O'Reilly's Priorities

Dec 26th, 2011

Media Matters reports:

"Every year, "Culture Warrior" Bill O'Reilly devotes considerable time on his Fox News show to the "War on Christmas." This December, O'Reilly has covered the imaginary "War on Christmas" more than three times as much as the actual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

It's even more jarring looking at it this absurdity in chart form.

Things You Can't Make Up

Nov 12th, 2011

It seems that Ford's Theater, the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, has banned Bill O'Reilly's bestselling book about... the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Apparently, O'Reilly is not merely content to misrepresent provable contemporary truths.

Via Gawker:

"According to the Washington Post, the theater has banned Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, a new book O'Reilly wrote with fancy American writer Martin Dugard, because it's "sloppy with the facts and slim on documentation"—an assessment given by Ford's officials and outside historians who have panned it. In addition to lacking footnotes, the book includes factual inaccuracies (for example, it says that Lincoln held meetings in the Oval Office, when that office didn't exist until 44 years after Lincoln's death) and its portrayal of assassination conspirator Mary Surratt is so fantastical that it might as well say she was captured by authorities while trying to board a plane at Dulles. The book even calls her "bloated"! Speaking of indignities. For more details on the factual error stuff, you can check out the review written by Ford's Theatre deputy superintendent Rae Emerson."

A colleague who just finished the O'Reilly mess had this to say:

"I am nearly certain that Seth Graeme Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is more historically accurate."

Wow.

Olbermann Goes Off...

Oct 13th, 2011

Again, it is perfectly justifiable.

There Was No $16 Muffin. Period.

Sept 30th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Kevin Drum is pissed and he has every reason to be. Having thoroughly and unequivocally debunked the Fox News meme about "muffin-gate," he noticed that Bill O'Reilly doubled down on it during his recent appearance on the Daily Show. It was an epic fail moment on Jon Stewart's part.

Drum writes:

"On the Daily Show last night, Bill O'Reilly was griping about the great $16 muffin affair and Jon Stewart had no idea what he was talking about. So the whole thing passed without any pushback, and now millions more people think Uncle Sam is paying $16 for hotel muffins.

Once again, then: it's a myth. There were no $16 muffins. It's just an artifact of the way hotels aggregate costs for events and bill them all to a few line items instead of breaking down every charge separately. In fact, for the event in question, DOJ came in exactly on budget. All the details are here.

Now, can we please hear no more about this?"

Not only is the story a staggering falsehood, the price tag was actually a bargain. I have a great deal of direct experience organizing and billing formal events from my years in restaurant management. A catered affair that comes in at $16 per person in Washington D.C. is a miracle of responsible spending. 

Period.

"I'll Eat Your Shoe"

Aug 23rd, 2011

Any regular reader can tell you I have no great love for Ben Stein. He is vulgar and elitist. However, he has come hurtling back to the truth regarding taxes. On O'Reilly last night, it was clear that Stein has simply had enough of Fox's economic propaganda. Dynamite stuff.

"There is no correlation, Mr. O’Reilly, between taxes rates on millionaires and people above that level, billionaires, and the growth of the economy… Higher taxes have historically correlated with more growth."

"Mr. O’Reilly, sir, there is no correlation of raising taxes and unemployment. If you can show it to me, I’ll eat your shoe."
via Media Matters

Bill O'Reilly Moon Video Parody

Feb 7th, 2011

This says everything I wanted to say.