My part in O’Reilly’s downfall
That time when offended one of the most offensive people on television Yes, I was a little bit thrilled when Bill called me out on one of his talking points on what must have been a very slow news day and surely the result of an overactive Google alert
Atext came through late at night: “Bill O’Reilly called you out on Fox News.” Um, what? I knew I had written something about the jowly old trout but nothing about this made sense. I was just a lowly part-time writer of online TV tattle, and Bill, well he was the blowhard in chief for the USA. Turns out it was because of a sloppily written preview I’d written of upcoming TV shows screening in NZ, in which I suggested Bill would fizz at the bunghole if someone tried to assassinate President Barack Obama, thus giving Bill the chance to trot another one of his dead President National Geographic TV specials (Killing Lincoln, Killing JFK, Killing Reagan).
A quick search and there he was, on his show naming me and suggesting that I was “mentally disturbed”.
Awesome I thought, I’ve offended one of the most offensive people in the world.
So how did this lead to Bill’s fall from grace and his recent ouster from Fox on the back of multiple sexual harassment charges? You’d be correct in guessing that I used the snappy headline as way to insert myself into the story of the day.
Yes, I am just another knob who marks the death or firing of a famous person with a self-serving “RIP (insert name of famous person here), here’s the interview, photograph/lithograph/cupcake I did with them”, followed by a link that no one will ever tap on except for the author. It’s a sad reality that many of us suffer from, wanting it all to be about us.
Anyway, back to me. Yes, I was a little bit thrilled when Bill called me out on one of his talking points on what must have been a very slow news day and surely the result of an overactive Google alert. Since then, I’ve kept an eye on old Bill and watched as his downfall unfolded, while somehow feeling connected.
I guess that I have been hatewatching O’Reilly on and off for a decade or so and despite his bullying right-wing nut-jobbery, I often found him entertainingly appalling in the same way I tune into Leighton Smith on ZB, though to be fair, Smith is rather gentlemanly in comparison.
I reckon there’s a mastery in their performances that partly transcends ethical considerations. But there’s a deep sadness too.
Still I tuned in to Bill, a bit like taking a whiff of diesel from a passing bus and finding the pleasure in it. I knew it was bad for me, but still, I sniffed.
That said, I could never endure more than 10 minutes of the show, just too much mean energy that eventually turns the brain into a Rubik’s Cube of anguish.
O’Reilly’s legacy has been much discussed since he got the boot, some going so far as to say that he prac- tically created the post-truth Trumped-up world that we find ourselves in today. One only needs to have peek at Donald Trump’s own twitter feed to gauge how important O’Reilly and Fox News has been to him. Donald has 26 million followers but only follows 45. Apart from every Trump hotel in Christendom, the accounts that he hits back are mostly the dark stars of the Fox firmament.
There’s O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Geraldo, and the simpering rising star of the network, Tucker Carlson. Trump even follows the worst snake in the swamp, Jesse Watters, a man who looks in the mirror and sees Jon Stewart while the rest of us see something closer to Michael Laws, or Gollum.
Trump appeared on O’Reilly’s show dozens of times and came to Bill’s defense when the scandal broke. Bill is, it is alleged, a very dirty old man who used his power to sexually harass women, much like his boss and mentor Roger Ailes, and probably like many powerful men of his generation.
Which makes him what? Another dinosaur heading for the tar pit?
His one legacy is this: He gave us The Colbert Report. Steven Colbert’s wonderful act was a clever parody of Bill in all his jumped up right-wing puffery, it was a glorious ride and it launched Colbert’s career.
O’Reilly also cemented the place of Jon Stewart in our hearts thanks to some famous meetings, all available on YouTube, in which the comedian dealt out some intellectual GBH to bully Bill.
Meanwhile, the ABC in Australia aired a tremendous tribute to our own John Clarke a week after he died, John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time is a glorious half hour featuring Clarke’s career via the archive and from the mouths of his many colleagues and friends, Sam Neil among them.
Talk about a legacy.