Go Ahead and Call Bill O'Reilly What He Is: A Pathological Liar

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/28910-go-ahead-and-call-bill-oreilly-what-he-is-a-pathological-liar

O'Reilly isn't a newsman, he's a blue-eyed cirrhotic cyst erupting acid onto the brass rail at the Now I'll Tell You What the REAL Problem Is Pub. He's the guy who sits next to you and brags about how he'd kick the hell out of any thugs daring to bring violence into his neighborhood, stumbles off his barstool, goes outside, reflexively crosses the street to avoid two black kids on the sidewalk two blocks up, then drives home drunk. He's the guy who picks a fight with you if you correct him, then refuses to throw down because he "was Gold Gloves in college and doesn't want to end you, man," then backs away toward his driveway while trying to make eye contact with anyone he thinks is a friend and saying, "I feel sorry for him! I have a pool in my backyard."

Because that's the other school of thought about Bill O'Reilly, and something that explains why he leapt on Brian Williams with a predatory recognition of common weakness. O'Reilly long ago turned up the volume on his Real American Thug schtick to drown out the fact that almost everything he has to say is either a lie, bullying or a deracinated piece of non-data. As part of that, he understood something that Brian Williams did: that there is nothing more authentic than a classic American tough guy who's seen combat.

The only real American group virtually impervious to criticism anymore are soldiers. Of all the lessons we could have learned from Vietnam, the one we took away is that they can never fail but only be failed. Republicans fail them by omitting clear goals, exit strategies and promising only more bodies and bombs. Democrats fail them via what conservatives see as an American Dolchstoßlegende. When they fail themselves, the impact either fades away or reifies them — Lynndie England, the soldiers of Haditha and William Calley either trivialized, forgotten or lionized on the cover of Esquire in spite of everything. In every way but the dearest, they are bulletproof.

Brian Williams was a dull man whose job was telling other people's stories and seeming essential in spite of that. He knew that the shortest route to authenticity — to appearing to have a resolute and genuine message, to confirm himself as something more solid than a haircut — was not only to be shot at like soldiers but be esteemed and given gifts by them as well. That's how tempting the Troop Housekeeping SEAL of Approval is: Williams could have had zero original thoughts for decades and walked away with millions of dollars, and instead he needed to seem heroic to people who probably didn't even think to ask if he wasn't.

[rogerashton]

1. Not pathological. Profitable. eom

[malaise]

2. MUST READ

Rec

[countryjake]

3. The Media has to do more articles like this. One big KICK!

"You're putting words in my mouth, just the way you put artificial facts in your head." ~ David Letterman to Bill O'Reilly in 2006