Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Bill O’Reilly Channeling His Inner Donald Trump
Mr. O’Reilly loses it in this interview, asking questions, then refusing to allow George Will to speak, and finally repeatedly shouting insults at Will to keep him from speaking. “You are a hack!”
Here’s the George Will column that drew mighty Bill’s ire. Poor Mr. O’Reilly. I think Megyn Kelly has deeply unnerved him…
Published in Entertainment, Literature, Politics
No, I bet he’s screaming at some of Roger Ailes’ underlings right now, since Roger has made it clear that Will is not going anywhere.
I hope you’re right. I don’t know how much sway O’Reilly has left. Maybe Ailes loves the controversy. I’m sure it’s not a common practice and probably verboten for one journalist or t.v host to criticize another journalist or t.v host working for the same network.
That video is like watching the last 2 years of Ricochet interviewing the first 2 years of Ricochet.
Sure, and FOX has a history of punishing those who transgress… but George Will I think is not Steven Crowder… and as you say, the kerfluffle may be good for ratings, I wouldn’t know.
Ouch.
And You are a hack! Bye!
I don’t know anything about this kerfuffle (I hope to get a chance to get informed later — I did watch the whole video above) BUT my sympathies lie with Bill O’Reilly over George Will in general. So, I’m excited about this whole thing. I’m too busy this weekend to get deeply informed and I can’t wait to dig into this. These two are elements of the conservative world and the division on display here is long standing — between the “rubes” (O’Reilly and the people I love) and the limousine conservatives (Will, for example) who have been suckered by the left lo these many years.
I hope Bill is justified in his extreme language but things don’t look good for him at the moment. I hate to have Will crowing about having O’Reilly’s scalp, though.
Let the divisions be picked at and the stink revealed — and may the best side win!
Thanks for posting this, MT.
Bill O’Reilly isn’t fit to change George Will’s typewriter ribbon.
That’s just as well-he wouldn’t know how-
Bill O’Reilly got into a far more heated argument with Geraldo Rivera a couple years ago, on the topic of illegal aliens. Does Geraldo Rivera still work for Fox News? I don’t remember hearing about him being let go, but I can’t recall seeing him lately, either.
Still there.
Although his last news story appears to be an interview from June, other than his fisticuffs in July with a Fox news host.
Will did a poor job defending. Hard to understand why he even agreed to appear on the show.
Rivera is on all too often.
Judging by their facial expressions and general frustration when they are speaking with him, many of Fox’s regulars dislike O’Reilly. Seems to me that Krauthammer is the only one with whom O’Reilly is reliably polite. Too bad his ratings are so high.
When he was able to speak, I thought he got in a few good zingers, like how rich it was that O’Reilly was unloading all over Will for not contacting him before running the column, but O’Reilly didn’t contact anyone for any corroborating info about his book.
Broke down and watched the clip. Man, O’Reilly is agitated out of the gate, and just about loses his stuff a couple of times. Then the double-down “hack” attack is just ridiculous.
I can’t wait for the apology. This is going to be delicious. Sorry to salivate so.
I think Will won a strategic battle. There’s no way he’s going to out-shout O’Reilly, and the inane attempts at forcible Socratization were provocative. “Do you know who Michael Deaver is? Do you?” (I half-expected “Don’t wait for the translation!”) So Will refused to commit to such a baited hook. He was parrying, not head-hunting. Didn’t have to — O’Reilly looked every bit the north end of a southbound pachyderm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTwdS5IMQa4
Agree. I watched and thought that Will knew better that to try to have a shouting match with the guy who can cut his mic any time. I do not agree with either man all of the time. But Will’s point was simple: You can’t claim to know the story if you don’t talk to everyone (available) who has first hand knowledge. Bill hurt his case by touting his intentional avoidance of any critic or supporter. With Reagan, who would that really leave? You use and weigh all the information, you don’t automatically exclude anything in your research.
O’Reilly’s net worth is in the range of $85 million. Will’s is $3 million, which is nothing to complain about, but is only a fraction of even O’Reilly’s annual salary ($18 million). O’Reilly is not my idea of a regular man. Which is all irrelevant anyway.
This interview is one in a long line of O’Reilly substituting bombast for argument. It wouldn’t bother me much if O’Reilly was especially funny or insightful, but…
For me, this was the equivalent of watching the Longhorns play the Aggies. Would that both could lose.
Well, he is looking out for you.
Then who is looking out for him?
Seriously though, I don’t need people like O’Reilly representing me.
The teleprompter, presumably. Except for that time at “Inside Edition” mentioned up-thread.
I was going to write the same thing, but with Duke and Kentucky in basketball.
Old Bill is a very insecure man. He wants desperately to be a ‘respectable journalist’ but prattles on about “that internet thing’. He longs for the days of Walter and Chet and David and wants to be in the club.
His books have been what he perceives to be his ticket to respectability. His response to criticism shows that insecurity in full force.
Ted Baxter had more class and had comic timing that was genius. I watched Ted Baxter, and Mr O’Rielly, you are no Ted Baxter.
Yeah, I had to stop watching him because he was incapable of understanding certain economic and business principles. Regardless of how slowly and often they were repeated to him.
To give O’ Reilly his due, I think some of his culture war positions were a positive.
I shall add this book to my homework reading list. Perhaps I’ll get to it sometime next year.
Anyway, why was O’Reily offended at Will “deifying” Reagan? That’s a normal part of presidential politics. The Dems have three 20th century deified presidents: FDR, JFK, and Clinton. We only have one, and I fail to see why we should surrender him to the left out of, what, high moral principle? Spite?
O’Reilly is a tool.