O'Reilly, Hannity, the rise of white rage on cable televisio

[natina]

TV's Golden Age of Rage


O'Reilly and Hannity, the rise of white rage on cable television.

This is the modern face of cable television news: angry, emotional, mouth agape in the midst of some hateful monologue. Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, the worst purveyors of cable news rage are all white men over 40. The era of the angry white man is officially here.

There’s Bill O'Reilly, commanding "bad Americans" to "shut up" or shoving his index finger into people's faces and yelling, "Bull!" There was Sean Hannity, accusing guests of saying they would "stand by" while women around the world were raped. And over there was Glenn Beck, dousing a staffer in pretend gasoline before hovering a match over the pleading young man's head—conveniently, Beck's horror show was passed off as a metaphor for the way Barack Obama was going to incinerate America, instead of what it actually was: a gruesome theater spectacle that belonged not on a news network, but in an old-timey street revival.

Fox News gets credit for perfecting this particular brand of madness, but they certainly didn't monopolize it. Eventually, the spittle-flicking caterwauling entered and corroded each of the top cable news networks.

On CNN, the station's local anti-immigration zealot, Lou Dobbs, was caught saying that economists who support immigration are "jackasses," while curmudgeon Jack Cafferty designated all Chinese goods "junk." Over at CNBC, in a now-famous screed from the Chicago Stock Exchange's trading floor, business reporter Rick Santelli proclaimed that people who can't pay their mortgages are "losers." His “populist rant” caused an eruption of cheers from the brokers on the floor. Then there's Keith Olbermann, the most infamously angry newsman not on Fox, and also FNC’s mortal enemy. Every night, the MSNBC host blasts someone as the "Worst Person in the World" and once advised President George W. Bush to "shut the hell up!" If nothing else, at least anger is bipartisan.

But now, try to think of a single African-American newsman who's exhibited—and gotten away with—the type of antics their white counterparts do each and every day on America’s top news channels. Don’t feel ignorant if you can’t. There aren’t any. But why?

Can you imagine the outcry if a black news anchor performed a mock-burning? Imagine a black news anchor flippantly saying of an abducted boy who hadn't escaped fast enough that he must have been having "a lot more fun [with his child molester than] he had under his old parents." Imagine a black news anchor telling an anti-war protester whose father died in 9/11 to "shut up" before cutting off the young man's microphone.

http://www.theroot.com/views/tvs-golden-age-rage?page=0,0&gt1=38002


http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large-image/rage_0.JPG

[trish]

The only thing that can be said for the hosts of the various Fox "news" shows is that they stand antennae and thorax above the mindless drones that nightly tune in to follow their slimy trails of deceit and misdirection.

[q1a2z3]

The only thing that can be said for the hosts of the various Fox "news" shows is that they stand antennae and thorax above the mindless drones that nightly tune in to follow their slimy trails of deceit and misdirection.


Yeah, like everyone should tune in to HA and wait to get programmed by trish and "her" errrr his band of moonbats. The only good thing that can be said about obama is he is the catalyst for the second American Revolution. Only one third of the people were involved in the first one. Fighting the moonbat liberals here will be easier than fighting the British.

As for the angry white guys, getting angry is a waste of energy. Talking heads on cable get angry to support their ratings. The new America will:

prosecute the ACLU under RICO
prevent moonbats from sitting on the bench (Ruth Buzzie Ginsberg)
deport environmentalist wackos (humans don't create global warming)
deport perverts (they will love europe)
mine the borders (illegals can then sneak in all they want)
drill everywhere for oil and gas
drive cars with V8s and no catalytic converters
repeal all the BS obama screw ups - they are not legal he is a Kenyan National.

Most of all: the new school system will not allow moonbats into the classrooms.

[trish]

Yeah, like everyone should tune in to HA and wait to get programmed by trish...
And where did I suggest everyone should? Or are you just reading while stupid?

The new America will:...
What new America? Did you rewrite the constitution, or don’t you unpatriotic asswipes believe in it anymore?

