Posted by
fact275 on Monday, September 15, 2008 5:00:00 PM
First a disclaimer: up until recently, I thought the O'Reilly Factor was the best cable news discussion television program. Though I never agreed with all of O'Reilly's "independent" positions, I felt that his "looking out for the folks" stance made his show the only one on TV concerned with average Americans.
Then came the Sylvia's Restaurant controversy. To recap, some left wingers (both black and otherwise) attacked O'Reilly when he made a stumbling explanation to Juan Williams about how he had dined at a restaurant in Harlem with the Reverand Al Sharpton and that the patrons were all well dressed. No one in the place fit the image of the gangsta rappers. O'Reilly was trying to explain how there were middle class Black Americans who were no different than any others. O'Reilly went on the attack against his critics but it seems that his critics have won out.
The post-Sylvia's O'Reilly seems to have bent over backwards in regards to Barack Obama. Obama is clearly not a "cultural warrior" and yet O'Reilly is tepid (and that's being fair) in his criticism of Obama's social stances. To be fair, O'Reilly has attacked Obama for his tax the rich plan, but nothing else seems to rankle Bill. My suspicion is that Bill fears more race-based attacks if he goes after Obama harder. He'd never admit this of course....
O'Reilly has criticized Vice President Dick Cheney for not coming on his show. But as Obama stalled on coming on the show, O'Reilly held his fire. Obama finally sat down for a quick interview and though Bill pressed him on a few issues, Obama was allowed to get away with a "What more can I say?" answer to questions about all his dubious associations with radical left wing people.
Today, O'Reilly carped on his radio show about Governor Palin so far only coming up with excuses to not come on his show. O'Reilly had the gall to say that if she did not come on his show "and others," that McCain and Palin would lose.
Give me a break.