all their hosts seem like assholes.

 

I have never heard his radio show, so I can only comment on his TV show, but to me he comes off as a total D-bag.

 

One second it's "OMG This government, it's both sides" then the very next segment it's "Democrats are communists, YES, I SAID IT"

 

Then the fact that he forms an opinion and then brings on 2-3 guests that are in agreement with him and they have a circle jerk. Hell O'Reily at least brings on someone he disagrees with, even if he does just shout over the guest & cut their mic off if they make a valid counterpoint.

 

I just think he is very disingenious about the way he goes about his "I'm looking out for the people" schtick.

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Despite my disagreement with his views, Beck seems like a geniunely nice guy. The thing about Fox that bothers me most isn't their bias, but that all their hosts seem like assholes.

 

I have never heard his radio show, so I can only comment on his TV show, but to me he comes off as a total D-bag.

 

One second it's "OMG This government, it's both sides" then the very next segment it's "Democrats are communists, YES, I SAID IT"

 

Then the fact that he forms an opinion and then brings on 2-3 guests that are in agreement with him and they have a circle jerk. Hell O'Reily at least brings on someone he disagrees with, even if he does just shout over the guest & cut their mic off if they make a valid counterpoint.

 

I just think he is very disingenious about the way he goes about his "I'm looking out for the people" schtick.

I dont see how he is disingenuous about that though. The fact is that despite having a $10 million a year radio deal, big book deal and this new TV deal, the man didnt go to college and spent the majority of his life a total failure through dealing with alcoholism and his mother and brother's suicides. I firmly believe that he is grounded enough through his faith to not be someone who says things like he does when he doesn't actually mean any of it. I also believe that he's probably on the verge of killing himself with the amount of work he does between researching stuff, his radio and tv shows and his 2 yearly tours.

 

He's been talking about the economy for well over a year now, back when "Oh the economy is fine!" and was advocating people do simple things like buying clothes and food in advance if they were on sale. I dont even hear anyone on TV now suggesting that.

 

I am surprised that he has gone off the issue of illegal immigration like he was earlier in the year but then again thats not even been a topic thats been brought up in any debates.

 

As for the move off CNN to FOX News, he pointed out today that he felt that he would ultimately be safer if alligned with people of similar viewpoints in the coming years but he said that there were a surprising number of people at CNN that he was proud to know and work with (Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper especially). I dont watch his TV show that often because for the most part its rehashing what I heard on the Radio for 3 hours each day. But it will be in HD so theres a reason to at least record it.

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Headline News is really the greatest channel. Mike Galanos is awesome when he starts getting pissed (which he seems to be about every story he reports). My favourite was when he was angry that 'I Kissed a Girl' was turning young girls into whores. 'Whatever happened to when all a girl had to do was be cute, smart, and funny?!?!?' Or when he took a stand against teachers having sex with their students, like he was alone with that viewpoint. And then he just has housewives who agree with him call in.

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So, I was flipping channels Joe the Plumber was a guest on Fox News' new talk show with Mike Huckabee. I'm trying to figure out why Huckabee has his own show, and why this guy was on it.

 

Hell, I wouldn't even consider it a talk show, but an infomerical for the Republican Party.

 

Also, apparently they were borrowing Maury Povich's set. Maybe in a future episode they'll tell George H. W. Bush: "You are not the father!"

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He has a show on Fox because his efforts in the primaries made him the clear conservative golden boy for 2012/16. Nobody, besides maybe Palin, is even close to Huckabee for the next GOP nomination. Obviously, Fox wants in on the ground floor and they probably think that a guy with the base of Huckabee could bring in good ratings with Fox's target demographic. Joe the Plumber is that demographic's focus of their relentless cult of personality for the moment, he was the perfect guest for the show this week.

 

I liked the part where he lost his train of thought. Huckabee, as usual, was classy in helping him out of it.

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That was a rhetorical "why" to illustrate the intellectual dishonesty of a so-called news organization giving a recent presidential candidate free airtime to push his agenda, or how a guy who claims to not want the spot light (after being used in the last debate as the human embodiment of a fake argument against a particular policy) appears as an in-studio guest on a talk show that's pretty transparently a campaign commerical for Republicans.

 

 

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