Volconvo is a debate forum for the discussion of political, religious, and news-based topics.

m5lange1 · Feb 14, 2007, 04:15 pm

I took a week and made a point to watch and listen to Bill O'Riley's radio and TV show. The most common thing he said was ".......he/she is off the chart"

My first thought was... let's get this poor guy a bigger chart. Then I noticed that everyone off the chart was off the left side. In fairness he did note several times that there is also an extreme right wing but they never seemed to be "off the chart".

The second most common thing I heard him say was variations on how he was neither right, nor left. That he was in the center.

That is when I realized the problem with his chart. Its not too small, He is just very mistaken about where the middle is.

Why did I come to that conclusion?

1. He spent nearly all of his time criticizing the left.

2. He called far leftists "bomb throwers" and "character assassins" (which I think is true) but denied that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were also bomb throwers and character assassins (which is pretty strange considering their similarity to their left-wing counter parts). He did proudly note that he had called Ann to task once but reiterated that she was not bomb thrower.

3. Every time he interrupted one of his anti left tirades with an obviously token ."...you have that on the right too..." comments it was inevitably followed by a "...but (insert disclaimer to soften the comment here)".

4. He was frequently promoting his book "Culture Warrior" in which he declares the "SPs" (secular progressives) his enemies. Then points out repeatedly that the SPs are all leftists. Ok. Maybe so, But that sort of goes against the constant claim of neutrality.

Although he said he believes GW messed up on the Iraq war several times, it was always followed by that inevitable "but..." then 10 or 15 minute blasting of anyone who criticizes GW.

What is the point?

Weellll,
I think Bill really believes he is in the center politically. Therefore the middle of his chart is somewhere just center of what we true independents see as the boderline of far right.

If he is only allowing so much space on either side of his center, no wonder people keep falling off of the left side.:)

GHook93 · Feb 14, 2007, 04:37 pm

Quote:

Quote by: m5lange1

I took a week and made a point to watch and listen to Bill O'Riley's radio and TV show. The most common thing he said was ".......he/she is off the chart"

My first thought was... let's get this poor guy a bigger chart. Then I noticed that everyone off the chart was off the left side. In fairness he did note several times that there is also an extreme right wing but they never seemed to be "off the chart".

The second most common thing I heard him say was variations on how he was neither right, nor left. That he was in the center.

That is when I realized the problem with his chart. Its not too small, He is just very mistaken about where the middle is.

Why did I come to that conclusion?

1. He spent nearly all of his time criticizing the left.

2. He called far leftists "bomb throwers" and "character assassins" (which I think is true) but denied that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were also bomb throwers and character assassins (which is pretty strange considering their similarity to their left-wing counter parts). He did proudly note that he had called Ann to task once but reiterated that she was not bomb thrower.

3. Every time he interrupted one of his anti left tirades with an obviously token ."...you have that on the right too..." comments it was inevitably followed by a "...but (insert disclaimer to soften the comment here)".

4. He was frequently promoting his book "Culture Warrior" in which he declares the "SPs" (secular progressives) his enemies. Then points out repeatedly that the SPs are all leftists. Ok. Maybe so, But that sort of goes against the constant claim of neutrality.

Although he said he believes GW messed up on the Iraq war several times, it was always followed by that inevitable "but..." then 10 or 15 minute blasting of anyone who criticizes GW.

What is the point?

Weellll,
I think Bill really believes he is in the center politically. Therefore the middle of his chart is somewhere just center of what we true independents see as the boderline of far right.

If he is only allowing so much space on either side of his center, no wonder people keep falling off of the left side.:)

He is far right that is also foresure, but he is entertaining. I find him comical at times. Many issues I find him extreme on. Especially ones in regard to artistic value. However, I find him correct on some issues such as the border and his backing to the 2 wrongfully convicted border agents.

Milton Bradley · Feb 14, 2007, 04:55 pm

Well m5lange, now you know why he illicits so much criticism from the Volconvo crowd. His reality centers around himself, and his limited view of the world, and thus everything needs to be "bent" to fit inside his little enclosed reality.

Gods_Mercenary · Feb 14, 2007, 05:04 pm

Everyone's reality centers around themselves.

Osborn F Enready · Feb 14, 2007, 05:13 pm

Quote:

Gods Merc said:
Everyone's reality centers around themselves.

We don't all claim to be non-biased jounalists or reporters.
We don't all claim to be in the center of a "no-spin zone".
We don't all deny our bias.

