O’Reilly Said He Had Trouble Booking Blog Segment, Actually Turned Guests Away
O’Reilly Said He Had Trouble Booking Blog Segment, Actually Turned Guests Away
Yesterday morning, right-wing Powerline blogger John Hinderaker (”Hindrocket”) told readers that his partner Paul Mirengoff would be appearing on last night’s O’Reilly segment about bloggers:
Paul will be interviewed on the O’Reilly Factor tonight. It should be a fun conversation, and I’d encourage our readers to tune in.
But later in the day, Paul posted an update, saying that O’Reilly had chosen someone else:
I won’t be appearing on the Factor after all. They’ve decided to take the segment in a different direction.
Which begs the question: If O’Reilly was actually turning guests away, why did he try to smear Media Matters by claiming he had trouble booking anyone for the segment?
These people [bloggers] are so vicious and they — the media is so corrupt in taking their uncorroborated…defamation that most people won’t run for office, sir. They won’t do television and radio commentary. We had to book this segment — I couldn’t get people to come on and say what you guys are saying, because they were afraid that Media Matters would go after them. They — I couldn’t — I had people turn down this segment — a bunch of them. [They said,] ‘What are you, crazy? I’m going to criticize these assassins? They’ll come after me.’ That’s a chilling effect.
UPDATE: As always, much more at Crooks & Liars
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
60 Responses to “O’Reilly Said He Had Trouble Booking Blog Segment, Actually Turned Guests Away”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Think ProgressContact Us
Donate
Because Bill is a liar, and doesn’t think people will find out about things like this. Thanks to his segment however, people who may not be looking at these blogs, now WILL see them, and in doing so, will see the TRUTH about what Bill is doing.
October 5th, 2005 at 12:52 pmWho knows smears better than O’Reilly himself?
For example, look at how he selectively edited videotape to attack Joe Biden on Gitmo:
“Bill O’Reilly’s VideoGate”
October 5th, 2005 at 12:54 pmBy making an issue out of this Bill is just hastening his (and Faux News’) demise. Once people realize that there are other outlets for real news then they will stop and take another look at Faux News “fair and balanced” reporting and realize it for what it really is….half-truths and propoganda.
October 5th, 2005 at 12:58 pmSo Bill’s afraid of Media Matters?
ROTFLMFAO!!!
October 5th, 2005 at 1:00 pmWhy hasn’t O’Reilly ben sued yet for libelous slander?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:00 pm“ROTFLMFAO” stands for what? Just askin.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:01 pmIt makes a good story though. Is it a “ratings review” period for Bill? He’s been showing recent “spikes” in activity and “upittiness”.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:02 pmThe fascists have come a long way since the days of Tom Metzger’s cable access TV show, Race and Reason
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Metzger.asp
But if you’ve got enough money and influence, I suppose you, too can own your own cable news network.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:07 pmWait till he finds out he damn near has his very own section in the Crooks & Liars website.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:09 pmHe hates blogs so much because they won’t let him get away with his lying.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:10 pm#6 = Roll On The Floor Laughing My F**king Ass Off. For this and others, look here: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/abbrev.html
October 5th, 2005 at 1:11 pm#6 - Rolling On The Floor Laughning My F*cking Ass Off… :)
October 5th, 2005 at 1:13 pmROTFLMFAO is the equivalent to LOL (Laughing Out Loud). You used to see it as just ROTFL (Rolling On The Floor Laughing) or sometimes the T would drop out and it would be ROFL. Then suffixes appeared. LMAO would be Laughing My Ass Off, and the F is the F-word + ing. Thus, Rolling on the floor laughing my f—ing ass off.
My favorite version is ROTFLASTC - Rolling on the floor laughing and scaring the cat.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:14 pm#3–you’re full of it, sort of. “half-truths”?? what half is true? Faux is LIES. pure and simple
as for his show, it’s comical. being the only guy to support bush but say he’s neutral, his show is actually fun to listen to…to hear him twist lies and bullshit into justification for this prez….
October 5th, 2005 at 1:15 pmO’Reilly is such a coward. Why doesn’t he have MediaMatters on his show?. He’s a ChickenFox - Bwak Bwak Bwak.
