Dennis Miller Honors FNC B-Day By Dissing MSNBC, CNN and Glenn Beck?

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by Colby Hall | 8:46 am, October 8th, 2009

» 9 comments

Bill O’Reilly had regular guest Dennis Miller on last night to discuss/celebrate the 13th anniversary of Fox News. And in what seemed a strange road analogy, Miller took predictable swipes at the cable news competition. But even stranger was that Miller also called out the extreme views of FNC hosts Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. A vexed O’Reilly quickly defended his co-horts.

Comparing cable news to a long stretch of highway Miller said that “on the left lane, MSNBC has gone completely over the shoulder, over the breastplate, over the hip, over the knee…they are so far out there now that quite frankly Magellan and OnStar can’t locate them.”

On CNN, Miller opined “They’ve been around the longest…they are sort of like that old faded yellow line down the middle of the road. Periodically a rumble strip breaks out for the elections or the debates or something like that, but by and large, but people know it, they’re familiar with it…but if they flip right through it and see Wolf Blitzer, they might think they’re watching a Hunt for Red October because he looks like the U-Boat commander.” (Explaining a joke is never a proud moment for a comedian.)

On the Fox News Channel, Miller said “Now on the right side — granted, now I believe that Fox is in the right lane, but you still got rubber on the road! Hannity’s gone off road, and Beck, he’s way down the road, but for the most part you, Cavuto, Greta, Bret… you still got rubber on the road! And I think credibility is like a baseball diamond in a cornfield – if you build it they will come.”

For his part, O’Reilly appeared to be none too pleased by the candid assessment of FNC’s right-lane position, and immediately fired back. “Now I disagree with you in two ways there” he said. “Hannity represents the Republican party – he’s a Reagan Republican, so the Republicans are going to watch Sean. And there’s nothing wrong with having someone on the air that represents the Republican party. But he’s not off the rails anywhere, he’s a Republican.”

“Beck is successful, fabulously successful, because he’s just a guy! He’s not a journalist, he’s a guy. The first time we’ve ever had a guy, all right? He doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a guy, who loves his country he says ‘everyday, I’m going to tell you what I think. It may not be what you think, but its just from me.’ People want to watch people that they identify with, and they identify with beck”

The back and forth starts around the 1:35 mark.

13th Anniversary, Bill O'Reilly, CNN, Dennis Miller, fnc, fox news, Glenn Beck, msnbc, Sean Hannity

m

I love O’Reilly’s analysis of Fox News.

Sean Hannity: Reagan Republican. Nuff said.
Glenn Beck: “Just a guy?” Would he O’Reilly use the same description of Beck if he was a liberal doing the exact same things on his show? I don’t think so. It’s pretty easy to tell which part of the political spectrum Glenn Beck leans towards. You’d have to have a vacuum inside your head if you don’t think he’s conservative. O’Reilly describes himself a straight-shooter calling things for what they are; this is a prime example his hypocrisy, because it shows that he’s just plainly intellectually dishonest.
Bill O’Reilly: self-declared “traditionalist”. Registered Republican.

People O’Reilly missed:
1) Fox & Friends crew: all of them (weekday and weekend) are clearly conservative.
2) Neil Cavuto: conservative.
3) Special Report All-Star Panel: conservatives
3) Greg Gutfeld: conservative.
4) Greta van Susteren: conservative. Have you ever read GretaWire? I thought I was on MichelleMalkin.com.

On top of that you disregard the fact that most guests, even on the non-opinionated shows, are conservative. 99% of Susteren’s guests are conservative. Remember when Bill Hemmer did a simultaneous show with conservative John Gibson?

Their self-declared reporters are conservative. Fox News White House Correspondent Major Garret, author of books declaring how Republicans are great. Brit Hume, the Weekly Standard buddies with Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer (why do you think they were on the same show?). Chris Wallace, hunting buddies with Karl Rove and Fred Barnes and declared he agrees most with of Sean Hannity’s politics. Griff Jenkins, 9/12 propagandist, video stalker and who will forget him telling Governor Sanford to let him interview him first to “set the record straight”?

And as the cherry on top, you’ve got conservative FoxNation.com. Promoted on their shows, their websites and on their spinning logo.

O’Reilly thinks that when people call Fox News a right-wing news network, it somehow is only ‘just a couple of shows’. But he’s selective and plain dishonest. Fox News, at face value, is basically an institutionalized conservative and Republican network, top to bottom and works for one political party and specific political causes.
ImNotBlue

You know, M… someone once told me something that when along the lines of, “Just because a network doesn’t promote liberal causes all day, doesn’t mean it’s biased right.”

Oh… PS:
3) Special Report All-Star Panel: conservatives
This is a lie. Juan Williams, Mara Liasson, and Mort Kondracke, all Democrats/Left-Wing

Greta van Susteren: conservative. Have you ever read GretaWire? I thought I was on MichelleMalkin.com.
Wrong. Greta is a lawyer, and has mostly rumored to be a Democrat. If you think she or her website is like Malkin… well, then you’ve clearly never looked at or read it. Is there something specific you want to show the class?

Their self-declared reporters are conservative.
They’ve declared themselves reporters?

Fox News White House Correspondent Major Garret, author of books declaring how Republicans are great.
According to Amazon.com, Garret wrote ONE book, and it was about how the “Contract with America” changed the political landscape for BOTH PARTIES.