Gods_Mercenary · Feb 14, 2007, 05:19 pm

We aren't all as silly as bill O'Rielly, we aren't all rich because we're silly for a while on national telivision.

phoenix_fire · Feb 14, 2007, 05:24 pm

I think that many people probably consider themselves close to the center. That is because most people believe themselves to be reasonable, and most believe that being in the middle means that you are reasonable. I doesn't matter whether this is true or not, but that they think it is. It is a rare but vocal crowd of cornballs that usually consider themselves to the extreme left or right, and they take pride in their nonconformity. Not to say Bill O'Reilly is not a cornball.

shawmutt · Feb 14, 2007, 05:52 pm

The Colbert/O'Reilly faceoff

O'Reilly: “I'm not a tough guy. This is all an act."
Colbert: "If you're an act, then what am I?"

Milton Bradley · Feb 14, 2007, 07:25 pm

[quote=shawmutt;341555]The Colbert/O'Reilly faceoff

O'Reilly:

Gods_Mercenary · Feb 14, 2007, 09:04 pm

I love Colbert, he actually manages to make valid political points occasionaly.

Milton Bradley · Feb 15, 2007, 02:25 pm

Hmmm, my post disappeared. Anyway, I sort of remember what I said.

I was disappointed at how the whole Colbert, O'Reilly meeting went down. I thought that show sucked, and was not up to par in any way. Looking back, I can sort of understand Colbert's approach because he didn't want to blow his cover.

By that I am again implying that the Left understands that Colberts is lampooning the Right, but the Right doesn't seem able to detect the BS because he says all the "right things".

Because this is perhaps the sadest thing I can imagine, I ask, should we be laughing at these people?

phoenix_fire · Feb 15, 2007, 03:05 pm

Well, setting up a leftist pundit next to a serious right-winger is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. It would be the same if the roles were reversed.

Hmm · Feb 15, 2007, 03:21 pm

Bill O'Reilly is hilarious in the sense that during every show, it seems that he constantly reassures himself that he is "fair and balanced," which is clearly untrue.

Whenever he invites right-wing guests on his show (which is the majority of the time), he coddles them and their opinions and rarely disagrees with them (when he does, it is on a ridiculously minor point).

However, whenever a left-wing guest is invited (which, by the way, many refuse because they know how unfairly O'Reilly frames issues and abuses his "power") to be on his show, he simply shouts them down and continues to idiotically retiterate his opinions, often cutting the microphones of his left-wing guests who disagree with him.

Gods_Mercenary · Feb 15, 2007, 07:10 pm

Colbert is sly in the way he manipulates his guests, no one comes off his show looking less than ridiculous. He's actually a philosophy major, who knew?

Osborn F Enready · Feb 15, 2007, 10:50 pm

I would have bet that actually Merc.... the guy is a genius.

Colbert truly is a genius at tricking people into freudian slips, exposing their secrets, and revealing their inadequacies.

All you have to do to understand Colbert's show is read between the lines.

I wish there was ONE investigative journalist with the interviewing TALENT and BALLS. The politicians would bar the press, outright, from entering the house.

shawmutt · Feb 16, 2007, 12:14 am

The best I have seen Colbert is at the White House Congressional dinner.

Surprisingly, the media coverage of the event barely mentioned Colbert.

Osborn F Enready · Feb 16, 2007, 12:46 pm

No suprise.... the corporate news networks hate it when they are out done by a comedy act, in the field of journalism, reporting and overall information.

Boetie · Feb 16, 2007, 01:07 pm

If anyone has ever seen the documentary "OutFoxed" there is a segment where it opens up with Bill O'Reilly saying he only used the word "shut up" once. Then you are shown clip after clip after clip of O'Reilly saying shut up to a whole string of different guests. It's hillarious you have to see it.

The joke on the viewers is that they actually think that a person whom spent their whole live in front of a microphone making millions would even have a clue about the world compared to a person whom lived and worked with people via the Peace Corp, or Habitat for Humanity, or any of the other get out there in the big world type of activity.

Take myself for instance. I have met with Palenstinians and Iranians. The beauty of meeting them is they never talked politics they talked about their life, their family, wedding, funeral, just the basic doing some living. Real people. Just as you would if I sat down and asked you to tell me about the world. You would show me a picture of your family and feel proud.

But these fucking clowns like O'Reilly and Limbaugh spew out crap like the Arabs want to kill us all. These radio and TV personalities are getting paid millions to blow fart out of their ass as if they even knew about the world or have even gotten out there and mixed with it. Amazing.

grandpa · Feb 16, 2007, 01:12 pm

Quote:

Quote by: Boetie

If anyone has ever seen the documentary "OutFoxed" there is a segment where it opens up with Bill O'Reilly saying he only used the word "shut up" once. Then you are shown clip after clip after clip of O'Reilly saying shut up to a whole string of different guests.

That's a pretty decent movie. An obvious question: What kind of man invites someone onto his show just to tell them to shut up? Bill!