Feel free to email O’Shill and tell him he’s a coward: oreilly@foxnews.com
October 5th, 2005 at 1:17 pmSince when is it a “chilling effect” the knowledge you may be criticized for your statements?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:22 pmActually, Mirengoff’s comment could mean exactly what O’Reilly says. If the “different direction” they decided to take the segment was a direction that included Media Matters, and Mirengoff therefore decided he didn’t want to appear, he might well have backed out, then not have wanted to admit directly it on PowerLine. As much as I hate to say it, this is completely consistent with O’Reilly’s claim.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:22 pmHey, Hindrocket! Yeah, you over there in the lawyer suit!
O’Reilly just called you a coward!
Too scared to come on his show! Said you were scared to death of Media Matters!
You gonna take that from him?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:26 pmADP, you could also read it that O’Reilly was trying to set up a pure attack piece, and couldn’t get anyone to do his dirty work for him. “What do you mean you want me to come on and slander Media Matters?” No matter where the truth lies, you can probably safely bet it includes O’Reilly being full of crap.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:31 pmMy life is happy. I have not watched Bill O’Reilly’s show in years. After having been caught in as many lies as this man has how/why does he have any credibility at all?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:38 pmEtan Thomas, power forward for the Washington Wizards, has offered to hire a yellow school bus to take the conversative hate-mongers on an educational trip into the poverty community. O’Reilly is one of the wing nuts invited to join this consciousness-raising adventure.
More information here:
http://katrinamemo.blogspot.com/ 2005/ 10/ is-bill-bennett-racist.html
October 5th, 2005 at 1:39 pmFeel free to email O’Shill and tell him he’s a coward: oreilly@foxnews.com
you’re wasting your time. i have no doubt he’s a complete sociopath, much like the rest of the most visible republicans on tv and in politics, and it’s basically the equivalent of yelling at your refrigerator for buzzing to make any effort to call them on their shit.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:40 pmO’Reilly is a big liar. He said people don’t want run for office because they are afear. This is not true it is because if you don’t have money and are not rich you can forget it.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:42 pmGeorge Bush doesn’t care about black people.
Or telling the truth.
Or governing.
—
October 5th, 2005 at 1:42 pmThis is so funny. The Media Matters assassins? Yeah, they’re so “vicious” that they’ll get you with your own words.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:45 pmSociopath. Another word for batsh*t insane. Thanks, Lyle
October 5th, 2005 at 1:46 pmWhy does Bill OReilly hate America?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:47 pmHmmm. Methinks he doth protest too much. I suspect that the blogosphere constantly exposing his lies and spin are beginning to have an effect.
Of course, he is a lying sack of pig pooh and a horrific manipulator that is obviously trying to make up for some short-coming, most likely sexually related, and such pond scum always fall much faster than they were elevated. But I still give credit to the blogs. Keep up the good work and be careful of that backstabbing lying meglomaniac because your exposing him only backs him into a corner and rats become fierce when they are backed into a corner.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:49 pmWhat O’Reilly really hates about blogs is the audio and video proof of what he says. When he is called out for his comments it’s much more difficult for him to say his comments were misquoted or taken out of context.
O’Reilly hates that there is proof that he lies repeatedly.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:58 pmI had to deal with a bully in my neighborhood when I was a kid. He had that same exact antagonism mixed with “But I’m the victim here!” kind of thing going. I learned that the best thing to do is to push him often into the latter mode with a clear, “Do you really, really want a fight here? You’ll get one.”
But unfortunately this bully I knew grew up to become a thief and a known rapist. So just keep an eye on your stuff and your female acquaintances when he’s around…
October 5th, 2005 at 1:58 pmSo Bill O’Reilly is a liar, duh. And your point is?
As for suing Bill for slander… as a matter of fact, I myself was slandered (on the air) and libeled (in his column) by Bill. I’m not a public figure, I just happened to be caught up in the news item of the day. If I was a public figure, I would of course have no recourse. But as a private citizen, I would have a case.
