David and Goliath -- National Public Radio and Bill O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone"

January 17, 2002

by JACKIE CORR, BUTTE, MONTANA

Somebody was looking over my shoulder and the conversation went like this as I remember.

"I see you are bashing Bill O'Reilly again."
"I am."
"Wasn't O'Reilly a famous Vietnam war hero?"
"You are mixing him up with somebody else."
"Don't you have something better to do?"
"I do."
"Then can you explain yourself?"
"I can."
"I'm waiting."

It's O'Reilly Bashing Time Again - And It's All Bill's Fault Because He Won't Stop Whining.

A David and Goliath story starring Fox News's Bill O'Reilly as Goliath and National Public Radio as David.

With billions of dollars, an army of corporate advertisers, and the entire Fox Network behind him, we found the scourge of the media elite terrorizing National Public Radio a few days ago and Bill is still gloating about it. Headlines at Fox announced the "Factor's" mission. As always the headlines were the old O'Reilly loaded question tactic asking: "Is National Public Radio really just an exclusionary, politically correct propaganda machine?"

Of course stacking the deck and dealing from the bottom is authentic O'Reilly and summoned to the "No Spin Zone" were two former representatives from public radio. Their mission: To explain why NPR is not a "exclusionary, politically correct propaganda machine."

Attending the January 8 inquisition were Adam Clayton Powell III, a former vice president of news at NPR, and John Dinges, a former editorial director at National Public Radio as well.

Right away O'Reilly starts off as O'Reilly. "The federal government gives it (NPR) approximately $3 million in tax money each year. But for my money, NPR is an exclusionary, politically correct propaganda machine not at all interested in free speech. However, as always, I could be wrong."

Of course, three million is three million. But it won't buy a decent bomb or the paint on a new fighter plane and is not even a drop in the bucket of the tax rebates granted to the big corporations and the wealthiest five per cent of the country in the upper class government giveaway that President George Bush calls a tax cut. And do you think any decent Enron executive would have been caught leaving the sinking S.S. Enron with such a piddling amount as three million bucks? No way!

But none of that outrages O'Reilly. It is the weak and feeble NPR that he has in his sights for public radio has become politically fashionalble for the O'Reillys and his kind to attack. But could there be more to it then that?

As expected, and as the show went on, Bill recited his familiar indictment of both the sins of liberalism and the biases of NPR. But beneath the surface he was seething. As we shall find out, NPR had committed a even greater sin then that of liberalism. Maybe the greatest. The O'Reilly expose was about to reveal that NPR had deeply offended the personality that BuzzFlash's Gloria R. Lalumia simply describes as "THE EGO."

And so he waited, waited for the opportunity to pounce, to expose the snub. Which came when Dinges claimed that NPR was doing a good job. "And there was a real effort to upgrade the journalism at NPR. And I think largely we succeeded," he said.

O'Reilly more then disagreed. He jumped off the roof screaming and I want you to listen to this carefully. Better yet, actually pretend you are Bill O'Reilly and read his response out loud.

"And I'll tell you why. And this is personal, this is absolutely personal. As you both know, I've had two number one best-sellers, OK, The O'Reilly Factor and The No Spin Zone. And every, major city, radio outlet, talk radio outlet, has invited me on whether they're liberal, conservative, doesn't make any difference, big book, they want to talk to me, I'm a controversial guy."

"Not one NPR invitation. And we -- you know, and I said to my publicist, I said, You know, give them a call, this woman in D.C., what's her name, the very erudite, I mean, oh, you know who I'm talking about."

WATCH OUT FOR ERUDITE LIBERALS

Er·u·dite = Learned. To instruct the rude and ignorant.
Etymology: Middle English erudit, from Latin eruditus, from past participle of erudire to instruct, from e- + rudis rude, ignorant
Date: 15th century: possessing or displaying erudition: Learned. An erudite scholar. Or someone that works for NPR.

Erudite! Can you just imagine that? Isn't this all too much? Erudite! Of course we know what he is talking about. Every single member of O'Reilly's audience knows that acting erudite, or talking down to the working class (Which Bill so nobly represents and defends.) is a dead liberal giveaway. No, you won't fool the "No Spin Zone" with that little trick. So again, a liberal plot to exclude the great one is exposed by O'Reilly.

And there's more. A lot more. For you just don't snub "THE EGO" and expect him to forget about it: Do you think he's going to stew on NPR for days and weeks and not strike back? Say these words to yourself as Bill says them, "shut out, shut down, shut out, all things considered except O'Reilly. And here in New York, WNYC last week said, Let's give out some literary awards and we'll call them the' Anything but O'Reilly Literary Awards.' And of course I wasn't invited to be on WNYC."

And it is an outrage. But it is a sleight that is overcome by the greatness of Bill O'Reilly which shines in the purity of his motives. If he has been snubbed it is of no consequence. He has suffered before (The subject of his books.) and he will suffer again. His true intentions lie in exposing the liberal agenda over at NPR. "I'm just telling you that I'm symptomatic of what goes on there. So don't accuse me of trying to bully my way on NPR, I couldn't care less." And he is not going to let us forget that NPR "is an exclusionary network that's being paid for by the federal dollars."

And so the show ends. "We're going to let our people make this all things considered baloney. Thanks, gentlemen, we appreciate it."

All things considered is about right. What we have is another glowing day for journalism and enlightenment over at Fox. We decide and then we report as they don't say in the spin zone.

* * *

Contributed by Jackie Corr <jcorr@in-tch.com>