Bill O'Reilly: why doesn't anyone tell him to shut up?

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve never seen his TV show, so the most I’ve seen of him is clips on the web. That said, in the clips I’ve seen it seems like any time he’s interviewing someone, being interviewed with someone, or even in the same room as someone else he consistently interrupts whoever has an opposing opinion to him and doesn’t ever let them finish a sentence. Why do the other people let him do it? How come no one’s just clammed up and refused to continue until he stops interrupting 2 words in to their answers?

The longest clip I’ve seen of him is from someone else’s TV show so it can’t be respect for him being the host.

2

Watch Outfoxed. The man is a slimeball.

3

Or look at his behavior in his ‘debate’ with Paul Krugman on Russert’s show last Saturday.

Almost right off the bat:

Or towards the end:

What a thug.

4

That’s actually the debate I watched (can see it here if interested). Why didn’t Krugman just tell O’Reilly to shut up or force him to by refusing to talk until he did?

5

WRT copyright/fair use issues: the preceding really is just a small excerpt of the entire transcript. Wouldn’t want to get y’all in trouble.

6

Maybe Krugman didn’t want to descend to O’Reilly’s level.

Besides, it’s really the moderator’s job to require proper conduct of his guests. Russert wimped out, big time.

7

Well, color me not very surprised.

I don’t call Russert “Mr. Softball” for nothing.

8

It makes O’Reilly happy to be told to shut up, or to have someone refuse to talk to him. He gloats about it, he considers it a victory.

I didn’t see the interview, but I’d say it’s the moderator’s job to curb him; otherwise he’ll just say he won.

9

I never watch that show but for some reason I was flipping through and there was Bill O’Reilly. Acting like an asshole. I watched almost to the point of nausea (and yes, I was telling Bill O’Reilly to shut the fuck up, but apparently I didn’t buy a tv with a microphone). Especially on the last part where he was cornered and completely changed the subject to utter and blatant bullshit. It’s not like it’s not expected of him tho’.

10

RTFirefly, that transcript you quoted is ridiculous.

Since we’re pitting O’Reilly, can I also pit Michael Savage while we’re at it? I know he’s been pitted before, but only in the last few weeks have I heard his radio program while driving home from work. Both he and O’Reilly are intellectually dishonest egomaniacal toad molesters.

11

And yet you Pit him anyway…

I saw the Krugman/O’Reilly debate. It was awful. Bill was at his blustery best, and I thought Krugman was a nervous wreck. Did anyone else notice how much PK’s hands were shaking, his voice was quivering, and his eyes were shifting? Maybe he thought Bill was going to hit him…

I usually like Russert, but he did an abysmal job as a moderator. Or maybe he got exactly what he was looking for-- Jerry Springer does political talk show host.

Look. O’Reilly is as much an enterntainer as anything else. I bet his rating go up when he rants and raves. And he has become more self absorbed over time, so his show can sometimes be more about him than any issue he is discussing. He did act like a spoiled schoolyard bully in the interview in question, but most of the time (the vast majoity of the time) he’s a civil host and has fairly intelligent interviews with his guests.

12

It’s always nice to see a conservative Doper being consistent; I notice you made this same point about Michael Moore.

13

My bolding. No need to insult me like that… :slight_smile:

Actually, I’d argue that Moore, by his chosen medium, is much more on the entertainer side of the news analysis/entertainer continuum and O’Reilly is more on the news analysis side. Wouldn’t you agree?

I don’t care much for O’Reilly, specifically because he’s such a blow hard, but anyone who thinks he’s not a smart guy just hasn’t done his homework or seen him enough. It’s easy to catch footage of mistakes on ANYONE who has had as much air time as O’Reilly.

And his political views are closer to libertarian than conservative. Are you aware, for instance, that he has stated on his program that he’s OK with gay marriage? On this issue, his public statements are closer to yours than Kerry’s are.

n.b.: I’m definitely NOT saying O’Reilly is a libertarian. Just that his views tend to be more libertarianish than conservative.

14

I’ve never seen him on TV but have heard him for a few minutes at a time on radio, and I’d have to disagree, at least as it pertains to his callers. He’s civil with callers who agree with him, and if they suck up enough, he’ll send them a book or something. If a caller doesn’t agree, the transcript would read just like the Krugman piece. Extrapolating, I would expect the same behaviour with guests on the show, depending on the degree of agreement with his views.

In general, these guys (O’Reilly, Savage, and others) draw their core audience from the same kind of people who attend hockey games for the fights or car races for the wrecks.

The local station that carries them in my area promotes their shows by using clips of them, not at their civil rational best, but at their vile extreme worst. That tells you what sells and explains whatever appeal they have.

15

I don’t doubt that he’s a smart guy. Which makes his bluster and his offensiveness even more difficult to excuse. If he were just a dope who was out of his depth, maybe i’d give him more of a pass on his attitude, but anyone as smart as he is who acts like that is not really deserving of any respect.

And i’m not sure “mistakes” is the right word to use when describing O’Reilly’s gross misrepresentations and deliberate distortions. Krugman said it better: “It’s a lie.”

16

[QUOTE=mhendo]
I don’t doubt that he’s a smart guy. Which makes his bluster and his offensiveness even more difficult to excuse…QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly. I often feel embarassed for him when he talks about “pin heads” and “idiots”. He’s smart enough to stick to facts, and it’s to his own detriment that he doesn’t.

17

Show some sympathy, man. It’s hard to hear with your head up your ass.

18

Every time I see any of these blowhards…O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter, Lott, anybody…my response is always the same. “Boy, nice work if you can get it.”

Seiriously. Everyone knows that if the words “shut up” ever pass your lips in an argument, it means one thing: YOU LOSE. Not only that, but you got run over, trampled, jumped all over like a trampoline, thrown through a meatgrinder, burned to ashes, and then run over again. The first time O’Reilly uttered those two horrible words, he should’ve been sent home and not be allowed on the air again until he can actually come up with a frickin’ argument.

Instead, he’s allowed to go on night after night, babble a bunch of moronic BS, tell everybody to shut up, and get paid for it. Dammit, I had to learn an encyclopedia’s worth of hard facts to earn my accounting degree, and I’ve never earned a tenth as much as him!

All I’m saying is that O’Reilly better be saving up his money, 'cause there aren’t that many jobs available for someone with the logical capacity of a first-grader.

19

It’s more of a GQ but threads about him tend to end up in the pit anyway.

I still don’t get why just saying something like “Can I finish?” or “I’m not going to continue until you stop interupting me” is considered losing face or and argument. If anything I would think it would give the interviewee the moral upper hand. :confused:

20

A fairly obvious bully tactic of enjoying flustering the weaker person.

His ‘triumph’ when he pulls this bullshit is no different than the schoolyard bully who makes a kid say something like ‘I suck dick.’ to make everyone laugh.