The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly
Product Description
“Caution: You’re about to enter a no-spin zone” is the warning with which Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly kicks off his no-holds-barred cable news program The O’Reilly Factor every night. O’Reilly is the reigning king of cable news, with a huge lead in the ratings, two best-selling books, and a nationally syndicated radio program.
O’Reilly’s “no-spin” motto is clever marketing—but who’s keeping track of O’Reilly’s own spin? From his support for Bush’s tax cuts and the war with Iraq to his attacks on everything from National Public Radio to “welfare mothers,” O’Reilly often contradicts himself and consistently concocts evidence to support his conservative talking points.
His misguided opinions, stated as facts, are often simply wrong, such as his claim that the U.S. “gives far and away more tax money to foreign countries than anyone else . . . Nobody else even comes close to us” (per capita the U.S. is near the bottom of the list for developed countries). Other of his statements are deliberately inflammatory, such as his suggestion that we bomb Libyan civilians in the aftermath of September 11 (“Let them eat sand”). Weeks later O’Reilly denied the sentiment, though he has publicly stated that “If you’re not providing controversy and excitement, people won’t listen or watch.”
Following in the footsteps of FAIR’s hit book The Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error, The Oh Really? Factor will use facts, humor, illustrations, and comics to challenge the many absurd, outlandish, and just plain incorrect statements made on one of the U.S.’s most-watched “news” programs. Publication timed to coincide with O’Reilly’s forthcoming book, Who’s Looking Out For You.
Peter Hart is the activism director at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting), the national media watch group. He is also a co-host and producer of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show CounterSpin.
Bill O’Reilly has to be the best journalist ever to be seen on television. This book with it’s stupid “Bill O Reilly Looks So Stupid” cover should be burned on fire. The authors are obviously liberals so you know what THAT means…spin!
Rating: 1 / 5
Folks, I will be graduating in a month with a degree in journalism. It was by watching Bill O’Reilly that I became inspired to become a journalist. There is so much liberal bias in the media and liberals feel threatened by people like O’Reilly and Sean Hannity that want to unspin it. Liberals who claim to be all for diversity are the most intolerant people of all: they accept the free speech of anybody (as long as they say what the liberals want them to say). If they deviat from the liberal rhetoric in anyway, the liberals use their common tactic.They smear the image of the reporter and call him a liar. This book is a perfect example of that, the author simply cannot stand the fact that a conservative reporter is on the television. Mr. Hart is porbably more angry at the fact that Bill is so popular. When he makes a brief passing mention of how popular O’Reilly is he states that this book is not intent on explaining his popularity. Nice try, Mr. Hart, but you can’t weasel your way out of it so fast. Let me explain why Bill and Fox News in general is so much more popualr than any other news station. They are the only ones that show things from a different perspective!! Did that ever occur to you? Tey state facts that other left-wing stations conveniently forget to mention. As for Bill being bias, well, I can’t deny that he is. But a journalist is not always one who states facts without prejudice there are many type of reporters, and news analysts (unlike straight forward eporters) have the job of giving opinion to the news. If Mr. Hart were really fair and honored the title of his organization, e would also make a book about the bias of Michael Moore, AL Franken, and any other news channel. There is a lot more ammunition there.
Rating: 1 / 5
“…uh, Bill if you feel so strongly about this, why don’t you tell that same retailer to quit selling your book on their site – after all do you want to be associated with such a company?”.
Bill O’ was right. That WAS a preposterous correlation!
Writers such as Peter Hart, lack enough worldly experiences from which to draw any rational, objective opinions.
Rating: 1 / 5
I would just like to point out the author’s own “spin” in the Book Description. First, he lambastes O’Reilly for saying that the US “gives far and away more tax money to foreign countries than anyone else” and counters with a seemingly disparate statistic that states the US is near the bottom of the list for developed countries when measured per capita. Has Hart considered that both statistics may be true, since O’Reilly was most likely speaking of total dollars, which is what really matters / counts, than average dollars? The reason the average is so low is that the US is a really big country with lots of people. Second, I cannot comment to the veracity of the quotes regarding Libya but there is a trick with language that Hart has employed here that I find to be especially “inflammatory.” He links up the Libya quote with another quote from O’Reilly regarding something completely different. “If you’re not providing controversy and excitement, people won’t listen or watch,” is O’Reilly’s commentary on the state of the media, of which he is a part, but has nothing to do with the Libya comment. Therefore, if one is not paying attention to the text, one might make the accidential conclusion that O’Reilly makes sensational comments so people will watch and listen, which incidentially is not true. I cannot believe that such a piece of tripe would come from an organization that would call itself “FAIR”.
Rating: 1 / 5
I think the book was a waste of money!!!
I don’t remember reading sooo much rhetoric in my life.
It’s like the author just doesn’t like O’Reilly so he writes negative and untrue things about the man.
Trust me, don’t buy the book, you’ll ask for your money back!!!!!!
Rating: 1 / 5