HOWEVER… don’t make me laugh. First of all, if I were to sue Bill,
1) I would have to mortage my house just to get in the door. You know that Fox and O’Reilly are going to have a team of lawyers that is going to be bigger and better than anything I could put together even if I scraped together every penny I could get my hands on,
2) It would take years, what with all the appeals, delaying tactics, etc.
3) Every single aspect and event of my life from birth onwards would be subject to exhaustive scrutiny and public disclosure. Not that I have anything to hide but I don’t necessarily want that.
4) As the case dragged on over the months and years, it would keep the original event in the news. Not that I did anything wrong (quite the opposite), but I don’t want that either. For one thing, every time it goes in the news it reminds the crazies in pj’s to call me at home and yell at me.
5) And then, I could quite well lose, again given that their legal team could eat mine for lunch. In which case I would be out my six-figure court costs.
6) And even when I won, I would have a hard time pointing to much in terms actual verifiable monetary losses resulting clearly and directly from Bill’s libel and slander. So I’m not sure if I could recover much more than the satisfaction of a verdict.
Now, if I had millions to blow, that might be different. But if I had millions to blow, I’d probably be a public figure. In which case I wouldf have no case.
The fact is, if Bill O’Reilly wanted for some reason to pick your name out of a phone book at random and announce on the air that you eat live hamsters, there’s not a lot you could do about it.
Given all that, I’m still glad we have the sytem we have. Let the blowhard blow. You just have hope that what goes around eventually comes around.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:59 pmman it’s getting to the point where you can’t even lie on TV without all the little people getting all uppity! i mean if it’s to the point where a rich white guy can’t get on TV and lie to people, what kind of democracy is that ?
October 5th, 2005 at 1:59 pmO’Liely is a cowardly lying bully. I have yet to have a rightie take my $100.00 bet that I can find a verifiable lie in any 2 consectutive hours of his show. Nor will they take 5-1 on a $100 for 5 hours.
October 5th, 2005 at 2:02 pmthis is the highest praise possible for media matters inasmuch as o’reilly must agonize over them so, if he is willing to make shit up just to attempt to disparage them. kudos. keep up the good fight. does anyone actually watch bill o’reilly anymore. even some reactionaries I know admit he’s lost all credibility. assasins. hah!
October 5th, 2005 at 2:09 pmSomebody start prepping the rubber room. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get him and Limbaugh to be bunk mates?
October 5th, 2005 at 2:18 pmDespite the fact that O’Really? is a syphillitic boor, I chose to take the piece on its face. There was build up from even Raw Story and a couple of other places, I think. Fox even teased it as containing a “list” of blogs.
Despite my personal feelings about the guy, I figure he must have, at least, some minimal journalistic chops to have gotten to where he is.
The piece was just pure thin. It was nothing. I was expecting, at the very least, a typical O’Rielly diatribe against a handful of blogs. What I got was a fluff piece with couple of “never-weres” making up stuff about Media Matters.
In a word, I was “disappointed.”
He should repent for being what he is, but he should apologize for a just plain, crappy segment.
October 5th, 2005 at 2:32 pmSomeday soon, you won’t be able to blink without missing the latest news about O’Reilly, which you will only be able to get from blogs like BlatherWatch (They Listen to Talk Radio So You Don’t Have To) because just like Rush, he will no longer be on TV.
Another gas attack by the “farter of talk radio,” Rush Limbaugh. And we’re not talking about his odiferous and windy 3 hours on KTTH, (m-f, 9-noon). A Palm Beach limo company has 86-ed him for good after their drivers have refused to serve him. Limbaugh’s flatulence first made headlines when he let loose in a broadcast cubicle as 2nd Lady Lynn Cheney was visiting his show. Relations between their staffs got rough after someone on Cheney’s staff leaked the story to the tabs. In June, Big Pants reportedly passed gas in a limo he shared with four interns from the Heritage Foundation, causing one of them to resign rather than ride back to the office with Limbaugh. Insiders report that flatus was what drove ex-wife Marta to move into a separate residence long before their actual divorce. His present girlfriend, CNN anchor Daryn Kagin, is said to be considering an intervention. The gas, while rarely fatal, is seen as a health hazard by environmental scientists–of whom, of course, Limbaugh has always had nothing but scorn. Now we know why–he couldn’t pass the fresh air standards, we reasonably expect from industry.
