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Bill O’Reilly Bravely Defends Fox News Against Blanket Liberal Critiques

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Bill O’Reilly used his interview with Jon Stewart and the Comedy Central host’s criticism of Fox News to defend his network against the general blanket criticisms of the network.

It’s a familiar defense – an unsurprising look around the opinion vs. news spectrum on the channel. And it mostly makes sense.

O’Reilly called Stewart the “mainstream liberal point of view in America,” (this was a compliment) and made sure to note “we have no beef with moderate liberal Americans.” The royal “we” here meaning “the folks,” most likely.

He noted the main two opinion hosts (besides himself) that make FNC get labeled “Republican” are Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. For Hannity: “Shouldn’t there be one, one, program, one program on cable news hosted by a political conservative? Does CNN have anybody like that? Does MSNBC? Does Headline News?” Completely valid point – and same for what he said about Beck, who is no friend to the GOP in the same way he’s no friend to the Obama administration.

Then there was O’Reilly’s take on “news”:

As far as the rest of Fox News is concerned, we have plenty of Republicans and plenty of Democrats on the staff, but nobody here really cares about that. If you’re good at your job, you get to keep your job. If you watch the reporting by our hard news people, much of it brought to you by Bret Baier and Shepard Smith, two very fair guys, you know it’s all facts, all the time.

This is true as well, but ignores when FNC’s news programming gets criticized directly (sometimes even by those on the network, on-air). Like all cable news networks, there are hours of “news” programming to fill, and there has to be a choice made of what is the newiest part. And for Fox News, every now and then the choice is strikingly obvious and not always entirely “fair and balanced.” That’s not taking anything away from Shep or Bret Baier either.

O’Reilly also noted the morning show, Fox & Friends which he called a “hybrid news/entertainment program,” presumably allowing them to, uh, entertainingly cover Pres. Obama’s bowing problem, unlike any other FNC or cable news show.

The Stewart/O’Reilly interview (full, unedited version on next page) proves that Fox News is not afraid to have very different voices on the air, and not afraid to allow guests to serve as makeshift-ombudsman on occasion. It’s a differentiating factor for both The O’Reilly Factor and FNC as a whole – and contributes to their consistent and clear first place spot in the cable news landscape.

Here’s last night’s Talking Points:

And, why not, on the next page here’s the full O’Reilly/Stewart interview…

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  • TfT

    Hannity and guests openly mocked teh One last night with his “corpse man” statements. The rest of the media is pretty silent on it; can you imagine if Palin/Bush/any conservative said it (three times I might add). The video would be looped, relooped, played, replayed time and time again. But alas, the MSM is covering it up and by doing so only make themselves look the fools they have become.

    I logged on here this afternoon fully expecting to see a story headline:

    CORPSE MAN????? Does Obama know his military?

    But alas….I was disappointed.

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    Something else the critics of FOX want to ignore: The last time I saw Hannity was the night of the Scott Brown election and he had a panel that consisted of Juan Williams and former SF Mayor Willie Brown. These are two non-conserevative voices (Williams centrist, Brown more to the left) and there was plenty of discourse where they debated Sean in opposition. It was civil and very informative and entertaining. (I’ll also note they are both black, for all the charges FOX absorbs for racist coverage.) He has also sat with Michael Moore in the past. Sean is not afraid of opposing viewpoints. Let me know when such occurs over at MSNBC in primetime.

  • TeaPartyAmerican

    Nice Job Bill O

  • roxsteady

    First, your point about having a Conservative on leaves out Jethro Scarborough. In fact, shouldn’t it be the other way around? Where’s the liberal host? With Colms gone, they’ve lost that rational. Second, just because you’re an “opinion” show doesn’t mean you have the right to distort facts. For instance, this nonsense.

    George Bush who you worked for did not play golf while this country was at war. He didn’t want the families of loved ones serving, well, that they may have lost the loved ones seeing him on a golf course.

