FOX's O'Reilly was particularly odious today. I sense a new, bitter and forceful stridency among these pundits on the Right, as they hopefully feel the great American public turning their face away from their sensational ugliness.
This in the context of FOX refusing to pay its indecency fines, while airing the "culture warrior" program, "Nothing But the Truth", in which marriages, even, are encouraged to be ripped apart on National Television.
Isn't that combo just a perfect encapsulation of Rightwing Politics in America? A moralizing "culture warrior", a station that uses the courts/law to repudiate the public interest, and a prime time show that appeals to the gutter.
On to the show:
item: O'Reilly took upon himself the right to speak for white America, in spuriously suggesting to his guest that any kind of defense of Rev Jeremiah Wright would set the country back decades on race.
More broadly, on this topic, it's not just O'Reilly, either, but so many from his generation who are unwilling to have a frank discussion about American history, even to this day. For instance, this does NOT describe the sensibility of O'Reilly or his eggregious Rightwing talk show fellow travelers:
We didn't get it. We do now.
The people that O'Reilly and his talkshow buddies, like Hannity, are talking to are interested in giving people permission to hold onto their silent prejudices, mostly, by not facing the fire or exposure required to re-examine and re-work them.
item: Genocidal tendencies. If you thought Townhall.com's ugly t-shirt adverts ("Imagine No Liberals") were bad, then O'Reilly surpassed them, asking the leading question of Dennis Miller whether he wished that "all of them turned into a pillar of salt".
item: Following on the musings of Dennis Millar, O'Reilly forced laughter at "the sightless" being inspired to do drugs and thereby live-it-up, by Governor Paterson. [You know, when the Left makes fun of someone like Senator Vitter, it is because of their blatant hypocrisies. While the blogosphere is Wild, Wild West, I can't say I've seen any respectable TV channels doing this sort of thing just for the sport.]
