O'Reilly's rage couldn't come at a better time. The country has turned against the Bush Republicans, and Democrats are finally showing some discipline. Kos and other liberal sites deserve much of the credit, in the same way Limbaugh galvanzied the red meat right in the early 90s. A.J. Dionne connects the dots in todays WaPo:
O'Reilly is irate that the leading Democratic presidential candidates are showing up this weekend. "The far leftKeep up the good work, Falafel Man!
wants a quasi-socialistic economy and a one-world foreign policy, where national security decisions are made only with the approval of other countries," O'Reilly fumed. "So that's the soup the Democratic presidential candidates will be dining on when they show up at the Kos convention."
I'm not in the habit of giving advice to Bill O'Reilly, but there's always a first time: Liberal rage at Rush Limbaugh not only was useless, but it actually strengthened his credibility with the right. (I speak from experience.) Bill, I bet Markos loves what you're doing.
2 comments:
While it's impossible to get inside the heads of right-wing media personalities like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter, I think the reason while Mr. O'Reilly decided to irrationally lash out at YearlyKos is that he is afraid of the growing power of the blogosphere.
Mr. O'Reilly is afraid because the blogosphere is bringing reason back to political discourse. Reasoned political discourse sheds light on the fact that he is a shrill demagogue. When the public realizes how corrosive he and others like him are, they will stop watching his show and stop buying his books.
Most importantly, once people like Mr. O'Reilly lose influence, more attention will be given to a real debate of the issues. Once the irrational demonizing of liberal ideas ceases, progressive ideas will win the debate and elections on merit.
Exactly. I see blogophobia in the mainstream media as well, where it's driven more by competitive than ideological interest. The blogs have removed the filter, and that leaves nutjobs like O'Reilly with only himself to talk to.
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