    WALLACE: Yes, I mean…

    HANNITY: He seemed to be far more in touch”

    That’s just one of countless examples of the junk that fox news peddles. You can’t say that you think Red is Blue, in your opinion. It has to be based in reality or you lose your credibility.
    As for their first place, that’s in ratings. But, their credibility left long ago if they ever had any. The real proof of their infectious affect on their viewers in found in that Research 2000 poll comissioned by the Dailykos. If there’s any real news on fox it’s not what’s getting through to their viewers. As Markos pointed out, they’re upset because the crap that Beck and Hannity are filling their heads with is sticking. And the Republicans are now seen as crazy. No wonder!

  • roxsteady

    I’ll let you know when Liz Cheney comes out from under her bed and finds the guts to go on Rachel Maddow. As for your 2 black people on that network, that was pathetic. Hannity is a liar and an idiot! Fox might be first place in terms of ratings but, they’re last place in credibility. Don’t even get me started on Hannity showing footage from the Promise Keepers Rally as a teabagger rally. What happend to their zero tolerance policy? By the way, I don’t watch so tell me, did he make a correction yet?

  • JimW

    Bravo Bill O!

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @roxsteady: I’ve never watched more than a few seconds of Hannity in anything other than online clips, but one of those clips was him acknowledging that they had used other video as b-roll under his Bachmann rally report.

  • m

    Bill O’Reilly’s defense of Fox News would be considerably better if they had a single show with an opinionated liberal. They don’t. Fox & Friends don’t have a liberal on the couch. Cavuto isn’t a liberal. The All-Star Team is conservative. Beck isn’t a liberal. O’Reilly isn’t a liberal. Hannity isn’t a liberal. Van Susteren isn’t a liberal. Huckabee isn’t a liberal. Alan Colmes said that, when he left Hannity & Colmes there was a “weekend show in the works”. Well – that was just complete bull-sheeet; Fox wouldn’t give any liberal an hour a day, even one hour on the weekends, because it’s an ideologically homogenous channel.

    >Completely valid point – and same for what he said about Beck, who is no friend to the GOP in the same way he’s no friend to the Obama administration.

    So? We have a two party system. 99.99% of the people who like Beck are likely to vote Republican. The Republican party is a conservative party. Glenn Beck is conservative. The Tea Party movement is a conservative movement.

    Let’s keep things honest here and not be intellectually dishonest.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

    @m you point to all the people on Fox who aren’t liberal, but you didn’t respond to O’Reilly’s main point. So what if people on Fox are Conservatives? That’s one channel. Liberals dominate every other channel. Shouldn’t CNN and MSNBC and headline news have at least one Hannity or Beck?

  • sarainitaly

    exactly Chris!!

    m – Greta was a Hillary supporter, and her hubby is a democrat. I think she is Democrat.

    Redeye’s Gregalog covered this too, and made some good points:
    http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4003925/gregs-greg-alogue-25/?playlist_id=86926

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @sarainitaly: I used to religiously watch Greta’s show on CNN, but then she moved to Fox and I felt she started becoming too much like Nancy Grace, so I haven’t watched her in a long time.

    And, I’m pretty sure that I’ve commented to another post at some time in the history of this site: I’m not sure how to categorize Geraldo, but when you say FNC conservatives, he doesn’t come to mind.

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    Geraldo and Greta were both staunch defenders of Bill Clinton while they were on CNN. I remember Greta doing an hourlong piece digging into Ken Starr when he was independant counsel in the day. Geraldo has been a loud proponent of Latin-American issues like amnesty, running very contrary to conservative views on that subject on his show. I would not label either of them conservative.

  • WaterLoo

    “And for Fox News, every now and then the choice is strikingly obvious and not always entirely “fair and balanced.” That’s not taking anything away from Shep or Bret Baier either.”

    I agree, but please someone give me an example of the “always entirely fair and balanced” hard news person/ organization.

  • The Real Royal King

    Greta was a Hillary supporter —

    — And a huge Obama critique. Greta is mesmerized by the notion of women in politics. My word, like how she stalks Sarah, or stalked her until Sarah showed her greater loyalty to others.

    Chris, by no reasonable stretch of logic can CNN be considered liberal. Largely, CNN is more involved with news and objectivity than party or ideology. If anything, CNN is slightly right of center. By comparison to FOX, which is extreme rightism, CNN may appear more moderate. However, if you look out the FOX window, your vision is very cloudy, indeed.

