I touched briefly upon Bill O’Reilly in a previous post, including the now-infamous clip of Mr O’Reilly with Jeremy Glick. Now I’d like to take a singular look at the man who characterises himself as a ‘traditionalist’.
As all good journalists realise, personal politics and opinions should (generally) be left at the door before going on air. Common sense dictates is your job to maintain impartiality and objectivity with the subject matter. Sadly, this is not the case with Bill O’Reilly, who often lets his own opinions and prejudices merge with the actual stories and removing all aspirations of objectivity. I’d like to use the case of George Tiller as an example. Mr Tiller worked as a medical director at an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Abortion in the USA is a massive issue, with anti-abortion campaigners often resorting to violence against medical workers. Sadly, Mr Tiller was a victim of this violence, shot through the eye whilst attending church by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion campaigner.
This would not have anything to do with Bill O’Reilly had it not been for the fact that he habitually referenced Mr Tiller during his broadcasts, most notably his “The Radio Factor” show, a spin-off from the “O’Reilly Factor” segment on Fox News. O’Reilly often referred to Mr Tiller as “Tiller the Baby-killer “, quite an inflammatory nickname. Letting his personal opinions, as well as rumour and scandal, be broadcast is just not ethical or in any way impartial. Have a listen to this…
To keep things “Fair & Balanced”, as Fox News would encourage us to do, I have also included O’Reilly’s response.
Now, I don’t want to defame or mock the audience of Fox in any way, but I think it’s fair to say that some of their ranks are not the most media-savvy or too clued up on the effects of semantics or subversive reasoning. O’Reilly’s constant references to “subversive media”, i.e. everyone who doesn’t agree with him or his paymasters, are bound to have an effect on the thought-process of some of those viewers.
Fair and Balanced?
On the Fence 