No spin on NPR?

corplinx said:
Someone up top at FoxNews should have a talk with Bill about his "interpersonal skills" Al Franken, despite being a nutcase at times off-camera, _always_ looks good when on camera because he remembers that above all a nonchallant person comes off best.
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I went over to O'Reilly's web page to see what his take on this was (beyond what Terry Gross played of his response from his TV show). He had an audio clip of the interview and of the whole thing, he choose to play the portion where he was the angryist and most rude, walking out on the interview.

I think this is just part of his schtick. I think he went in there planning to blow up at NPR's "bias against him" to satisfy his self-fullfilling prophecy that he's "Enemy #1 to the Leftist extremists" or some such nonsense.
 
Upchurch said:
I went over to O'Reilly's web page to see what his take on this was (beyond what Terry Gross played of his response from his TV show). He had an audio clip of the interview and of the whole thing, he choose to play the portion where he was the angryist and most rude, walking out on the interview.

I think this is just part of his schtick. I think he went in there planning to blow up at NPR's "bias against him" to satisfy his self-fullfilling prophecy that he's "Enemy #1 to the Leftist extremists" or some such nonsense.
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Not a bad theory. Being a hero to your fans, and also the man your enemies love to hate, is a great way to maintain high ratings.

On the other hand, I like to think he's just an obnoxious jerk, whether it's intentional or not.

AS
 
He put the SMACK DOWN on old Terrie. I thought she was going to start crying!
 
American said:
He put the SMACK DOWN on old Terrie. I thought she was going to start crying!
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I did too. She seemed quite taken aback absolute lack of tact and manners.

BTW, making women cry does not help O'Reilly's claim that he's not a bully.
 
Another interesting side to the whole discussion with Terry Gross was his insistence on research and expertise...when it came to public policy at lest. However, his claimed beliefs and dismissal of science was not, apparently, based on his unique ability to research.

He was dismissive of the science, indeed quite ignorant of the science behind the big bang theory, and made the predictable mistake of the scientifically illiterate: that is equating theory with opinion. In other words, he can have all kinds of informed opinions on politics, he can dismiss those opinions he doesn't like...so why isn't it the same for the big bang?

Sadly, Terry Gross did not point out to him -- nor, I guess, would I expect her to -- that "theory" is based upon an understanding and interpretation of fact...whereas opinion -- like political punditry and demagoguery -- need have only the most limited relationship to facts.

It was also odd that on the one hand he was promoting the discipline he got at a "catholic" (presumably Joust) school, and the tools that it presumably provided to him to decipher "facts" and "truth," yet as soon as his observations went into the "spiritual" side, all of that training went right out the door...

Consistency, I guess, being the hobgoblins of little minds (and, clearly, in his own opinion of himself the BO'R(e) doesn't have a little mind).
 
Yeah, this is a new side of BO'R(e) (love that one, hs4!) that I was not previously familiar: religious woo-woo.
 
American said:
He put the SMACK DOWN on old Terrie. I thought she was going to start crying!
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Uh, no. She's been through worse - listen to the interview with Gene Simmons. Frustrated is not the same as "about to cry." It's "Terry," by the way.
 
Upchurch said:
BTW, making women cry does not help O'Reilly's claim that he's not a bully.
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Then you don't think much of women, or else she shouldn't be doing political interviews if she can't compose herself and handle a direct and difficult challenge.
 
American said:
Then you don't think much of women, or else she shouldn't be doing political interviews if she can't compose herself and handle a direct and difficult challenge.
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LOL! This from the guy who is mystified why women don't want to date him!:roll:

And NPR had better watch out. Bill will probably sue them.
 
American said:
or else she shouldn't be doing political interviews if she can't compose herself and handle a direct and difficult challenge.
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You mean like good ol' bill with his pre-screened callers and mic cut-off button?

Ya know, I was just talking with some friends last night about this and I'm more and more convinced that the angry conservative talk show host phenomenon is just an act. The more irrationally angry they are, the less I'm starting to believe it.

Michael Savage is probably the best example. He's a former hippy and alternative mediicine wholistic herbalist and now he's the angriest conservative zealot on the airwaves?

Bill's explosion on NPR was so staged. He sat there and listened to Terry Gross read a book reviewer call Michael Moore's book bumper sticker material and he called it a favorable review? That takes enough selective hearing to strain crediblity.

Then, as evidence of NPR's bias, on his website he plays a clip not of Gross's actually "badgering" (which isn't a tenth as bad as O'Reilly's usual fair) him but of his own outburst.

My guess is that for him, this wasn't NPR. It was plain ol' PR.
 
American said:



Then you don't think much of women, or else she shouldn't be doing political interviews if she can't compose herself and handle a direct and difficult challenge.
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She kept her composure.

Bill through a hissy fit and left. Which one should not be doing political interviews again?
 
Doubt said:


She kept her composure.

Bill through a hissy fit and left. Which one should not be doing political interviews again?
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I agree. I thought she remained quite professional and poised throughout the whole confrontation. She even handled the impending dead air quite well by saying that "that was my interview with Bill O'Reilly," or something like that.

Few could have handled themselves better without incident. I even e-mailed her about it and praised her.

AS
 
Doubt said:

She kept her composure.
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I should have said. While her voice wavered, she did keep her composure. And even more to her credit, although she addressed his flame bait, she didn't sink to his level by flaming in return (thus the difference between a political interview and a political debate).
 
While her voice wavered
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Oddly enough, I thought her voice wavering was more a sign that she couldn't believe this guy was getting upset like he was, more than intimidation. I really think Terry, for the most part, tries for a calm, reasoned interview and discussion. She expects her guests to also seek that...even in a tough interview.

Though I thought Gross was out to "get" the BO'R(e) [-- not in the lible/slander sense, but more in the make him answer the charges about himself rather than focus on his book (which assumes that -- his book -- was why the BO'R(e) was scheduled], I thought she asked many an interesting question and posed some difficult questions to the BO'R(e). However, the BO'R(e) had to have known that the show was more like Charlie Rose -- even when confrontational -- than his own or its ilk. So, methinks the BO'R(e)'s walk out was explicitly staged by him, so he could go back to his listeners and claim some sort of pyric victory over the forces of liberal/secular evil.

Otherwise, nothing about the interview -- even its focus on the BO'R(e), his statements and his critics rather than his "book" -- required the sort of outraged tirad/hissy fit he threw.
 
My impression was that he was spoiling for a fight from the very beginning. He was baiting her, making snide comments, talking about character assassination in the liberal media, kept escalating. I think he made some direct comments about NPR before he walked out. When she, like a good interviewer, did not take the bait and stayed calm he walked out. She did try to get him to answer some tough questions, of course. Interestingly, he routinely mocks people on his show when they do not want to come, and when the do, he ambushes them, shouts them down and he has been alleged to cut their microphones. I take it he does not like being asked some hard questions. I am not surprised he did not play her interviewing him. I suppose hard core listeners would not have tuned in to NPR, and can only nod sympathetically as their hero gets ambushed by evil liberals.

Does anyone know if NPR makes transcripts available?
 
Though I didn't catch the program in question, by the descriptions in this thread (as well as listening to Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" hundreds of times before) my tendency is to think Upchurch is on to something. Mr. O'Reilly seems generally disinclined to conversation when he'd rather "talk" (at least on record). Why change for one of the most highly regarded interviewers in the business?
 
I noticed that the bit of the Terry Gross interview where Billy stomped out made it onto the other NPR show Wait! Wait! Don't tell me!.

It was pretty cool!

:cool:
 
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