  • WaterLoo

    “Chris, by no reasonable stretch of logic can CNN be considered liberal”

    Who are you trying to fool? Yourself? Give me one person in the CNN lineup from 5 to 11PM who you consider “slightly right of center”?

  • writer

    CNN is right of center. Bwwaahhhaaahaaahaaahaa. On the other hand, Royal considers MSNBC to be moderate, so what can you do? Einstein said infinity is a circle, so I guess if Royal gets any farther left, he’ll finally get back to the middle.

  • TfT

    Greta’s show on FNC is terrific, much better than when she was on CNN and much better than when she started at FNC. She has expanded from her crime-only show and is a terrific interviewer who asks fair questions and treats everyone with respect. I really like her show on FNC. Her husband was a big PUMA guy. I love how Greta always criticizes NOW for their support to liberal women only and the tepid support for conservative women (and I’m being overly generous). I think Greta herself has remarked about how different it is towork at FNC than it was at CNN. She says on FNC she has freedom she never had at CNN.

    Remember, CNN HLN used to have Beck; they didn’t like him. Had CNN moved Beck to the 8pm slot rather than let him go, CNN would actually be competing with FNC.

    CNN has an ad running that is a combo of FNC fair and balance (CNN=down the middle) and MSNBC (the place for politics (CNN is politics) just shows CNN is lost; no direction; no authentication….they are flailing around. Those who claim CNN does “real journalism” and “straight journalism with no opinion” don’t watch CNN. If is left of center from morning to night, despite their claims of balance.

  • puck30

    Right On Sara & Chris!

    People love to forget Greta because she doesn’t march in lock step. Greta is a democrat and also a Scientologist, yet she chooses not to flag wave it on tv. They want somebody like Mike Malloy on FNC and then they still would not be happy.

    Greta has interviewed Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Condoleezza Rice. She has interviewed Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; former Vice-President Dick Cheney; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and I could go on.

    I took on a FNC nut on another site because I couldn’t understand how he could call Greta’s show, which has won it’s time slot for the past 8 years. A ‘Weak Link’. And the anti-FNC people don’t like her because she’s not a screaming banshee like Randi Rhoades.

    Now with Hannity & Maddow I don’t watch them, But from what I have. One shills for the DNC & one shills for the RNC. And you know what? I don’t have a problem with either, and “I” make the choice not to watch them.

    Alan Colmes? Has a regular weekly segment on ‘The Factor’ with his sister in law. And also still has that 3 hour radio show on ‘FOX NEWS RADIO’ , that just happens to be carried on many progressive radio stations.

    Let’s also get rid of this notion MSNBC is fair and balanced. Matthews, Schultz, Olbermann & Maddow have their own shows. Morning Joe has mutiple players. Plus how many of these shows on MSNBC got great fanfair when they began? And we were all told of how they would rise and take over as ratings champions, and crush FNC?

    Now, anybody who’s been calling Beck a Conservative far-right guy, doesn’t watch the show and just takes their points from Huff-Poo & Media Matters. That ‘Slaughtered’ cr** that they tried to hang on him this week proves it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI6y_TJd4OQ

    Back in the day, places like Huff-Po, Daily Kos, Media Matters could play ‘Chop Shop’ Videos. The MSM could pick up on that, run with it. And dump on anyone that did not go along with the program for which they could get away with, unchallenged.

    Now. we can play the whole tape, the whole segment. (thank you youtube)

    O’Reilly we have already covered this week, just look at his guest list this week. Compare it with Olbermann’s, nuff said.

    You know for all the moaning, finger pointing, Chopped up Videos, screaming, yelling, spewing exact talking points from all things anti-FNC websites. There’s one thing they have not been able to do in all the years FNC has been Number 1 for cable news.

    Put on a show that can beat them.

    And it can be done, just look at this site. There are quite a few authors that I see take the heat because, they try to be balanced and not march in lock step. Don’t be surprised if you see them on Red-Eye one of these days, and other FNC shows. (OMG! I probably cursed them now)

    So step up anti-FNC people. Put on that show that will rise in the ratings and beat FNC. And quit b*%#&ing and moaning. Show us what you can do!

