I've already written at length about the way that Bill O'Reilly inverts reality by projecting onto his enemies the character traits of the extremists that he himself pals around with and transmits the ideas of, so consider this post part of the ongoing appendix that is the hypocrisy of O'Reilly demanding that anyone not legitimize by associating with or appearing at any function of the alleged KKK/Nazi style "hate" of Daily Kos.
In this instance of double standard, it has come to my attention that O'Reilly Factor guest (see here, here, and here) Tony Perkins - head of the James Dobson associated Family Research Council - purchased the mailing list of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in 1996 for over 80,000 dollars and in 2001 Perkins addressed the Lousiana chapter of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens.
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3 comments:
HG,
I'm watching the BBC series on the brain right now (Thanks for the suggestion!) and I want to point out something that in my research I found.
Why do people watch/listen to O'Reilly who clearly don't like him, disagree with him or really dispise him?
The study that helped me understand this was a Functional MRI study that showed that FOR MEN watching someone like O'Reilly provokes anger. They WANT to be provoked because it is an adrenaline and audio cup of coffee. On the right they have been trained to think that ALL media (except Fox) will give them that same angry rush. The men on the right turn to BillO for COMFORT vs. the way that the people on the left might turn to it to be outraged.
(Interestingly, the same didn't apply to most women, I guess they get their caffeine in other ways!)
Sure there are other reasons, amusing yourself at his wackiness, but if ONLY people who like him watch, there wouldn't be a big enough audience. Also, and this applies more to Rush than O'Reilly, there is a method of rhetoric that they use that actually gets thru to liberals. It has do with appealing to the "I need to have an open mind" part of liberals. And what Rush does is play one value off another. So often Rush is FOR something that we all can believe in, not just AGAINST something. This is key to throwing sand in the minds of some people and a good way to keep dittoheads agreeing with him because, for example, he is FOR independence first and then SADLY against dependence. This is a good trick because most of us understand and believe that in a lot of cases you want "self starters" and don't want to create a nation of people who expect things. But he blows out the real story behind these "dependant" people and pretends that they are really just whiners because they lost their benefits after their company went belly up.
Of course the world of the Dobson people's is twisted and it would be useful to get them on the record stating what they believe in regards to the war and other issues like supporting the KKK so that they will have to back petal when they are on the air spouting some republican talking point. "Tony, before we get into family issue, is it true that FoTF bought and used the KKK list from David Duke in 1996?"
S.T. Joshi wrote in The Angry Right that Limbaugh comes across as a liberal from 30 to 40 years ago ... he suggests that at this pace Limbaugh will be in favor of gay marriage in about 2030.
Small quibble, Perkins wasn't with FotF when he bought the list. He purchased it for a campaign he was managing.
Spocko,
I myself don't watch O'Reilly directly. I get clips emailed to be by Crooks and Liars, or go to Newshounds, where they post the lates O'Reilly outrage.
I wouldn't say it is the provocation to anger I enjoy about O'Reilly. Rather it is seeing the absurdity of his claims, his arrogance, etc. that I find amusing. Perhaps I find comfort in seeing someone I disagree with act like a fool?
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