Posts Tagged Fox News
Nazis Sue O’Reilly for Equating Them to “Sissy Liberal Bloggers”
Posted by Chris Battaglia in Fake News, Politics on August 26, 2007
Bill O’Reilly, popular Fox News pundit and host of The O’Reilly Factor, has been accused of slander by a neo-Nazi group, who is suing for damages.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of O’Reilly’s recent remarks about Daily Kos, a partisan political blog site. On his show, O’Reilly has repeatedly called Daily Kos “Nazis,” and said that the community is “like the Klu Klux Klan.” These comparisons have had a tremendously negative affect on the image of Nazi groups everywhere, according to the class-action suit.
“My clients rightly feel that being compared to the liberal sissies at dailykos.com is nothing short of slander,” George Steinman, the prosecuting lawyer, told reporters outside the courthouse. “Bill O’Reilly’s reckless use of the Nazi label has cost my clients dearly, and they are now seeking appropriate compensation.”
“After all, the worst these bloggers have done is write emotionally-charged political opinion pieces. They have never attempted to do something like slaughter millions of people based purely on race or creed. Comparing them to Nazis completely undermines the serious and significant historical role of the Nazis in the twentieth century.”
“Daily Kos has an open comment system,” Steinman added. “Freedom of expression is to Nazism what tinned sardines are to cheesecake: it’s just not one of the ingredients.”
This suit is not the only legal trouble O’Reilly has faced in recent years. In 2004, a former producer of his show filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. That case was settled out of court, but was then used as evidence in a civil suit brought a few months later by has-been comedian Carrot Top, who claimed O’Reilly was unlawfully attempting to become the biggest douche in the continental USA, a title the former prop comic had held for some time.
Reaction to this latest lawsuit has been mixed. While the bloggers at Daily Kos are happy to see O’Reilly getting sued, they are “slightly off-put” by the context of the lawsuit, according to the post of one blogger known as “liberalflower682.”
“I kind of wish the Nazis had been a little nicer to us,” the post read, “but what do you expect? They’re Nazis. They’re nothing like us.”
Comments on the post included suggestions that “they [the Nazis] just need a hug,” and “OMG bush is a idiot lol!!1”
A spokesperson for the Klu Klux Klan said the group was considering joining the class-action suit, noting that the Klan has a lot in common with the Nazis, including their hatred for “liberal blog websites like the Daily Kos.” The spokesperson added that the Klan was shocked by O’Reilly’s remarks, because they had always considered him a friend.
O’Reilly could not be reached for comment.
Fox News is Funny
Posted by Chris Battaglia in Politics, Rants on September 8, 2005
On September 1st, Bell ExpressVu’s free preview of the Fox News channel in Canada ended. I really wouldn’t be surprised of the ratings from the free preview were very high. I know I got a lot of entertainment from that “news” channel, and I’m sure that I wasn’t alone.
It’s as though all of Fox News exists in this alternate reality, kind of like what the world would be like if someone went back to prehistoric times and accidentally killed a bug when he was there. The occupation of Iraq becomes the liberation of Iraq, suicide bombers become homicide bombers, and the corporate-controlled structure of Washington D.C. becomes the defender of the common man’s freedoms. News stories of personal matters that would otherwise be mentioned in passing a few times and only when there was more to add to the story get extensive coverage all day long, while big issues get handed off to a panel of pundits who argue amongst each other long enough to completely twist the focus away from any real question, if they get any coverage at all. It’s lunacy.
This sense of surrealism alone would be enough to get me to watch whenever nothing else is on, but they don’t stop there. They add a cast of characters who are so whacked it would make the creators of The Surreal Life blush. You’ve got everything from the dye-blonde eye-candy hosting a town-hall styled midday news brief to the middle-aged white guys ranting about how we should shoot all of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay so we have room for Michael Moore and his commie cronies, and in between they throw in a seemingly endless supply of field reporters reporting live from somewhere where nothing is actually taking place at that moment. All the while, the news ticker shows you what the terror alert level is every other minute, just in case you needed to plan your day around it.
Then, to make sure your senses are completely overloaded, the Fox News title animations, obviously styled after those cartoons in Japan that give people seizures, pop in and barrage you with fast-moving graphics and giant block-letters spelling out one of their many slogans. My personal favourite one of these has to be the one with the voice that sounds like it would be more suitable answering calls for a sex-chat service saying the words “We’re Always Live” as they appear below the mammoth Fox News logo. What could be more confusing than that after listening to Neil Cavuto?
It would be difficult to point out all of the specific moments that this channel has made me gape, gawk, laugh, or swear at the TV screen, because there are just too many, so I’ll mention what is probably my favourite:
I’m flipping channels with my friend, trying to find something to watch. Since nothing’s on, I decide to introduce him to Fox News. The moment I change to the channel, we see Geraldo Rivera interviewing Bill O’Reilly, who is in the middle of equating drug users to terrorists. I immediately burst out laughing, and my friend turns to me and says “Chris, no, I can’t deal with this shit right now.”
Now honestly, what other channel could produce a moment like that?
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