  • tjl

    John Coale, Greta Van Sustren’s husband is an advisor to Sarah Palin. So blind… so damn blind…

    “So step up anti-FNC people. Put on that show that will rise in the ratings and beat FNC. And quit b*%#&ing and moaning. Show us what you can do!”

    god I am so happy to be me right now!

  • roxsteady

    Tonight on Countdown, Keith played clips from Bill O’s Jon Stewart interview that were edited out of the original broadcast. Since I don’t watch fox, and only saw the clips provided here yesterday and those same clips on other sites, it’s pretty funny. And also clear why Bill O edited the tape. As Keith pointed out, O’Reilly’s show is not live, it’s taped so he interviewed Jon and then cut some great clips where Stewart nailed him several times. Priceless.

  • Facebook User

    This one is for Phuck 30 and Sara, does MSNBC or CNN say that they are Fair and Balanced….no, how is the hell can either one of you agrue that. Remember MSNBC has Joe Scarborough, CNN is very well balanced, CNBC has Larry Kudlow. I will give you a rundown of Fox News Conservative bias,
    The Three Morning Stooges, Megyn Kelly, Jon Scott, Beck, Hannity, Huckabee, Billo ( yes I said Billo), Spamface Greta. If not for Shep and Baier it would be 24 hr GOP propoganda, want more Conservative crap, Peter Johnson, Jamie Kolby, Botox Banderas, Greg Jarrett, Greg Gutless, Gosh guys what planet are you on.
    You all have been trolling at Dollar Dungpile for too long. Fox News has no Liberal host…..none. Fair and Balanced ……Right

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    For the record, the clips of the edited segments came from FOX, who provided the entire interview online. It was edited for time.

  • m

    >As Keith pointed out, O’Reilly’s show is not live, it’s taped so he interviewed Jon and then cut some great clips where Stewart nailed him several times. Priceless.

    This is why you NEVER go on Bill O’Reilly. He’s done it before. It’s extremely unfair and incredibly unjournalistic.

    I’ve seen it been done by Hannity too. He had an interview with Dawkins that was edited down to basically 1 minute; presumably everything he said that was of relevance got cut out.

  • TinaFromTampa

    Wow!
    Once again, I agree with tft!
    Corpse-man!
    How silly!
    And the way he said it. It was practically gutteral (sic).
    Also, Greta is THE BEST thing since, well, BOTOX.

  • sarainitaly

    does MSNBC or CNN say that they are Fair and Balanced

    No, they don’t, because they aren’t. At least they’re honest about that.

  • TfT

    Sarainitaly: Actually I was watching CNN the other day and caught one of their new ads about themselves. Kind of funny – they say they are “down the middle” (a take on fair and balanced) and that CNN is politics (a take on MSNBC’s the place for politics). This is only one reason CNN is tanking in the ratings — they have no identity. They claim to do “straight journalism” and then I see a field of liberals sitting on a panel opining about how great the One is. This is the network that fact checked an SNL skit — they are lost.

  • TfT

    NotsoAnonymous: Please give it a rest….your stalking is over the line. Get a life.

  • sarainitaly

    TfT says:
    February 6, 2010 at 7:05 am

    you said it! :O)

    (and what is up with that stalker? it is SO annoying. every thread she is obsessed with you.)

  • writer

    So Rox doesn’t watch Fox news, yet he’s up on everything they’re doing. And could Rox please name all of the conservative hosts on MSNBC? As for guests, how many dissenting opinions does Olbermann have on? The Daily Kos and Huffington Post aren’t going to give him much debate, are they?

  • shootfromthehip

    Bill O said:

    “Shouldn’t there be one, one, program, one program on cable news hosted by a political conservative? Does CNN have anybody like that? Does MSNBC?”

    Yes CNN did for YEARS. Lou Dobbs.

    And yes MSNBC does NOW. Every god damn morning. “Morning Joe” hosted by a former GOP Congressman and a real conservative.

    Where is the show on Fox hosted by a true Democrat?

    That’s right, there is none.

    I wish the media would call out Bill’s lies more often. He lies with such ease it is scary. I like his show but damnit he does not check facts or vet his “talking points.”

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