Grandpa h.

Milton Bradley · Feb 16, 2007, 06:44 pm

Quote:

Quote by: grandpa

An obvious question: What kind of man invites someone onto his show just to tell them to shut up? Bill!

Grandpa h.

LMAO

Truly, I don't know if he does that any more, but I when I did watch the show, he spent a fair amount of time doing just that, telling the guest to STFU.

Even that I could have tolerated if they would only invite on guest willing to be treated in that fashion who will battle it out on that level with him. However I think they cleverly only onvite on people to sensitive to make good agruements when they become offended. That way only the host appeals to the "target demographic".

While I feel it's clever, it's not clever enough to be considered evil genious. So, evil genious, minus the genious, equals ...?

Feb 14, 2007, 04:15 pm	#1 (permalink) (top)
m5lange1 Igneous Magma Posts: 650	Bill O'Riley's inadequate chart. I took a week and made a point to watch and listen to Bill O'Riley's radio and TV show. The most common thing he said was ".......he/she is off the chart" My first thought was... let's get this poor guy a bigger chart. Then I noticed that everyone off the chart was off the left side. In fairness he did note several times that there is also an extreme right wing but they never seemed to be "off the chart". The second most common thing I heard him say was variations on how he was neither right, nor left. That he was in the center. That is when I realized the problem with his chart. Its not too small, He is just very mistaken about where the middle is. Why did I come to that conclusion? 1. He spent nearly all of his time criticizing the left. 2. He called far leftists "bomb throwers" and "character assassins" (which I think is true) but denied that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were also bomb throwers and character assassins (which is pretty strange considering their similarity to their left-wing counter parts). He did proudly note that he had called Ann to task once but reiterated that she was not bomb thrower. 3. Every time he interrupted one of his anti left tirades with an obviously token ."...you have that on the right too..." comments it was inevitably followed by a "...but (insert disclaimer to soften the comment here)". 4. He was frequently promoting his book "Culture Warrior" in which he declares the "SPs" (secular progressives) his enemies. Then points out repeatedly that the SPs are all leftists. Ok. Maybe so, But that sort of goes against the constant claim of neutrality. Although he said he believes GW messed up on the Iraq war several times, it was always followed by that inevitable "but..." then 10 or 15 minute blasting of anyone who criticizes GW. What is the point? Weellll, I think Bill really believes he is in the center politically. Therefore the middle of his chart is somewhere just center of what we true independents see as the boderline of far right. If he is only allowing so much space on either side of his center, no wonder people keep falling off of the left side.:) Protester against the culture war!!!!

Feb 14, 2007, 05:04 pm	#4 (permalink) (top)
Gods_Mercenary Altruism Assassin Location: Massachusetts Posts: 5,286	Everyone's reality centers around themselves. “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein

Feb 14, 2007, 05:19 pm	#6 (permalink) (top)
Gods_Mercenary Altruism Assassin Location: Massachusetts Posts: 5,286	We aren't all as silly as bill O'Rielly, we aren't all rich because we're silly for a while on national telivision. “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein Last edited by Gods_Mercenary; Feb 14, 2007 at 05:43 pm.

Feb 14, 2007, 05:24 pm	#7 (permalink) (top)
phoenix_fire Paladin Location: Narnia Posts: 4,277	I think that many people probably consider themselves close to the center. That is because most people believe themselves to be reasonable, and most believe that being in the middle means that you are reasonable. I doesn't matter whether this is true or not, but that they think it is. It is a rare but vocal crowd of cornballs that usually consider themselves to the extreme left or right, and they take pride in their nonconformity. Not to say Bill O'Reilly is not a cornball. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. -- Song 8:6

Feb 14, 2007, 05:52 pm	#8 (permalink) (top)
shawmutt Slightly Dangerous Location: Greencastle, PA Posts: 1,158	The Colbert/O'Reilly faceoff O'Reilly: “I'm not a tough guy. This is all an act." Colbert: "If you're an act, then what am I?" 78% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Feb 14, 2007, 04:55 pm	#3 (permalink) (top)
Milton Bradley BANNED Location: Ohio Province, Rep. of Comerica Posts: 7,320	Well m5lange, now you know why he illicits so much criticism from the Volconvo crowd. His reality centers around himself, and his limited view of the world, and thus everything needs to be "bent" to fit inside his little enclosed reality.

