Right-Wing Orlando Anchor Given The ‘Factor Stamp Of Approval’ By O’Reilly

Last Friday, WFTV’s Barbara West spent the entirety of her five minute interview with Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) spouting right-wing smears. In response to significant criticism of her conduct, West appeared on the O’Reilly Factor last night where Bill O’Reilly gave West the “Factor Stamp of Approval,” saying “good for you.” “You did your job, I didn’t have any problem with it,” O’Reilly said.

West noted that she had interviewed McCain for the second time yesterday and claimed that she was “just as probing” with him as she was with Biden. When O’Reilly asked her what the “toughest question” was that she posed to McCain, West responded:

I think the toughest question I asked him was asking him about his own campaign and his management of his own campaign.

Watch it:

West’s “toughest question” wasn’t tough at all (watch her recent interview with McCain here). West simply asked McCain to compare the management of his campaign to that of Obama’s:

How can you convince the American public that you’re ready to lead when the thing you’re in charge of, your campaign, appears to be lacking the same fine tuned coordination as Sen. Obama’s?

McCain responded by saying, “I don’t know what, frankly, you’re talking about.” West’s other “probing” questions for McCain focused on pet causes of the far right:

– “Barney Frank has proposed a 25 percent reduction in defense spending. What do you think about that?”

– “Let’s get back to that radio interview that Sen. Obama did several years ago in Chicago when he debated not whether or not it was right to spread the wealth, but what was the best way to achieve that — legislatively or through the judicial system. What does this tell you about how long he’s been thinking about this?”

In keeping with her “probing” style, West did not ask McCain a single follow-up question, challenge any of his responses, or liken his policies to any incendiary political philosophies.