Comments on: Stupid Guest Choice

By: Gary Gunnels

Gary Gunnels — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 08:03:15 +0000

Jadegold,

Fox didn't pioneer it. Writers have been complaining about this sort of activity since the time of the ancient Greeks.

By: Gary Gunnels

Gary Gunnels — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 08:03:03 +0000

Lester,

As I recall, a poll did about a month ago found that 56% of the population of France had a positive view of Americans. That was just 2% below Australia.

People continually confuse dislike of the Bush administration with dislike of the U.S. Heck, I dislike the Bush administration, but I don't confuse his administration with the U.S.; most people in the rest of the world are smart enough to make the same distinction.

By: Jadegold

Jadegold — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:03:29 +0000

Folks like O'Reilly will always do well on cable networks; the rightwing doesn't want news or reasoned discourse about policy and issues–they want spectacle. They want pro wresting.

And O'Reilly gives them that. O'Reilly gets some lefty guest on and them proceeds to shout him/her down, cut off his/her microphone, and then proclaim he has destroyed all the guest's arguments.

It's the WWF.

By: Jadegold

Jadegold — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:03:25 +0000

I dunno, Rob. Fox certainly pioneered it and is the undisputed master of the genre. To the extent other cable outlets do it appears to be an attempt to copy Fox's success.

By: robport

robport — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:02:43 +0000

You're partially right, Jadegold, but I wouldn't say that the "WWF mentality" only exists on Fox.

By: robport

robport — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:02:38 +0000

His ratings will certainly start tapering off as people get wise to him. Example of his baloney

I'm no fan of O'Reilly, but his ratings certainly seem to have stood the test of time thus far.

By: Toto

Toto — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:02:55 +0000

Bill O'Reilly is a phony. His ratings will certainly start tapering off as people get wise to him. Example of his baloney (from his show):

O'REILLY: "You know, The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the attacks against FOX News, and they said well, Bill O'Reilly's nightly program only gets two million viewers. That's a lie. That's just not true. We get about five million viewers inside the United States, every night."

How could anybody trust whatever the guy says?

He'll also ask his guests do-you-still-beat-your-grandmother questions like "Why do the French hate us?" hoping his viewers will regard his question as establishing the fact that the French people don't like us and are thus deserving of "our" (his/GOP) hate.

Has anybody checked the prime time shows competing with The Factor, which might explain why his ratings are so high?

By: likwidshoe

likwidshoe — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:02:55 +0000

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s this irrational identification I find the most disturbing. And look. There are 2.2 million of themÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a pretty big team.

So you believe that all of O'Reilly's viewers "worship" him? Wow…pretty irrational conclusion!

By: blistered fingers

blistered fingers — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 17:03:08 +0000

The people I know that seem to worship O'Reilly behave as if they belong to a of club. The hurray-for-our-team mentality must be both exciting and reassuring to them. It's this irrational identification I find the most disturbing. And look. There are 2.2 million of them….that's a pretty big team.

By: Gary Gunnels

Gary Gunnels — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 06:03:30 +0000

likwidshoe,

Because this isn't an instance where a couple of talking heads are going at it over an issue obviously.