Every once in a while I tune and watch a bit of Bill O’Reilly’s show. I find it comforting to listen to Papa Bear imparting wisdom and defending the Folks.
When I tuned into his television show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” yesterday here are the first few sentences I got.
I choose not to give money to political causes or candidates because my beat is to watch all these people, not pay their bills. But I see nothing wrong with journalists donating money to people they believe will serve the country well. What is definitely wrong is for the media to beat up those with whom they disagree politically.
Since I don’t have Mr. O’Reilly’s address I can’t be certain whether or not he has contributed to any Federal level campaigns. I’ll take his word for it, this once. Let’s dissect that block of text a bit, shall we?
By way of disclaimer I want it noted that Bill O’Reilly is not a journalist and he should stop telling people he is. He’s a commentator, just like most of us filthy unwashed bloggers.
If you swing your hammer at enough screws you’re bound to pound one in eventually. O’Reilly scores when he reminds the Folks that journalists ought to be looking in every direction and maintaining professional distance from their sources and subjects. But wait! He doesn’t expect all those mortal journos to match the high, high standards he sets for himself! Not every reporter has the intestinal fortitude to be a Bill O’Reilly, after all.
So it doesn’t matter if journalists give money, just so long as they keep their reporting Fair and Balanced. Okay, I can see that. After all, the reporting’s the important thing. And once again, BillO and I agree! Only we agree in exactly opposite directions.
It’s that last bit that really worries me. The big problem, O’Reilly would have us believe, is that all those mean liberal reporters are dragging conservatives through the mud because they disagree with them on abortion, immigration, Iraq or other political issues.
Would that it were that simple. The larger problem facing our democracy today is that too many commentators, like O’Reilly himself, pass themselves off as journalists, then fail to act as critical and independent members of the Fourth Estate. The long-term health of our Republic demands an oppositional media in exactly the same way it demands an oppositional system of justice.
It may well be that as television becomes more and more concerned with entertaining viewers the Internet will develop as a stronger and more rigorous Fourth Estate 2.0. Here’s hoping.
P.S. Not only is BillO wrong, he’s also a hypocrite. Less then ten seconds after the block quote above he refers to “hateful Air America Radio Network” which was “loved” by the print press “before it went bankrupt because of low ratings.” Of course, Air America is solvent again, and is beating O’Reilly in markets all over the country.
P.P.S. My prediction package for the Democrats is coming, I promise.