O’Reilly vs. ACLU

Sunday December 19 2004

Bill O’Reilly is at it again. Around this time every year he launches an all out assault on the ACLU. It begins in the Talking Points segment where he outlines his beef with the ACLU. He expresses his outrage that they are out there doing what they do best, keeping God out of our schools, courtrooms, and government. He goes on about the Culture Wars and how the secular progressive left is destroying America. He continues his tirade in the Top Story segment where he will shoehorn in some reference to NAMBLA, The National Man-Boy Love Association before the commercial.

Next, is the Factor Follow-Up Segment where he picks some celebrity like Alec Baldwin, Ludicris or someone else he hates, and berates them for ten minutes, then goes to another commercial. Interestingly enough, he finds a way to mention one of his books in this segment. He has 3 or 4 books in print They remind me of the Matrix movies: The first one is great The rest of them are same shtick with cooler special effects. In O’Reilly’s case, the books have a different picture of him on the cover.

When he returns from the commercial, its on to the Unresolved Problems segment. Where he has some no-name lawyer appearing on behalf of the ACLU (they won’t send one of their lawyers to debate him so he picks one out of the phonebook). He shreds this guy for a couple of minutes telling him not to justify bad behavior with other bad behavior, then in the spirit of fairness, he gives the flabbergasted lawyer “the last word” but interrupts him before he can finish, and gives him another tongue lashing. Usually the lawyer guy is about to cry but they manage to cut to Donna Fiducia for a News Break before he turns on the water works.

The Impact and Personal Story segments are just more of the same. He is usually talking about pedophile priests, how stupid it was for John Kerry not to come into the No Spin Zone, or what a liar Stuart Smalley is (a.k.a. Al Franken but O’ Reilly never refers to him by his real name). In one or both of these segments he finds some clever way to mention another one of his books, and how he wrote it all by himself.

Next is the Back of the Book segment where he usually has another guest on. This time the guest is supposed to be talking about their new book. Bill claims to have read their book but in reality his staff has highlighted the talking points and given him a list of inane questions. He badgers the guest in an attempt to belittle them then gives them "the last word". True to form he interrupts them to inject his point of view again and if the guest tries to protest, he tells the engineer to "cut his mic". About twenty percent of the time he is able to mention his book again and insinuate that the guests book isn‘t as good.

Finally, the Most Ridiculous Item of the Day. This has to be my favorite segment (because it’s really close to the end). Bill often takes one for the team here (if you consider Bill and his huge ego a team). Then its time for viewer mail but not before mentioning Factor Gear which includes coffee mugs, hats, t-shirts and doormats. Bill used to brag how all the profits from the Factor Gear go to charity but since he was nearly sued for sexual harassment earlier this year (he settled out of court for 6 million dollars) he’s probably not doing that anymore.

Should you miss The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, don’t worry you can catch the Radio Factor the next day. He repeats all of the ACLU hate speech from the previous night’s TV show but for two full hours. Plus he has a bunch of crazy right wing talk radio listeners who call in their hate speech about the ACLU too. Is it any wonder that the they won’t send a lawyer to debate him?

Copyright © 2004 Quaid Davis. All rights reserved.