O'Reilly Yet Again



Atrios's headline for this story in Media Matters (where they catch O'Reilly lying about calling Senator Barbara Boxer a nut) is "Bill O'Reilly Lies Again". I'm not sure this is all that great a headline. How, really, is it different from any other day? I think back to that moment in Outfoxed where Al Franken explains why that guy who slandered the son of the 9/11 victim won't be able to sue. O'Reilly lies so often, Franken says, so pathologically, about so many things, that proving that he lied maliciously in any given circumstance is impossible.

I just operate on the assumption that everything O'Reilly, or George W. Bush for that matter, tells me is a complete lie, lacking any basis in fact. When Bill O'Reilly identifies himself as "Bill O'Reilly" on his show, my first thought is "Okay, Mr. O'Reilly, if that is your real name. I'm going to need three pieces of identification, blood and tissue samples, and access to your family tree to run appropriate DNA comparisons. In 6-8 weeks we'll be able to determine whether you are who you claim to be, and then we'll go from there." I feel no more need to fact-check these guys anymore than I feel the need to fact-check some guy on the street who insists that demon monkeys live in his hair. If they're talking, they're lying. My catchall response to them is the same one Joe Pesci used to rebut the prosecutor's opening statement in My Cousin Vinny: "Yeah, everything that guy just said is bullshit. Thank you."

Posted: Wed - January 26, 2005 at 02:57 PM        

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