Saw the the FTN "debate" between O'Reilly and Krugman - Rerun

[Spiffarino]

I hated to stay up so late to watch it, but once I did I couldn't take my eyes off it. What a train wreck.

I'll pose my questions for the group now, so you don't have to keep reading if you don't care to:

1. Do you think any rational, thinking person would come away from that show thinking O'Reilly was anything other than an obnoxious jerk?

2. How do you explain his popularity?


I've watched the "Factor" a few times but quickly tired of his bullying, lying, and general stupidity. Yet I've never seen O'Reilly go so far off the deep end as he did with Krugman. I can't believe a normal person could have watched it and not come away with these observations:

- O'Reilly is nothing more than a cheap schoolyard bully
- O'Reilly's role models are Morton Downey, Jr., Wally George, Joseph Goebbels, and junkyard dogs
- Krugman is a brilliant man who is not at all suited to the task of taking on the world's most obscene liar

Bill O'Reilly may never have made a cogent point, but he did succeed in intimidating Paul Krugman. Krugman was visibly shaken and his entire aspect was defensive. In Paul's defense, he probably expected that on FTN O'Reilly would have been at least somewhat reasonable. What he got instead was the usual disrespectful, unhinged, threatening asshole who's been giving smart people nausea for years.

Oy.

[DivinBreuvage]

1. Excellent, thoughtful post. Easy to explain his popularity though...

he is watched by other bullies, or by people who wish they could be bullies.

[SharonAnn]

2. Also by people who have been bullied and abused most of

their lives. They may think that O'Reilly's "smart" and "tells it like it is".

It's a kind of enabling behavior they're accustomed to, listening to and accepting the bullying and abusive behavior. To them it's normal.

Also, they may want to "fight back" at the world that has been so abusive to them and they confuse Bill O'Reilly's bulling with "fighting back".

I know it's confused but psychological issues usually are.

BTW, I'm not a psychologist. I'm just more familiar than I care to be with this kind of behavior and the affect it has on children and the adults they become.

[Spiffarino]

5. I think you're both spot on

Bullies probably get charged up by watching O'Reilly go after weaker opponents (which begs the question: Has he ever had an antagonistic guest who was physically larger than he is?).

I believe that people who were raised by overbearing adults would find him "enabling" as well. I bet a lot of the Kool-Aid drinkers out there came from situations like the ones you describe, SharonAnn. They need a strong father figure to tell them what to think. Quiet reason like Krugman's is lost on such people. They like the guy who shouts, "Believe what I say because I am louder and therefore more authoritative!"

Anecdotally, my father was an overbearing, bullying alcoholic and both of my older brothers became staunch conservatives. I was five when he died and didn't feel much of his wrath because he was too far gone. They got hammered.

Now one of them thinks Limbaugh hung the moon and carries a picture of Shrub and Pickles in his wallet. Happily, my older brother - the arch-conservative Reagan loving ex-sailor (20 years) - has since left the Dark Side and is now sporting a snazzy Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker on his truck, but it was a long and difficult conversion.

[Spiffarino]

11. That's very kind of you

Especially considering you didn't make fun of me for the glaring mistake...FTN?? Most of us here know that Tim "Potatoface" Russert is host of Meet the Press (MTP). Face the Nation is on CBS.

Now you know why I try not to stay up that late. Jeebers!

[Miss Authoritiva]

3. Bill O'Reilly: 50 clustering personality disorders looking for a cure.

Answer to question 1: My in-laws.
Answer to question 2: I have a lot of in-laws.

O'Reilly is just a phony punk (reminds me in many ways of the pre-geriatric Frank Sinatra). You'll never see O'Reilly really go at it with someone like Bob Bechel (sp?). Bechel's definitely a let's take it outside kind of guy.

A critical distinction: junkyard dogs do serve a societal purpose; O'Reilly does not.

Agreed: It was a waste to have Krugman on with O'Reilly. The "debate" would have had more structure if Anna Nicole Smith had replaced splotchy Bill.

If they ever found a cure for whatever ails O'Reilly he'd be out about $4 million a year. He's a sick man, but he's a very wealthy sick man. And if you don't have your wealth, you have nothing.

[shindig]

7. Frank Sinatra could sing, however

Come fly with me, we'll fly, we'll fly awaaaay.

If you could use...some exotic booze...there's a bar in far Bombay...

[shindig]

8. and although Frank Sinatra did the bully routine, supposedly...

he was a lot smarter than Bill O'Reilly.

I don't think Bill O'Reilly could sing a tender song like Frank Sinatra either.

Bad analogy in my book, Frank Sinatra to Bill O'Reilly. Frank Sinatra gave me, still, even dead, gives me a lot of pleasure if I pop him in. Bill O'reilly gives me ahgeeda.

[Miss Authoritiva]

9. Don't get me wrong. Some of Sinatra's ballads do make teary-eyed.

But the guy did have some attitude in his younger years and always when his "entourage" was around, though later in life he did some wonderful charitable work too.

Hmmm. I'm open to suggestions for alternative phony punks to substitute here.

[Spiffarino]

12. Ah, yes.

My apologies to junkyard dogs for, unlike Spot O'Reilly, they have a meaningful role to play in the world.

[parasim]

4. I saw it too...

I was appalled by his bullying.

this article in Rolling Stone explains a little about why he is the way he is...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story?id=6417561&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single7&rnd=1092434607625&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.872

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Media Matters is really getting under his skin

He knew that's where Paul saw the vid of him.
He can't stand the fact that someone is monitoring him.

Also noted how politely Krugman sat and listened through O'Reilly's spiel....But Bill didn't want Paul to finish a sentence, shouting him down, as is his style.

[Tosca]

10. It's all emotional grandstanding

Oreilly depends on connecting with white men who feel victimized and put-upon on a purely emotional level - he's a step up from Limbo, but still plays the same game.

There's a great article on him in Rolling Stone on-line.