Feb 14, 2007, 07:25 pm	#9 (permalink) (top)
Milton Bradley BANNED Location: Ohio Province, Rep. of Comerica Posts: 7,320	[quote=shawmutt;341555]The Colbert/O'Reilly faceoff O'Reilly:

Feb 14, 2007, 09:04 pm	#10 (permalink) (top)
Gods_Mercenary Altruism Assassin Location: Massachusetts Posts: 5,286	I love Colbert, he actually manages to make valid political points occasionaly. “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein

Feb 15, 2007, 02:25 pm	#11 (permalink) (top)
Milton Bradley BANNED Location: Ohio Province, Rep. of Comerica Posts: 7,320	Hmmm, my post disappeared. Anyway, I sort of remember what I said. I was disappointed at how the whole Colbert, O'Reilly meeting went down. I thought that show sucked, and was not up to par in any way. Looking back, I can sort of understand Colbert's approach because he didn't want to blow his cover. By that I am again implying that the Left understands that Colberts is lampooning the Right, but the Right doesn't seem able to detect the BS because he says all the "right things". Because this is perhaps the sadest thing I can imagine, I ask, should we be laughing at these people?

Feb 15, 2007, 03:05 pm	#12 (permalink) (top)
phoenix_fire Paladin Location: Narnia Posts: 4,277	Well, setting up a leftist pundit next to a serious right-winger is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. It would be the same if the roles were reversed. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. -- Song 8:6

Feb 15, 2007, 03:21 pm	#13 (permalink) (top)
Hmm Ainsi soit-je Posts: 386	Bill O'Reilly is hilarious in the sense that during every show, it seems that he constantly reassures himself that he is "fair and balanced," which is clearly untrue. Whenever he invites right-wing guests on his show (which is the majority of the time), he coddles them and their opinions and rarely disagrees with them (when he does, it is on a ridiculously minor point). However, whenever a left-wing guest is invited (which, by the way, many refuse because they know how unfairly O'Reilly frames issues and abuses his "power") to be on his show, he simply shouts them down and continues to idiotically retiterate his opinions, often cutting the microphones of his left-wing guests who disagree with him.

Feb 15, 2007, 07:10 pm	#14 (permalink) (top)
Gods_Mercenary Altruism Assassin Location: Massachusetts Posts: 5,286	Colbert is sly in the way he manipulates his guests, no one comes off his show looking less than ridiculous. He's actually a philosophy major, who knew? “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein

Feb 15, 2007, 10:50 pm	#15 (permalink) (top)
Osborn F Enready Principled Observer Location: Toledo, Ohio Posts: 13,873	I would have bet that actually Merc.... the guy is a genius. Colbert truly is a genius at tricking people into freudian slips, exposing their secrets, and revealing their inadequacies. All you have to do to understand Colbert's show is read between the lines. I wish there was ONE investigative journalist with the interviewing TALENT and BALLS. The politicians would bar the press, outright, from entering the house. Petition of Redress of Grievances: http://www.givemeliberty.org/default.htm Canadian Lawsuit Against Their National Banks: http://www.freewebs.com/classaction/ Osborn F. Enready

Feb 16, 2007, 12:14 am	#16 (permalink) (top)
shawmutt Slightly Dangerous Location: Greencastle, PA Posts: 1,158	The best I have seen Colbert is at the White House Congressional dinner. Surprisingly, the media coverage of the event barely mentioned Colbert. 78% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Feb 16, 2007, 12:46 pm	#17 (permalink) (top)
Osborn F Enready Principled Observer Location: Toledo, Ohio Posts: 13,873	No suprise.... the corporate news networks hate it when they are out done by a comedy act, in the field of journalism, reporting and overall information. Petition of Redress of Grievances: http://www.givemeliberty.org/default.htm Canadian Lawsuit Against Their National Banks: http://www.freewebs.com/classaction/ Osborn F. Enready

Feb 16, 2007, 01:07 pm	#18 (permalink) (top)
Boetie Hot Lava Posts: 1,227	If anyone has ever seen the documentary "OutFoxed" there is a segment where it opens up with Bill O'Reilly saying he only used the word "shut up" once. Then you are shown clip after clip after clip of O'Reilly saying shut up to a whole string of different guests. It's hillarious you have to see it. The joke on the viewers is that they actually think that a person whom spent their whole live in front of a microphone making millions would even have a clue about the world compared to a person whom lived and worked with people via the Peace Corp, or Habitat for Humanity, or any of the other get out there in the big world type of activity. Take myself for instance. I have met with Palenstinians and Iranians. The beauty of meeting them is they never talked politics they talked about their life, their family, wedding, funeral, just the basic doing some living. Real people. Just as you would if I sat down and asked you to tell me about the world. You would show me a picture of your family and feel proud. But these fucking clowns like O'Reilly and Limbaugh spew out crap like the Arabs want to kill us all. These radio and TV personalities are getting paid millions to blow fart out of their ass as if they even knew about the world or have even gotten out there and mixed with it. Amazing.