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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2007 18:40:21 GMT -4
This is more for the Americans here. Although I don't get FoxNews on my cable TV, I've scanned the net for information on Bill O'Reilly and find it hard to believe that he's on national TV in the States. Surely, his act must be a comedy act. Do Americans take what he says seriously, and are his his ideas an indication of what a lot of Americans way of thinking. If that is true, I can now understand how Bush got elected twice.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Aug 11, 2007 21:50:24 GMT -4
Hey, any American Republican Conservatives out there? Anyone who voted for Bush? I mock you! Let's fight!
Isn't that pretty much what you're after with a post like that?
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2007 22:31:00 GMT -4
Uh, no. But sorry if it came out that way. I'm not saying that there's anything inherently wrong for voting for Bush. Only that if a lot of people feel the same way as Bill O'Reilly does, then Bush had a greater chance of getting elected. I am really puzzled though that Bill is even on the air. He seems to berate his guests a lot, cuts them off and ridicules their opinions. What I was looking for was other peoples opinions of Bill O'Reilly, and considering that this is posted in General Discussion I thought it was okay. Calm down Jason. Maybe I should post more carefully in the future. Notes taken.
Edit: Also, when I said that Bill O'Reilly seems like a comedy act I was half kidding. But it comes pretty close.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Aug 11, 2007 22:59:34 GMT -4
Oh I'm not upset. I was laughing as I typed that earlier post. It seemed such an obvious attempt to provoke. Almost trolling.
If you're interested, I don't much care for Bill O'Reilly. He is in about the same boat as Sean Hannity - their hearts are in the right place (I feel they do what they do because they genuinely want to help the country) and they make some good points sometimes, but often they are quite rude to their guests, verging on outright bullying them. Ann Coulter is similar - she crosses the border from criticism to insult far too often.
There are better conservative writers out there than these three - they are just some of the noisiest.
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Post by scooter on Aug 12, 2007 0:19:13 GMT -4
Well, it's entertainment, first and foremost. If you can get a small pearl of wisdom wedged in there, so much the better...
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2007 0:45:41 GMT -4
Okay Jason. So lets just leave the Bush out of my post altogether and concentrate on Bill and now, you mentioned Ann Coulter. I'm a bit familiar with her from YouTube clips. She's the one who thought we (Canadians) fought in Vietnam, not realizing that any Canadians involved were volunteers in the US Armed Forces - the Canadian government did not send troops to Vietnam. This other guy Sean Hannity I don't anything about, but I'll look him up on the web. Sometimes I watch Glen Beck. He is entertaining. And apologies to any American friends if the tone of my post offended them, I mean that, and hopefully I won't turn to stone come daylight... For sure I really don't want to discuss anything concerning George W. Bush, or any politics for that matter - even Canadian politics! I always vote for the Green Party here. Even though I wouldn't want them in power, a few seats in Parliament wouldn't hurt - just to keep the government honest and prod them in the right direction.
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Post by JayUtah on Aug 12, 2007 12:26:07 GMT -4
I can take or leave O'Reilly's politics. But his hubris is legendary. The best come-uppance came when he was on The Daily Show (for non-Americans: a comedy newscast) and said his viewers were better educated or smarter or some such thing. An independent study conducted a few days later found that viewers of The Daily Show were, in fact, better educated than O'Reilly's viewers.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Aug 12, 2007 12:40:37 GMT -4
You want to discuss Bill O'Reilly but not politics? That's kind of like trying to discuss Jerry Seinfeld without discussing comedy.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2007 13:53:18 GMT -4
Like I said, I don't actually get FoxNews so I don't regularly see Bill O'Reilly. When I saw Bill berating the son of a man who died at WTC I wasn't seeing in in a political context. I guess almost everything can be connected to politics in some way, especially in the States. I think in Canada we look at things differently. I thought of Bill O'Reilly more as a commentator on broader issues than just politics. I was looking more for thoughts about his attitudes and behavior on the air, than whether or not he's Republican or Democrate or traditionalist or whatever. In Canada, a lot of our news commentators could be accused of being too liberal, I can't think of any really conservative ones. More like Jon Stewart than Bill O'Reilly. We have Rick Mercer, Rex Murphy and our beloved CBC (what is weird is that the CBC is often accused of being too liberal, but it is owned and run by the government! But governments come and go, and the CBC is always here.)
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Aug 12, 2007 14:30:22 GMT -4
A great line from a book I read recently:
Ann Coulter, whom I am reluctantly persuaded is a real person, and not a spoof invented by The Onion...
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Post by petereldergill on Aug 13, 2007 1:21:16 GMT -4
Ginnie, did you see those two on Fifth Estate or a similar show? If so, I saw the same show. Didn't he even compare the CBC to Nazi Germany or something? He did something similar recently (Nazi comparison), which I saw on the Daily Show
Pete
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 13, 2007 21:22:07 GMT -4
I seen a clip of Ann Coulter on the Fifth Estate. It was funny because the interviewer kept correcting Ann, and she seemed dumbfounded being told that she was wrong on the Vietnam issue.
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Post by gillianren on Aug 14, 2007 13:06:34 GMT -4
There was a study done in the '90s that showed that people who primarily got their news from "conservative talk radio," as the study put it, thought they were best-educated about the issues but turned out to be worst-educated. It wouldn't surprise me to see a similar study done with Bill O'Reilly's and Ann Coulter's viewers. The simple fact is, whether you agree or disagree with their politics, a lot of what they say is simply factually incorrect.
I do also resent being called a traitor for disagreeing with that madwoman.
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Post by JayUtah on Aug 14, 2007 13:59:48 GMT -4
Democracy thrives on difference of opinion, so people expressing different political and social viewpoints doesn't really bother me. I respect someone who disagrees with me and can articulate reasons why. And frankly I see defective reasoning on all sides of pretty much any political debate.
But I tolerate less a smug attitude of unwarranted self-assurance. Bill O'Reilly doesn't bother me because he's a conservative commentator, but instead because he has such a highly inflated opinion of himself and those who follow him. No person is so dangerous as the fool who thinks himself wise.
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Post by petereldergill on Aug 14, 2007 14:28:24 GMT -4
I do also resent being called a traitor for disagreeing with that madwoman.
Not sure where that came from...did I miss something?
Pete
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