One only has to watch Bill "Falafel" O'Reilly's tv shown on Fox News to gauge the present state of the Republican/Conservative movement. The louder his proclamations, the more outrageous his claims, the increasing frequency with which he twists his guests' views, and the more lies he spins... well, one can only surmise that his ranting and raving is inversely proportional to (steadily declining) poll ratings for George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) offers a pithy example below the fold.
I received this email from FAIR a few minutes ago.
O'Reilly's Political Smears
Fox host says Donahue and Michael Moore think Bush "orchestrated" 9/11
10/5/05
On his October 4 broadcast, Fox host Bill O'Reilly presented a segment about "political smear" websites that "will do and say pretty much anything to harm people with whom they disagree politically." Ironically, O'Reilly used that very segment to launch his own smear.
Guest David Kline said to O'Reilly: "I think there are a lot of nut cases out there. You have web sites and political bloggers that believe that President Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks."
O'Reilly responded by saying, "You mean he didn't? That's what I've been hearing from Phil Donahue and Jeremy Glick and Michael Moore, that he orchestrated it. You mean he didn't? That's not true?"
Former talkshow host Donahue and filmmaker Moore do not subscribe to the theory that Bush masterminded the September 11, 2001 attacks. And, despite O'Reilly repeated accusations (see Media Matters, 9/22/05), neither does Jeremy Glick, a one-time guest on O'Reilly's show (2/4/03) whose father was killed in the September 11 attacks. When Glick appeared on the show, he referred to the "political legacy" of the United States "training militarily, economically and situating geopolitically" the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan, some of whom (including Osama bin Laden) would later form Al-Qaeda. Following Glick's appearance, O'Reilly attempted to twist his remarks to suggest that Glick believed George W. Bush was involved in the September 11 attacks (9/18/03, 9/19/03. 7/20/04).
Oddly enough, O'Reilly had recently explained (9/22/05) the "rules" for his program as follows: "No slander and no personal accusations without facts to back them up. If the guest violates those rules, they are scolded by me and will not be invited back."
Do those rules apply to the host?
FAIR recommends the following
ACTION:
Contact Fox News Channel and demand that O'Reilly retract his smear.
CONTACT:
Bill O'Reilly
oreilly@foxnews.com
John Moody, Senior Vice President
Fox News Channel
john.moody@foxnews.com
To read a transcript of the O'Reilly Factor, go to:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171328,00.html
If you watched Falfel O'Reilly's interview with Phil Donahue recently, you'd conclude that O'Reilly is in serious need of psychological counseling.
Or, something!