Olbermann Angered Over O'Reilly's Antics

Keith Olbermann, host of his own show on MSNBC, interviewed the victim of O'Reilly's latest attack on bloggers. As I mentioned in a recent post, Amanda Terkel of Think Progress was the recipient of a O'Reilly ambush interview while on vacation. (Image: Huffington Post) It turns out that Terkel was likely stalked for over two hours, across state lines, by O'Reilly Factor producer Jesse Watters. Watters' interview with Terkel was heavily edited to imply indifference towards rape victims.

Here is a video of the Olbermann response to O'Reilly, via MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I think they really covered all the bases with this interview. O'Reilly has no real response, only the same tired efforts to discredit instead of disprove. FOX has so little credibility with people outside of it's base, but it's base is so big. I think FOX has more responsibility that it often is required to live up to. Unfortunately it's too late to do anything about it in U.S. media regulation. However, this type of behaviour by O'Reilly is slanderous and should be prosecuted.
Read more...

Bill O'Reilly's Blogger Witch-hunt

Making fun of Bill O'Reilly on a blog might be a bad idea, unless you enjoy being stalked by his producers. I think it's safe to say the O'Reilly Factor won't be hunting me down, but they recently attacked a blogger over at Think Progress. (Image: Huffington Post) Earlier today, The Huffington Post reported on a confrontation between between a O'Reilly Factor reporter and a blogger. Bill O'Reilly's henchmen followed a Think Progress blogger around on her vacation following comments she posted on the blog.

Basically what happened was the blogger pointed out the irony of Bill O'Reilly speaking for a group that helps rape victims because he has placed blame on raped women on his show before. The following comments, via The Huffington Post, were said by O'Reilly on the subject:

"Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk."

Here's a video of O'Reilly's response to the blooger, Amanda Terkel, during a recent show:



So let's summarize that clip; he says:

• The blogger is evil
• Attacking him was aimed at hurting the rape foundation
• NBC is a lie-filled news broadcast
• NBC controls the Blogosphere
• He doesn't defend his statements, only that they were 3 years ago

This is so filled with hypocrisy it's beyond belief. This is FOX! What more? O'Reilly dispatched a producer to stalk a female blogger who questioned him on rape. The producer asks leading, weird questions.

If this distortion wasn't enough, he insists NBC is the heart of all evil. I don't know what to think about this conspiracy theory, but it's really over the top. O'Reilly should have owned up for his comments, played something to prove his comments were out of context, or offered some defense. But he didn't. Maybe that's because there is no defense for such comments as the one I posted earlier.

So why do you guys think O'Reilly targeted a small blogger and not the hosts at MSNBC or other major outlets reporting this? Maybe because he can't bully them on vacations and get away with it.
Read more...

Weekly MIT 2412 Blogging Award Winner

Nick recently came up with the idea to start a blogging award within the class that spawned this blog. The award works like the Lemonade Stand Award, but, of course, on a smaller scale. In a post that started it all over at Chef Nick's Flavour Fiasco, Nick nominated my blog alongside Laur Lore and Magda and the Great White North. I really like both blogs, so I really appreciated the nomination and accept the win with consideration to both of those blogs who deserve to win as much.

So, what happens now? On Friday I'll post my three nominations and select a winner on Sunday. Thanks again to Nick and hopefully we can keep this ball rolling.
Read more...

Venturing to the Right

It should be apparent by now that my political ideology leans left more often than it leans right, so I thought I might share with you a recent experience of reading the other side. As you may know, some of the rhetoric is beyond belief. (Image: Brietbart) I like to read a wide variety of opinions -- obviously taking some more seriously than others in the process. In a recent read through the Drudge Report, which provides some of the funniest moments of my days, I came across an article on Obama's move to talk to Iran and Syria. Feeling more adventurous than usual, I decided to take a look at the comments.

The first thing that shocked me was the number of posts with the insane belief that Obama is a Muslim. This type of fear mongering isn't surprising and shows some true ignorance on the part of those that defend this intolerant and hateful point of view or believe it to be true. If any other religion was insulted continuously in such a way, there would be site bans and complaints filed until the site overloaded. Not only has this rumor been proven untrue, it shows how intolerance relies on total ignorance.

It was a bit surprising to see a few divergent voices calling foul on these statements. Sure they were outnumbered by a lot, but those who stuck to it were putting up a fight. Regardless of this tiny minority speaking from the left, many posters simply posted their favourite lines from the right-wing rhetoric playbook.

However, this example shows the weakness of blogs to create an echo-chamber of narrow ideology that drowns out conflicting voices. The same thing obviously happens at left-wing blogs, which I am sure a right-wing reader would point out with the same annoyance I write with now. The problem with the internet is that it makes it very easy for us to pick sites that match our opinion.

If I didn't read Drudge frequently, I would have no clue about the latest liberal-flub I will be hearing about on the news networks and from hard-core right-wing political junkies I talk to. I suppose that there is value in reading the other side of the blogosphere if your nerves can take it. It never hurts to take a look -- well, at least not usually.
Read more...