Chris Wallace, hunting buddies with Karl Rove and Fred Barnes…
Maybe he’s just like Ailes, whom you said yesterday “just knows a lot of people.”

But all this is moot, of course… because you’ve left out the people who don’t support your argument. Nor, would you make the same argument against another network, even with substantial proof and evidence of bias. You are, and continue to be, an uninformed propagandist for things you simply don’t know about.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Miguel-H-Gonzalez/503137967 Miguel H Gonzalez

Well, I just read both comments above and got absolutely nothing of value from it. Yuck. All of it is hard-boiled crap. Cable news is sick.

But there was a time not long ago that daytime TV talk shows ran off the rails. Remember when? That was the 1990s, a decade ago. That’s right — a DECADE ago.

And what happened to daytime TV talk? It simmered down. (Except Jerry Springer … who’s still trolling the underbrush of America for oddball guests who enjoy screaming, yelling and banging each other on the head with conveniently handy folding chairs. Note to Springer: bolt the chairs to the floor?)

Anyhow, cable news will simmer down as well. This too shall pass.

Meanwhile, enjoy the show!
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

Ummm. Not to be totally contrarian, but it is FNC’s right to put anyone they want on their air, expressing any views they might have. Same for MSNBC and so on. The First Amendment makes no demand for balance or fairness in reporting. It simply provides for a free press, free speech and free expression. In fact, the founding fathers made it clear that the point of the First Amendment was to protect unpopular speech since popular speech needs no defense.

Is FNC conservative? Sure. Mostly they don’t deny it. Is MSNBC liberal? Sure. Sadly, they work to deny it, which is sad, since it tells me they are not totally comfortable with their reporting. CNN is simply off the rails in any direction and mostly reads blogs and nonsense on air – also well within their rights.

This endless liberal/conservative, left/right bash-a-thon is more of a problem than the obviously slanted reporting of literally EVERY news outlet – TV, print and radio.

If you don’t agree with Olbermann or O’Reilly, don’t watch them. That is your right. But the bashing from side to side benefits nobody.
m

>Is FNC conservative? Sure. Mostly they don’t deny it.

Their slogans are “Fair and Balanced” and “We Report, You Decide”.

>Is MSNBC liberal? Sure. Sadly, they work to deny it.

Give proof.
Nachi

Miller ceased to be interesting or amusing long, long ago. Having shown his true, angry colors at FOX, he poseeses no credibility whatever. Just another little guy out there. A quick-witted waste of space/time.
Was it BushDrunk who said, “Fool me once….fool me all the time”??
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

>Their slogans are “Fair and Balanced” and “We Report, You Decide”.
Slogans are a dime a dozen. Their reporters and pundits freely admit their position. Trace Gallagher openly scoffing at “Those liberal members of Congress,” as an example. Defending Joe Wilson while condemning Alan Grayson.

>>Is MSNBC liberal? Sure. Sadly, they work to deny it.
Starting with Olbermann’s endless declarations of objectivity while punishing those that disagree or the “news” reporters that openly advocate? Contessa Brewer comes to mind most quickly, constantly scorning anyone that does not toe the Dem line. Defending Alan Grayson while condemning Joe Wilson.

See how that works?

The thing is, they are allowed to be biased and allowed to deny it. It is a little thing called a free press.
ImNotBlue

m says:
October 8, 2009 at 12:43 pm

Here you go, M.

Quote one, Keith Olbermann:

“I’ve been accused of being a liberal, which is interesting because the last time I was on doing the news in the late 90s, I did 218 consecutive shows about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. And no one accused me of being a liberal then. It’s very interesting the way you can be sort of pigeonholed. I like to think of myself politically as ‘correct.’

“But seriously, I tried to not be [biased], to the degree you can be neutral nowadays, I don’t, for instance, I don’t vote.”

Ferguson: “You don’t vote at all.”

Olbermann: “I don’t vote because I don’t think I should have a rooting interest in the outcome of an election.”

http://newsbusters.org/node/6637

AND

I also, I don’t think in these issues that I’m a liberal; I think that I’m an American. I think I’m acting almost as a historian on these particular things…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/11/olbermann/index2.html

Rationalize that.

Nachi says:
October 8, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Was it BushDrunk who said, “Fool me once….fool me all the time”??

Um… no. You (quite amazingly) managed to botch his already botched phrase. Nice job, winner.
ImNotBlue

m says:
October 8, 2009 at 12:43 pm

Here you go, M.

Quote one, Keith Olbermann:

“I’ve been accused of being a liberal, which is interesting because the last time I was on doing the news in the late 90s, I did 218 consecutive shows about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. And no one accused me of being a liberal then. It’s very interesting the way you can be sort of pigeonholed. I like to think of myself politically as ‘correct.’

“But seriously, I tried to not be [biased], to the degree you can be neutral nowadays, I don’t, for instance, I don’t vote.”

Ferguson: “You don’t vote at all.”

Olbermann: “I don’t vote because I don’t think I should have a rooting interest in the outcome of an election.”

NewsBusters.org

AND (since I’m sure you’ll hate “NewsBusters”…

I also, I don’t think in these issues that I’m a liberal; I think that I’m an American. I think I’m acting almost as a historian on these particular things…
Salon.com

Rationalize that.

Oh oh… and more link for you, regarding our earlier conversation. Time Magazine

Nachi says:
October 8, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Was it BushDrunk who said, “Fool me once….fool me all the time”??

Um… no. You (quite amazingly) managed to botch his already botched phrase. Nice job, winner.