October 5th, 2005 at 3:01 pmI see that he turned someone down for the segment.However,you didn’t mention those who turned him down.Do you have this info?
October 5th, 2005 at 3:06 pmIf you folks actually made sensible comments then maybe you could form an articulate argument. Stick to the facts without the profanity and maybe us in the middle could agree with you for a change. Idiots on the far right and far left are what drives people away from politics.
October 5th, 2005 at 3:58 pmBill-
Did you point out all the untruths, lies, and misrepresentations that you can document on Media Matters? No??? Why am I not surprised?
You are a liar, Billy.
October 5th, 2005 at 4:00 pm#5 Paul, Al Franken has mentioned a few times that he consulted his lawyer concerning this very thing. Turns out that in order to prove libel/slander you have to prove that the person in question knows he is lying, and given that BOR lies so freely and so often, it would be impossible to prove in court that he wasn’t
a pathological liar (i.e. one who’s unaware of when he’s lying and when he’s telling the truth). Or as Al put it, he’s too crazy to convict. :/
SAR
October 5th, 2005 at 4:05 pmVERY good point, middle man….i am soooo sick and tired of the hate and profanity that both sides display… snarcasm is entertaining tho!
October 5th, 2005 at 4:08 pmWell, I’m David Kline — the “other guy” who was on O’Reilly’s show last night — and I can tell you the whole thing was a complete set-up job. A deliberate ambush of Media Matters in particular and political bloggers in general.
I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to set the record straight or provide an alternative viewpoint, but as you might imagine, getting a word in edgewise with O’Reilly is pretty touch.
Especially when they used a bait-and-switch lie to get me on the show in the first place.
If you want to read my account of what happened, check this out:
http://www.blogrevolt.com/ archives/ 2005/ 10/ oreillys_sneak.htm
October 5th, 2005 at 4:25 pmI would like to thank good ol Bill for turning me on to Media Matters. Another shrewd move there Bill. Not everyone who watches your show is a right wing lemming. There are a lot of us who watch just to see what the enemy is lying about now. Ya it’s a pain trying to sell lying right wing propaganda, when there are people out there exposing you instantaneously.
October 5th, 2005 at 4:27 pm[…] For example, he says that Media Matters is the worst, yet they point out his inconsistencies more than anyone. Most importantly, they always show transcripts, court cases, and other documented facts. He says that the Smoking Gun is just as awful. They are the ones who would not let him sweep his sexual harassment case under the carpet. Think Progress even showed that Bill lied in this latest segment. […]
October 5th, 2005 at 4:32 pmO’Reilley is such a D-bag. Why didn’t Franken’s screed against him end his career? I’d bring that chapter with me, or at least memorize the juicy bits.
October 5th, 2005 at 4:33 pm“Oh, I’m the liar?”
Rattle off some “ridiculous” b.s. he’s said, with a liberal dose of his calling for the murder and imprisonment of people for not one good reason.
“Spin that, clown shoes!”
Well duh… they won’t come after you if you don’t lie. Don’t give them material and Media Matters will leave you alone.
October 5th, 2005 at 4:37 pmMiddle Man: O’Reilly starts by calling Media Matters “vicious,” then continues straight through “assassins” and “zombies,” and yet you come here to lambaste folks? Riiight.
David Kline: Wow, thanks.
October 5th, 2005 at 5:05 pmBO a.k.a. O”lielly can’t stand Media Matters because David Brock is a former Republican who knows the dirty tricks of the party. MM blasts O’Lielly all the time for his lies and distortions and O’Lielly, the whining cowardly blowhard just can’t take it.
October 5th, 2005 at 5:13 pmAside from obvious record of video footage of his lies, which under much scrutiny is hard to deny, makes it pretty hard to call on it as unfair presentation of news. I think the leftist are well aware of the spinning tactics of the rights to not go there and be above that and rely on hard solid evidence.
