HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Sept. 29, 2005 I watched the “No Spin Zone” tonight on Fox “News”, and my reaction can best be summed up with this smilie icon – it's a bit on the small side, but does a nice job of showing my emotional reaction. Anyone familiar with Yahoo Messenger has no doubt seen this [1]. Why did I watch it? I read that O'Reilly would have a segment on the new secular lobbyist being sent to DC. The little news segment before his show listed the topics he'd be discussing, but the segment of interest to me wasn't mentioned. O'Reilly himself advertised what was ahead several times before breaks, but he didn't seem too eager about the segment. Finally, right before the commercial break before the segment, he mentioned it. The segment was disappointing to say the least. I was expecting a real debate, with some real questions. O'Reilly wouldn't let her get more than four words out without interrupting her, and his questions had obvious answers. His first order of business was to get her to say that her group basically represents an atheist lobby; “secular” is just the her group's PC synonym. On that point, she was happy to agree, which was good. Many secularists, however, are also theists - Jews, Christians, Pagans and more than likely others here in the US. They want to keep religion and government apart. Indeed, the president for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is an ordained Christian clergyman... Anyway, his segment told me nothing at all about this woman and her organization or its goals, except that she had better learn to be less mousy if she wants to make any serious headway in DC. Nothing Bill said surprised me in the least. I did find his threat to her pretty funny, actually, warning her that she better not infringe on his rights [Click here]. He also referred to atheists as, “you people” [click here]. When I started the show I figured that the Delay news might preempt the secular lobby segment, especially after neither Fox nor Bill mentioned it, so I didn't plan on watching further. The way he handled the Delay issue, however, kept me tuned in. Bill started off sounding as if he wanted to be non-biased, saying once that, “We'll look more into Ronnie Earle later on”. Ronnie Earle is the prosecutor that indicted Delay. I waited patiently, but all I got was something like this from the “no spin” meister, “Look, we know he's a Democrat, and we know he's a zealot, ok?”. Not once was it mentioned that Earle indicted four times as many Republicans as Democrats (12 Democrats and 3 Republicans). Not that this would absolve Earle from the obvious conservative reaction that he's just being political, but isn't it worth mentioning in a “no spin zone”? He did show a clip of himself giving a Delay supporter a hard time about similar issues in 2001, but in a “no spin zone”, he might have mentioned that Delay has been admonished and has had several run ins with ethics violations and the like. These are facts; aren't they reverent to any discussion about Delay, especially if the other guy is being accused of having a certain slanted character? He also mentioned a case against Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, where Earle's case was thrown out of court the first day. So, why not mention the '12 to 3 in favor of Republicans' bit [Click here]? We weren't told why is a zealot, but I'm sure future episodes of the “no spin zone” will cover it – something to look forward too for all of you O'Reilly fans. Next came a segment about a congressman that got upset with Chris Mathews. We saw a teeny-tiny clip where Chris seemed to get rid of the guy as he was heating up, upset that MSNBC covered Katrina unfairly. The rest of the segment was Bill getting his nuts lubed, excuse my English. Fox “News” got praised as well for their “non biased” nature [Click here]. Next up was Anna Nicole Smith [Click here]. I saw her nude in Playboy years ago, and honestly, that's as much as I want to know about her. Besides, it was time to leave the “no spin zone” - all that non-spinning was making me dizzy... I can't understand the fascination with this guy. Well, that's not entirely true – it is fun to watch your political enemies get grilled. But why pretend that it's anything but entertainment for conservatives? If I listen to Al Franken tomorrow (or today, depending on when this makes it to UK), I bet he will play the clip where Bill calls Earle a zealot without giving any evidence or explanation as to why, and he will say that O'Reilly used a “weasel explanation” of the men and the issues involved. Afterwards, conservatives will call Franken a liar for his trouble, and go on thinking that O'reilly is all that [Click here]. 1. this version of the icon is from GAIM, a free and open source version with Yahoo support. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write – something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Like so many these days, I too have a blog! But, I haven't updated it since the day after I signed up for it, so I won't bother to give out the link. I tend to make the same silly grammatical errors over and over again, and my many many attempts at proofreading often fail, so if you find anything wrong, send me some hate mail; I do love to get hate mail! Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
