Mike Wallace Softballed O'Reilly on 60 Minutes

[stewert]

Here is a link to the article from the 60 minutes show last night:

Bill O'Reilly: 'No Spin'

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/23/60minutes/main645202.shtml

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And here is what I wrote about it on my message board, basically O'Reilly lied his ass off and Wallace softballed him through the whole thing.

O'Reilly was on 60 minutes last night with Mike Wallace, and he lied his ass off during the whole piece. O'Reilly told so many lies I lost count of them all.

He said his staff looked at all 6 years of his show and he only told people to shut up 6 times, but a couple months ago he said he only told one person to shut up. Now he admits to 6 times, and even that is a lie.

Take a look at this web page, they have 28 examples of O'Reilly telling people to shut up, 1, 28 or 6, I guess it's the same thing in the world of O'Reilly.

Bill O'Reilly Wants You To Shut Up

http://slate.msn.com/id/2087706/

Wallace asked him why he hates Al Franken so much when all Franken did was say he lied and proved it. O'Reilly said proved it Bull, then he said Franken is the liar and a smear artist. Wallace told O'Reilly he could recite his lies chapter and verse and asked him if he wanted to hear it, O'Reilly said no, and Wallace backed down like a punk. If Wallace had any guts he would have read a lie from O'Reilly then read the proof he was lying, instead he let O'Reilly off the hook by not reading one of his lies then proving it was a lie.

Then he let O'Reilly call Franken a liar etc. with no response to O'Reilly's lying statements.

O'Reilly went on to say he may not vote for Bush, yeah right, and I have a bridge to sell you if you buy that one. He said he is an Independent, and that he has known Kerry for 25 years, and that he is a patriot.

I am not sure if Wallace bought any of the con game O'Reilly was pulling on him but he hardly had any follow up questions at all. And the few he had were humorous follow ups, it was pretty much a softball interview. Wallace did not read one quote from O'Reilly during the whole interview. A good journalist would have nailed him by reading a quote or two from O'Reilly then proving it was a lie, Wallace did not do it one time.

O'Reilly also said he supports the environment, believes in global warming, opposes the death penalty, supports gay people adopting, as a last resort, and supports civil unions.

Even though he never does any shows on the environment, and he defends all the Republicans who almost all oppose the environmental laws. Whenever someone says Bush is terrible on the environment O'Reilly defends Bush. He said he believes in global warming but never talks about it, and when Al Gore gave a speech on global warming O'Reilly made fun of the speech and basically said it was all lies. I have a page on the site that proves O'Reilly only says he opposes the death penalty, in reality he supports it, and he has called for the death penalty many times.

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/deathpenalty.htm

He says gay people should be able to adopt, but only if the child will go to a foster home etc. I believe that one, but that's about all he said that was true. And he supports civil unions, but he is opposed to gay people getting married, and he supported the Bush constitutional amendment to ban gays from getting married.

He also said he was just a regular guy from New York, yeah a regular guy who makes $10 million a year. He said he don't own a mercedes or anything. But his wife does, O'Reilly actually said yeah but he never rides in it. Yeah right, and I'm Elvis.

He said his radio show is not part of right-wing radio, now that's funny.

He said he respects Rush and said he was just an entertainer, funny he don't think Franken is an entertainer, yet he does the same thing as Rush. And a while back while defending Rush O'Reilly said that Rush never lies about anything, even though Al Franken plays clips of Rush lying every day, and proves they are lies.

O'Reilly also told Wallace that his show gets 20 million viewers a week, and Wallace let him get away with that crap. To do that he would have to average 4 million different viewers a night, which is a lie. The factor averages 2.8 to 3.2 million viewers a night. And there is no way to prove that those 2.8 to 3.2 million viewers are different people each night. In fact I would bet it's pretty much the same 2.8 to 3.2 million people who watch him every night. On top of that he does not even work friday nights anymore, and his ratings drop by a million or more when he has a fill in host.

So O'Reilly was lying his ass off about his ratings and the number of people who watch him every week.

Overall the interview was a puff piece, Wallace let O'Reilly put out all his propaganda and lies without barely calling him on any of it. He was clearly not as informed as I am, or as anyone on this board is. Wallace may not have known almost everything O'Reilly said was a lie, he probably did not have the time to research it all. But that is no excuse for letting him lie his ass off and not call him on any of it.

At the least he should have read a couple O'Reilly quotes where he lied then proved it was a lie. Yet Wallace was too chicken shit to do it.

If I had to grade this interview for a journalism class I would give it a C- or maybe even a D.

Wallace wimped out big time.

http://69.73.163.60/oreillysucks/viewtopic.php?t=946

[luaneryder]

1. I watched that last night

I had never seen or heard O'Reilly before (heard lots about him on DU) and he just seemed to be another Rush wannabe; blowhard, full of self importance, no nobody, know nothing. It was easy to tell when he was lying; he would not look into Wallace's eyes when he did, Wallace knew, but wouldn't call him on it. Why do people want to listen to imflammatory hate mongers like this? It reminds me of the comedian who went around the country insulting his audience and people paid for it! Amazing!

[Algorem]

2. Chris Wallace probably got a raise from FOX to get his daddy to have O'

Lielly on 60 Minutes.Speaking of mediawhore Chris Wallace I saw him plug his new book on the FOX Sunday shwhoe he whosts.He just went right ahead and pushed his book right before the group of punkdits had their little discussion.He called it a shameless plug.The shameless network.The oil billionaire that sold FOX to Murderoch died,wonder how close he was to the Bush's and if Bush will go to his funeral.

[Nordic]

3. who gives a fuck about O'Leilly? Might as well visit freeperville

It is not worth anyone's time or energy to give this piece of dung one second of attention

[Red State Rebel]

4. A pathetic circle jerk.....pardon my language..

I can't stand O'Reilly - he has never met anyone he loves more than himself.

[tom_paine]

5. He was AFRAID that he would be attcaked by Bushevik Pravda

FEAR is the Imperials is the defining characteriustic of Imperial Amerika.

Freedom? Hell, Amerika is NOT free, though for the moments remaining before the Final Transition to Tyranny, we all have enough of the wretched remnants remaining (undoubtedly being chewed up behind closed dorrs even as we speak) to pretend we still are.

[Ducks In A Row]

6. Someone needs to do a stake-out on him and catch him...

riding, or better yet driving, that mercedes. These assholes always boasts that they don't do the things they really do do.

[BiggJawn]

7. "Softballs"??

"Spitwads" was more like it. Really soft, mushy spitwads...This is "Journalism"????

Like the "interview" I heard on "Technation" yesterday Where some "Enviromental Consultant" (read: Industry Shill) who claimed that he used to be with Greenpeace was crowing the benefits of GMO and farm-raised salmon on a cost vs. benefit basis..."Sure, you MIGHT get Cancer from the PCB's in the fish, but you'll DEFINITELY have a heart attack without the Omega-3 oils they have...'
And the "Interviewer just let him go on, and on...I thought I was listening to a lecture.

And nothing about recent findings that the filthy farm fish have no Omega-3, because they're fed diets that have veggie oil instead of the more expensive fish oil....

If I hadn't ever heard of Bill o'Reilly, I might have came away with a favourable impression of the bastard...