Showing posts with label Bill O'Reilly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill O'Reilly. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

When corporations run network news, corporations exempt themselves (and each other) from news coverage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-not-everything-i_b_244050.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/ge/index.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/04/olbermann/index.html

Something interesting I read in the last link above. Glenn Greenwald links to David Sirota's article re the "Keith Olbermann told to stop criticizing Bill O'Reilly so Fox News can quit reporting on General Electric" mess. In the comments section of Sirota's piece, one gets the idea that some people are okay with Olbermann standing down in this matter as long as he has an opportunity to be a "progressive" voice on a cable news channel.

Question is: How progressive can you be if you work for a news organization that has no firewall between its operations and edicts from the corporation that owns it?

Friday, May 29, 2009

Poem: I'M AFRAID OF DENNIS MILLER.

As a response to Dennis Miller's recent antics (at Sonia Sotomayor's expense) on THE O'REILLY FACTOR, I'm resurrecting this old poem of mine:
I’M AFRAID OF DENNIS MILLER

I don’t want to get off on a rant here,
but I had a nightmare just recently.

In my dream, I saw former comedian Dennis Miller
walking down State Street in Santa Barbara
wearing a sandwich board saying
NUKE IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
BEFORE THEY NUKE US!!!
and selling sealed-in-plastic paperback copies
of General Douglas MacArthur’s autobiography.

I’m old enough to remember when Dennis Miller
was actually funny.
This was when he was the fake newsman on
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’S WEEKEND UPDATE
and hosted syndicated and HBO talk shows.
At that time, he poked fun at all kinds of absurdity-
whether it was from the Left or the Right.

Then, Dennis came out of the political closet
and became a rabid Republican.
He likes to say it was a result of 9/11.
But Dennis was already lusting for the favor
of George W. Bush and his acolytes
after the 2000 election.

And now he holds court on Fox News
(motto: We Distort, You Decide)
preaching to the angry-and-resentful converted
like a slightly more jovial carbon copy
of that master of fairness and balance-Bill O’Reilly.

I decide to go up to Dennis and pull his chain a little bit.

“Hey, Dennis!” I yell out.
“I remember when you referred to Tammy Faye Bakker
as The Stepford Hick on SNL.
Now, you’re making nice with the religious right.
What happened?”

Dennis scowls and his face turns the color
of a Red State.

“If you say that again, I’ll sue the f--- out of you!” he hisses.
“I’ve got a reputation to protect!
Besides, pal, you sound as impotent
as Woodrow Wilson arguing
for U.S. involvement in the League of Nations.
By the way, you wouldn’t be interested in a
JUST SAY NO TO KOFI ANNAN button, would you?
Of course not, you’re just another brain-dead liberal
who won’t listen to the Truth!
Get the f--- out of here
and go crawl up Howard Dean’s ass, why don’t you?”

I take the hint and start to walk away.

But I now hear Dennis singing a parody
of an old rock-and-roll song in an off-key,
malicious-drunk-tormenting-bar-patrons voice:
BOMB, BOMB, BOMB
BOMB BOMB IRAN!!!!

End of nightmare.
Fade to black.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck and his six-foot wall.

http://gawker.com/5187225/paranoid-faux-populist-glenn-beck-walls-himself-off-from-humanity?skyline=true&s=x

Next, Bill O'Reilly--feeling hurt since Glenn Beck is apparently the new favorite blowhard of Roger Ailes--will likely build an eight-foot wall, plus add a few guards toting machine guns to keep nonfans and angry far-leftists away......