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O’Reilly, Coulter Agree: Media’s Portrayal Of Faisal Shahzad Too Soft

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» 25 comments

With curiosity high on who Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad was privately, the media has been doing some personal investigating, which on The O’Reilly Factor last night Bill O’Reilly concluded was too sympathetic to Shahzad. Exploring a failed terrorist’s additional failures in his private life, he argued, without giving him responsibility for them is too humanizing. Ann Coulter also weighed in, but her logic was somewhat different: the media is “working through their grief of the car bomber not being a Tea Partier.”

O’Reilly went after CBS correspondent Bob Orr specifically, who emphasized Shahzad’s “Spartan” lifestyle and his financial troubles, visiting his home and showing an almost-empty closet and humble existence. O’Reilly pointed out that Orr did not mention that Shahzad spent significant money on 13 trips to Pakistan– money that could have gone to paying the mortgage he defaulted on. Coulter was not too interested in the CBS case specifically, but instead argued that, in general, liberals “always root for barbarians over civilization,” ending her argument with a claim that liberals only rooted against Hitler “when he invaded their precious Soviet Union.”

Video below:

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  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    Fox needs to stop giving Coulter a platform. I mean, Bill O’Reilly doesn’t even read her books.

  • badr

    You forgot to mention about how they compared Shahzad’s portrayal with McVeigh. The latter being White, of course, had to be linked to talk radio.

  • timzank

    Coulter is 100% correct. Whether you hate the messenger or not is irrelevant, the facts are the facts. The media is always looking for a way to humanize bad guys and find sympathy for them. It’s a liberal personality flaw, they always have to find the underlying reason for someones bad behavior thereby justifying said bad behavior. Happens with every single story.

    Newsflash: Some people are just fricking evil or crazy and deserve no excuse or justification for their misdeeds. You can’t “fix” everybody, some people simply need a bullet the temple.

  • writer

    If only the guy had been a ‘tea bagger’ or Joe the Plumber, then the media could have really let loose on him.

  • RichS

    Frances, you wrote, “…ending her argument with a claim that liberals only rooted against Hitler “when he invaded their precious Soviet Union.”

    Are you really unaware that the left in America was militantly anti-war after the Soviet Union and Germany started World War II by invading Poland. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union the American left began militantly demanding that the United States enter the war on the side of the allies. Surely you know about that part of the history of the world?

  • MichelleF

    Tim and Writer are both right. The media has become absolutely disgraceful.

    Here is a great blog on this:

    http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-appalling-media-double-standard-on-reporting-political-violence/

    Oh and you libs, instead of whining that he’s a conservative blogger, which I know, try debating what he actually says if you disagree.

  • MichelleF

    I agree Rich. Frances, at least point out how she is wrong if you disagree. I think the problem is, she can’t argue it, so we will just call Ann looney for saying it. Typical lefty response. Can’t agrue the substance, so make you think the messenger is kooky. That is what they always do with Glenn.

  • timzank

    You’ll never see anyone actually argue with Coulter toe to toe, she get’s the “drive-by’ treatment because she can rip liberal arguments to shreds and back it up. They hate her because they CAN’T argue with her.

    She may not be “civil’ to some, but I’m just fine with that, I don’t like being “civil” either to people hell bent on driving my way of life into the shitter.

  • homie

    “You’ll never see anyone actually argue with Coulter toe to toe, she get’s the “drive-by’ treatment because she can rip liberal arguments to shreds and back it up.”

    Really? Seems to me CBC ate her lunch after Coulter failed to “back it up”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKF4Z36hyQ

  • MichelleF

    Hey Homie,
    Do you dispute what she is saying here? And if so, can you provide proof that she is wrong.

  • http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

    Libs always find the truth kooky. When you point out a self-admitted Communist they continue to say that can’t be true. LOL. When you point out Social Security and Medicare will inevitably go broke, they pretend that can’t be true.
    Sad but true, liberals have a mental defect.

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @MichelleF: It seems to me from the above video that O’Reilly wanted to discuss what he perceives as a legitimate question, while Coulter simply shrugs, says that she’s right and throws out ad hominem bombs about Ted Bundy and Hitler.

    Once again, Bill O’Reilly appears to be the grounded one in this segment.

  • HanzoSword

    That’s why Bill O has Coulter on – that blonde guy always makes Bill O seem reasonable by comparison.

