Unintentional hilarity ensued during The O’Reilly Factor when host Bill O’Reilly blew a gasket at guest Alan Colmes during a discussion about Al-Jazeera. O’Reilly flipped his lid because Al-Jazeera is not fair and balanced. O’Reilly screamed at Colmes, “Grasp this!!! This is no counter on it.” Perhaps, Bill-O has forgotten that he works for Fox News.
Here is the video from Media Matters:
During a round table with Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley one of the topics was Sam Donaldson’s praise for Al-Jazeera. O’Reilly said, “Why do you think a guy like Sam Donaldson, and to a less extent Colmes, more Donaldson. Why are they cheerleading Al-Jazeera when look, I could spend a whole hour ladies and gentleman, giving you anti-American, and there isn’t a counter voice on the network, and I was very serious when I said if you stand there in there studio and say Mullah so and so, you’re a hater. You’ll get a bullet right in the head when you walk out there. Nobody’s going to go on that network and take the opposing point of view.”
After Monica Crowley claimed that the far left has an anti-American agenda that dovetails with Al-Jazeera’s reporting. Colmes called O’Reilly and Crowley out on it. O’Reilly tried to back up his point with four specific things that make Al-Jazeera an anti-American, anti-Semitic network. Colmes tried to point out those were people on the network that were guests who weren’t editorializing for the network. In typical righty fashion when O’Reilly couldn’t argue with facts, he started screaming at Alan Colmes,”I’m getting a little mad at you. Grasp this!!!! There is no counter on it!!! You got it? There’s no counter on it!!!” Colmes pointed out that Al-Jazeera was free speech, and O’Reilly replied with, “Yeah, it’s free speech. It’s free speech and it shouldn’t be praised by a pin head like Donaldson.”
Bill O’Reilly is claiming that Al-Jazeera is an anti-American network because there is no counter point of view on it. Well by his own definition then the network that he works for, Fox News, is also an anti-American network because there is no counter point of view on Fox either. The irony is lost on O’Reilly that he is complaining about his perceived bias of another network when he is broadcasting on the most biased television network in America.
No Fox News employee should ever be complaining about the lack of a counter point of view on any other television network on the planet. By O’Reilly’s definition Fox News is also un-American because they actively work against the agenda of the President of the United States every day. Fox News promotes one point of view and misinforms on a daily basis. For example, Monica Crowley’s claim in the video above that the left is un-American.
If a network having balance and a counter point of view is so important to him, I wonder how often O’Reilly urges his Fox News bosses to hire one liberal host? If balance is so important to Bill-O, the unbalanced situation at Fox News must keep him awake tossing and turning in bed until all hours of the night. Bill O’Reilly is a hypocrite for even suggesting that balance matters while he works for Fox News. Bill O’Reilly can scream and yell all he wants, but he can’t avoid the point that by his own definition, Fox News is anti-American.
PoliticusUSA
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K
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 12:22 am
When Bush was in office they called everyone anti-American that didnt think his shit smelled like roses.
After Obama was elected, they were calling him a tyrant within 8 weeks of him being in office.
Best thing about Obama is.. he’s not a bad guy. They have to work pretty hard to bring him down, like manipulating video of his SOTU speech. Seriously.
And then the right goes and does that gun bill or whatever that makes a “point” about healthcare. Uh, thanks for wasting more tax money on something that does absolutely nothing.
Children.
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vash
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 11:18 am
I couldn’t agree more. I’m shocked that their are adults out there that take fox news seriously. Bill O’Rielly and his colleges have a clear agenda and thats to spread misinformation and dress it up like news. Fox news could make a nuclear attack out of abnormally loud far, and blame it on the left. The motivation, is clearly to draw attention from any real issues, and give the impression of real bipartisan tension.
Meanwhile the political party they work for looks vary un-American when you strip away the rhetoric. So the formula is: Do whatever we want to further out agenda (whatever that is), and use the media to keep everyday citizens from knowing whats going on. As long as people believe miss information from people like O’Reilly things like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission go by ever so quietly.
(P.S. Bush would be the most convict-able criminal president since Nixon).
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Ingarose
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 1:06 am
After I watched three shows on MSNBC I switched to O’Reilly at 8pm. He was really disgusting. Not only did he scream at Holmes, his face showed pure hatred and anger. After this segment was over I could not take any more of him and switched to CNN.
