Big Bad Terry Gross vs. Poor Defenseless Bill o'Reilly

The BBQ Pit
81

I don’t see how reading from the People column was “empty chair” journalism. O’Reilly was given several chances to respond to the article and refused. His filibuster and ensuing exit from the interview were simply evasive tactics designed to help him avoid addressing the questions.

O’Reilly himself employs the “empty chair” tactic on almost a daily basis, addressing verbal attacks and pointed questions to individuals who have not been on his show and loudly declaring that if one of his hated targets declines to go his little cable show that they are “cowards.”

82

Have you ever heard any author bragging about their favorable review from “Publishers Weekly”?

83

I agree with most everything the ombudsman said. I am by no means a fan of O’Reilly, but this was not Fresh Air 's finest hour.

Sounds like a pretty damn good reason not to do it, then. And I don’t think it makes a difference that he knew she wanted to read the thing on the air.

84

The ombudsman seems to be angling for a FOX job.

85

In what sense? He basically called O’Reilly a whiny bitch.

86

I still think it was entirely fair of her to ask O’Reilly questions about Franken’s accusations. I wish she’d been clearer in the beginning about what she was doing, that she was giving him a chance to respond to allegations that had aired on her show previously, but there was nothing unethical about giving him that chance. In fact, I’d guess that’s why she invited him on the show in the first place – her show doesn’t normally act as a platform for one celebrity to attack another, and she may have felt uneasy about its having performed that function.

Daniel

87

Well, I just listened to it, and I noticed something interesting right about at the 32:00 mark. Terry asks Bill about the fact that he was a registered Republican. Bill, in turn, essentially says he doesn’t know how it happened. He says something like “a myriad of things could have happened.” To which Terry responds (paraphrased), “Al Franken reprints the registration form in which the Republican box is checked.”

At that point, O’Reilly tries to pirouette out of the question by talking about a bus trip he and his family took to Florida which was described as a “lavish vacation” by Franken. Then, he goes straight at Terry, saying he hoped she was as hard on Franken. “If you don’t know, Terry, what this guy did…” he begins, says he hopes she was just as hard on Franken when she interviewed him, says that he hopes NPR is “fair and balanced,” and then ends by saying “if you don’t know what this guy did, or is trying to do, then I can’t help you, and if you’re on board with that, then I don’t respect you.”

And right there, at about 33:40, something happens. I’m not a musician, but I’d swear that Terry’s voice goes up about half an octave, and she sort of stumbles about for a few seconds, and then says she wants to go back to book reviews, and particularly the People magazine jab against O’Reilly.

My take on it is that O’Reilly attacked Gross’ imparitality and the reporting of her broadcasting company, and Gross got annoyed, went off the prepared question list, and started pitching fast balls.

A few minutes later, O’Reilly is patronizing Gross, talking over her, whining about a hatchet job, and basically being the ass he regularly is on his own show.

But here’s the thing: O’Reilly has been relentlessly pimping his book (and his persona) by pretending that he’s an independent. Gross had every right to ask about that, because here’s O’Reilly saying, “I’m an independent and I’m looking out for you,” while the record shows that he was a registered Republican, and now he can’t adequately explain how he got that way.

Seriously, you can’t soft-pedal a guy like O’Reilly, because it would be more dishonest to avoid asking him the sorts of questions she asked than it would be to give the guy a chance to explain himself. And when his explanations came up flat, that is when O’Reilly dropped back into pit-bull mode.

My personal explanation for why O’Reilly did that is because he’s full of shit.

88

I heard part of it when it aired, and I did feel Terry was a more adversarial and challenging than she is with some other guests (I mean, as challenging as you could be when you don’t ask followups worth a damn). But it wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t anything that a fellow like Bill O’Reilly shouldn’t be able to handle.

I’m a pretty big NPR fan (just pledged in the annual drive!) but not so much a Terry Gross fan. If I happen to catch her when she has good guests, I listen.

IIRC, Bill was in a studio in NY.

89

I listened to it again, and this is all bullshit. Terry Gross asked him easy questions, in her usual deferential, softspoken manner. The only thing that made the questions hard is because they were about documented lies that O’Reilly has told.. Period. End of story. They were “hard” because he’s a liar, not because she asked them.

Talk about a tempest in a teapot.

90

Yeah, Bill was participating from his own FauxNews studios.