  • drex94

    Ann Coulter is a right wing nut job. she is like Sara Pay-lin; the only reason they are given a platform is because she/they will eventually say something stupid that will give whatever/whomever idiot host put her on —RATINGS

  • RichS

    homie says:
    May 8, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Really? Seems to me CBC ate her lunch after Coulter failed to “back it up”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKF4Z36hyQ

    Except that Canada had troops in Vietnam from about 1954 until about 1975. Read the Canadian Encylopedia. In addition to this 30,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in Vietnam, Canada produced arms (including developing Agent Orange) and provided aid to South Vietnam, but not the North. You can even read about this on the CBC site. I provide a reference but its so easy to find, even you can do it.

  • MichelleF

    drex94 says:
    May 8, 2010 at 2:27 pm
    Ann Coulter is a right wing nut job. she is like Sara Pay-lin; the only reason they are given a platform is because she/they will eventually say something stupid that will give whatever/whomever idiot host put her on —RATINGS

    And yet not rebuttal of the actual topic. Thanks for proving my above point.

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @MichelleF: The actual topic was whether the Bob Orr piece and other portraits of the Klutzy Bomber painted him as a sympathetic character, while she kept invoking an old Mark Harmon TV movie and promoting one of her previous books.

  • RichS

    Magister, do you always mischaracterize what you are talking about. I watched the video clip attached to this article to see if what you say about it is true. It wasn’t. Does this mean I can feel free to discount what you say, out of hand, because of your intention to mislead, or was this a special case?

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @RichS: I’m not sure what you think I’m mischaracterizing, but though she does speak toward the beginning in generalities agreeing with Bill, she then goes into her rote argument about “Muslims” and ends the clip not talking about the specific subject, but promoting one of her own books. And when O’Reilly says that he may not agree with her Ted Bundy generalization, she gives Bill the evil eye, tells him that he’s wrong and that he should just accept her perspective.

    Never mind that O’Reilly was in the news business during the Bundy period (including a couple of stints at stations serving markets that had Bundy events, though it looks like Bill was a couple of years behind), while Coulter would’ve still be a teenager at the time. (IOW: I’m sure that in Denver, Portland and perhaps CBS, Bill probably knew people who had covered Bundy, so maybe he’d have a better idea of where their proclivities lie)

    Oh, and her maniacal laughter is a bit distracting because I assume Bill wanted a serious discussion.

  • RichS

    Well, Magister, what you just wrote does not sound at all like what you wrote before? But, to address what you just wrote, she didn’t get a chance to say what she wanted about the media’s characterization of Ted Bundy. She referred to her book to say that liberals, which she characterized the press as being (and they are) always support, can’t remember the exact work she used but I think it was thugs.

    This is tiresome. You gave two different descriptions of the same piece and you do that to show you didn’t mischaracterize it? Jeez, why not simply admit you are so biased that you lean to the left when you walk and that your characterizations of events are so heavily biased as to agree with the actual event only as a coincidence.

  • MichelleF

    You’re correct Rich, I watched it last night. Magister, they talked about how the media is sympathetic to the bomber and others like him. Bill asked her why she thought that and that is when she gave the thesis of the whole book she wrote on the subject. I think you are grasping at straws here. But that’s what libs do when they can’t debate the substance of what someone says. Do you think people don’t notice that libs can’t ever actually dispute what is said, only try to demonize the messenger? I mean I think it worked for a while, but it’s pretty transparent now.

  • Nachi

    Thier sickness doth spread like a dreade mist across the land.

  • Averreauxii

    Ann Coulter is a bad comedian. She took her nonsense to ‘the view’ once disparaging single mothers with her wild eyed theories and cherry picked facts and Whoopi Goldberg shut her up immediately. I was rolling on the floor. She’s a provocateur by using incendiary language but she’s rarely factual. I mean, when she says that the left always cheers for savages (the left cheered for Hitler? Really? She knows the potus’ during WWI and WWII were dems right?) against civility you have to scratch your head and just laugh it up. The only reason she says outlandish things like those is to incite and annoy the left. It’s demagouery. She doesn’t say it to initiate any debate or thinking.

  • RichS

    Averreauxii, care to back up anything you say with facts? Exactly how did Whoopi Goldberg “shut her up immediately.” You also say she is rarely factual. Care to provide some examples.

    Do you know how WWII started in Europe? Germany invaded Poland from the west and the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. The American left was demonstrating to keep the US out of the war until Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After that the American left immediately began demonstrating for America to enter the war in Europe. How is it demagouery(sic)? Its is repeating historical fact.

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