The Two Faces of Bill O’Reilly
By now just about everyone’s seen the video of Geraldo Rivera and Bill O’Reilly’s red-faced scream-fest. Most people watching Bill’s demagoguery will think they’ve seen the worse. Actually, that’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Because the only real difference between Bill’s behavior last Thursday and most nights is he lost control and, in the process, a rare thing happened. He lost the debate and looked really, really bad. I’m actually surprised Bill aired the segment. Like Imus before him, his ego probably didn’t let him see how bad his behavior was until his audience let him know.
Monday Bill’s scrambling in full damage control mode. Geraldo’s left on vacation but Bill gets him on the phone to reopen the topic. But anyone listening to Bill and Geraldo on Monday – especially Bill’s whitewash – wouldn’t have a clue what the entire flap is about. Because, as per Bill’s usual habit, he data-mines Thursday’s blow-up and applies a lot of creative spin to turn one of cable news’ most embarrassing moments into the height of journalistic art.
Geraldo apparently needs the work pretty bad because he largely plays along. While I’m no fan of Geraldo’s I’m thoroughly embarrassed for the man. It’s painful watching such a suck-up.
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