Crazy as a Fox

I get the Fox News Channel in my cable package. I never asked for it, I didn't particularly want it, but there it is on channel 181. And every once in a while I spend a few minutes watching it with the same fascination as rubberneckers at the scene of an accident. This evening was one such instance, and it was then that I remembered why I can't stand more than a few minutes of it. As I've mentioned before, I read right wing blogs and comments from right wingers in left wing blogs, and I accept the fact that they have overdosed on Kool-Aid and have a right to be heard and their opinions can be taken for what they are. But Fox News is in a league of its own for a number of reasons. I'll need a running serial to do that subject justice.

This evening's entertainment was The O'Reilly Factor. Bill O'Reilly, who is like a Right Wing Howard Cossell but less loveable and much less smart, had an "interview" with a former National Security official from the Clinton administration. His topic: debating whether the terrorist bombings in London were a reaction to UK involvement in the Iraq war. O'Reilly proceeded to employ a favourite tactic of the Right Wing spin machine - the Straw Man argument. O'Liely (as he's known in the liberal blogosphere) went on about how liberals claim that the war in Iraq is a "justification" for the terrorist attacks. I'm sure that a Harvard-educated man like O'Reilly knows the difference between "explanation" and "justification", but why let facts get in the way of a good rant? All he has to do is keep repeating the party line that liberals are pro-terrorist and anti-American, and the unthinking masses who watch and accept his every word will really believe that he's looking out for them. He could have used his program to have a legitimate discussion on the subject, using available data from the CIA and other sources who have monitored the rising levels of terrorism and recruiting since the beginning of the war. Instead, he resorted to talking points and straw men and yelling over his guest. And in typical Fox News fashion, the "liberal" guest who was on to debate O'Reilly was a lightweight marshmallow who never called O'Reilly on his straw man. I guess middle America calls that Fair & Balanced.

On the few times I've been unable to avert my eyes from Fox News, the message always seems to be the same: Liberals are ruining the United States. But last time I checked, the Republicans were in control of the White House, the Congress, the Judiciary and most of the Governorships. The weakness of the Democratic Party (through every fault of their own) has caused the U.S. to be pretty much a one party country. And yet, the majority of Right Wing commentators spend the bulk of their time bashing liberals and Democrats. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and many, many others make their living dumping on the people who have the least to do with the direction of the country. This is one of the reasons I believe I'm on the correct side of the spectrum - these clowns doth protest too much, methinks. (Righties are big on Projection too.) But that's their whole schtick, and deep down they are actually most thankful that we're not going anywhere. The disappearance of liberals would be as catastrophic for them as world peace would be for General Electric.