The bulk e-mial of letters to Bill O’Rielly treatment of Phil Donahue was massing from where? I normally comb thru air america and media matters links and sister blog site and never came across such a protest campaign site. Any word on who did this to Bill O’Reilly?
I like how he still uses his hand on how high the stack of E-mail he gets. I guess his intern still print them out for him between being sexually preyed upon.
October 5th, 2005 at 5:55 pmDavid Kline: Thanks for the explanation and the link. I’m sorry that you got set up like that. I’m sure that you may now be aware that David Brock has written to BO several times, asking to be a guest on Bill’s show, and, of course, Bill is too much of a coward to have him on. You should definitely check out Media Matters as often as you can. They’re especially helpful because they provide links to the emails of people about whom they’re writing.
Maybe if you’re ‘lucky’, you’ll get invited back to The Fracture and you can get a few more words in edgewise before Bill tells you to shut up.
October 5th, 2005 at 6:35 pmThank you for that. I imagine I could a do a little better job if I had a second chance at O’Reilly. But I suspect it’s near-impossible to ever get the best of him. It’s his show, and he’s got all the fireworks set up to run according to plan.
Kind of like a Pro Wrestling match, the winner is decided long before the contestants enter the ring.
October 5th, 2005 at 7:13 pm#41 - Middle man
October 5th, 2005 at 10:19 pmWhen faced with this sort of excrement, it’s hard to not resort to “earthy” comments. And it’s not those comments that drive people away from “politics”, it’s the idiots like BO (such an appropriate nickname) who drive people away - running into the night screaming as their worst nightmares keep blathering… Thank God (or whatever appropriate diety) for sites like this one - and MM - to keep the nightmares at bay. And thanks to all of you out there who post here. I just found this site a couple of weeks ago, and you have given me hope that this country isn’t made up entirely of bozos who can’t see through the shit that BO dishes out. You’ve been a oasis in the desert of right wing stupidity and denial.
I don’t know where you get this from. Paul Mirengoff did appear on O’Reilly.
You can watch the interview here.
http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/10/05/paulonoreilly/
October 6th, 2005 at 9:46 amAl, Mirengoff appeared a different day on a different segment, one on Mary Mapes rather than the one on bloggers he’d originally been approached for and which O’Reilly claimed he couldn’t get anyone.
October 6th, 2005 at 11:31 amO’Reilly did, in fact say that he had trouble booking guests for the show, but this article lists only ONE source he turned away. ONE. Wooo! Oh, and the guy he “turned away” (who–as noted–appeared the following day) was another CONSERVATIVE guy. See, it’s called balance.
Congradulations. You found one other person in the world besides those two who was not too scared to appear on that segment. Can anyone say “grasping at straws.”
October 6th, 2005 at 1:09 pmNow that I think about it, in fact, if I opperated the way Media Matters does, I could accuse the author of THIS article of lying. He says O’Reilly turned away “guests” but it only shows ONE guest who’s been turned away. Inconsiquential? You bet. But tell me David Brock and his [people I have trouble respecting] wouldn’t call this author a liar if one of their targets made a tiny error like that.
October 6th, 2005 at 1:13 pmWell, there they go again, those darn American people, excercising their constitutional right to free speech, how terrible, it’ll have such a chilling effect on our self-appointed right to spread our corrupt propaganda. If this keeps up I won’t even be able to pay for a falafel.
October 30th, 2005 at 4:44 am[…] But as “dangerous†as these “weapons in the culture wars†may seem to some, online outlets such as Media Matters and Think Progress have called O’Reilly out on lies, poor interviewing tactics, poor taste, and misinformation nearly countless times. With the exception of Al Franken, who shook his finger at the Fox News Channel host for claiming to have earned a Pulitzer when he earned a Peabody, who in a conventional setting has held this raging ideologue to any standards? Indeed, who holds Fox New Channel to any standards? We all know that this horrendously slanted news network carries bias under its weak claim of “We Report, You Decideâ€, but only by inspecting it critically ourselves. Occasionally the Channel receives an obvious attack from the likes of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, but in the mainstream news, silence. […]
June 28th, 2006 at 10:39 pm[…] Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly Bill O’Reilly […]
August 24th, 2006 at 1:34 pm