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Jtl
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 8:23 am
bill-O is the face of right wing desperate. Because he was ‘respected’ as a journalist until 2 years ago and now he is laughed at and called out at every turn by every quarter. No longer given a voice or a pass on any media outlet Except fox channel! Even those women walked out on him a couple of months ago!
Everyone knew the low IQ gaggle of beck-limpbow hanratty et al were to be expected to spew lies but now ObilkO has landed himself right in the puddle!
Manufactured outrage at the network- Al Jazeera, respected around the World because they tell the truth and report real news on the ground! Obilko could not get arrested at a real journalists network now!
Yes -derision and laughter works!
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Rob Cypher
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 1:13 am
Man, Bill was turning so red there that would’ve thought somebody had started talking about “loofahs” or something there. Jeez.
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carrieoki
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 3:25 am
What is the psych term for it being okay if you do it, but not okay if the other does the same thing?, which is similar to “The rules are for others, but not for you.” Oh yes, sociopathic tendency. Bill O’Reilly and all of his like minded cohorts (who continually play the victim & place blame on the other), should be renamed the “One Way Streets” of the people of The Backward Party.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 7:37 am
Exquisitely put
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Hrafnkell
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 6:35 am
I read Al-Jazeera and I find them to be far more fair and balanced than FOX News and far more moderate in their coverage of the news. Obviously, Bill-O doesn’t like them for a reason: Islamic-sounding word=terrorists. I like your analysis Jason that “Bill O’Reilly can scream and yell all he wants, but he can’t avoid the point that by his own definition, Fox News is anti-American.”
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Shiva (Moderator)
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 7:46 am
Having a counter to O’Leily means that sure I will have someone on the left on my show, but I will shout him down and not let him talk. The Hannity version of go ahead and talk, but you are wrong before you do and I wont let you make your point.
A News source does NOT have to have a counter to be free speech. A news source can have whatever it wants and you make your mind of to watch or listen. O’Leily is a complete blowhard and completely useless.
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TLG
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 9:31 am
Actually, I find it odd anyone judges any news agency about being “Fair and balanced” based on commentary shows. It doesn’t matter what station that is MSNBC, FOX, CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera…etc. If you base your view of them on the commentary vs the news cast you’re making a mistake.
Sure you may get the underlying current of the owner, but I feel I’ve seen unbiased news reports on many of these channels. But once you go to commentary shows, then it is obvious which way they lean.
Now if you feel the News Casts themselves are unfair then there is an issue. The Major 3 stations in the united states definitely had a tilt 10 years ago, which I feel pushed people towards Fox, CNN, BBC… ETC.
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Farmer Ray
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 10:10 am
Blah blah blah, un-American left, blah blah blah, Bush was great, blah blah blah, pinhead Donaldson, blah blah blah, MEANINGLESS ANGER!!!! blah blah blah, we’re so wonderful.
If only I could get a well-paid gig in which I could not only be stupid but incompetent too.
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Anne
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 4:23 pm
It’s a hoot to hear O’Reilly or any other FOX commentator complain about any other new’s outlet being neither fair nor balanced. His reference to anti-Americanism amounts to circular logic, since FOX deliberately foments fear, ignorance, and hatred and has alienated large groups of americans.
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Alex
Feb. 3rd, 2011 at 8:23 am
To paraphrase Jon Stewart:
“You can’t criticize me for not being fair and balanced. That’s not my slogan. That’s YOUR slogan”
*Cue gospel choir singing “Go F@ck Yourself”*
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t
Feb. 2nd, 2011 at 5:35 pm
So now the “far-left” is un-American, huh? Which I guess means, according to this tw@t, that the left itself is at least “leaning” towards being un-American as well. So basically, if you don’t think like her, well then, you’re just un or even anti-American. The “right”…so full of stupid, it hurts!!
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Kazmi
Feb. 5th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Look, ask any Fox news “pundit” and they will defend their honor to death that they always have a counter point. But the really slimy thing that O’Reilly did (and no one dared to catch) is that he showed and quoted all the anti-american guests that Al-Jazeera brings on….of course he didnt want small little details to nuisance his “solid” argument….you know, things like that fact that Al Jazeera also brings on moderately and strongly pro-american guests, state representatives, politicians etc to speak on their network…WITHOUT A COUNTER.
So I could create the exact type of evidence reel that Bill O created, and replace the anti-American clips with the pro-American clips and voila…Al Jazeera is pro American
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