[techi]

There may be an angry white man double standard but the majority of that is coming from a single network, FOX News. And those angry white men are often yelling at other white men. My favority clip is the ever unstable Bill O'Reilly making an ass of himself yelling at Paul Krugman for being critical of Bush's economic plan.... oh my.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUOFTPbxuWA&feature=related

Also, two of the best interviewers in America are non-angry white men: Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose.

As for Fox's female presenters, they have this hot milf airhead thing going on. Gentle on the eyes but hard on the ears.

[TJT]

Beck has gone off the deep end since the election. His TV show is mild compared to his radio show.

O'Reilly is a salesman with an act. He'll holler for whoever pays him the most. His radio show is actually good once you get beyond the BS.

Hannity is the most interesting of the three. He believes what he says,doesn't come across as hysterical like Beck,and has some political ambition. What makes him intriguing are his long standing ties with noted White Supremacist radio personality Hal Turner.

He tries to play down his ties to Hal,but both have been on the others shows over the years on very friendly terms and the airchecks exist to prove it.

As the face of Fox News,Sean is a bit of problem for Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdock. They can't dump him without taking a huge ratings hit,but with a Black president in office that they're opposed to,Sean's past associations undercuts how far they can take things.

Ailes is the friggin' media genius who made the Conservative movement from '68 on. However, he's painted himself in the corner with Sean as his clean up hitter for the next 4-8 years,

[hippifried]

Not everybody can conduct an interview. You have to be smart, polite, prepared, & have the right temperament. The real trick is for the interviewer to be as invisible as possible. It's not about them. That's what makes Charlie Rose so good. Moyers is pushing an agenda & he's choosy about his guests. Larry King's pretty good, but he was much better on the radio. There's something about TV & swelled heads. Dick Cavett was good. I heard Pat Sajak fill in a few times for Larry King on the late night radio, & he was surprizingly good. Also, Maria Bartiromo on CNBC & Gwen Ifill from PBS.

Clowns like O'Reilly can't glean any information from anybody that's not in their camp. He's abusive, & I'm amazed anybody would go on his show. Beck's just a parrot. Hannity's snide, & doesn't strike me as smart enough to be snide. Olberman's a jackass & really starting to grate on my nerves. I like Rachael Maddow though. She's a lot more subtle with her condescention. Smart enough to be snide. Unlike Olberman, she's managed to get a couple of opposition people on for interviews & done a credible job.

The trouble I see is that all the cable "news" channels are just talking heads spouting off. If they can do a good interview, they'll get a lot higher class of guest & the audience will get a lot more information. As it is, the "host" tries to be the center of attention & it all turns to shit. It'd be nice to have hosts who weren't so damn insecure.

[Cuchulain]

Is Billo a racist? Probably. The segment in which he talked about how impressed he was at the restaurant in Harlem because none of the patrons were bellowing "MFer, I want more ice tea" is pretty damning.

This thread has mentioned Billo, Hannity and Beck, but let's not be sexist. Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham equal their male counterparts in REICHwing thuggery. Ingraham subs for O'Reilly regularly and Coulter appears frequently on the tube. I forget why Billo stopped having Malkin on. I guess the old pill-popper, Rush, was left out of this discussion because he doesn't have a tv show anymore.

Leftwing pundits have fewer viewers and less impact than the Fox gang. I love watching Olbermann bash the right. It's fun. The bashing is what draws the partisan fans to shows on either side of the spectrum. Is it good journalism? Is it good for democracy? No, but playing to the lowest common denominator is good for ratings. This may be a sad commentary on America in general, but as a wise man once said, "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public".

Rachel Maddow is a gem and clearly the smartest on either side. Bill Moyers is very laid back and low key, which doesn't draw the less cerebral viewers, who are sadly in the majority.

Pundits on both sides go to extremes, but as trish said in the 'O'Reilly flips out' thread in General, there are degrees of bias. Keith and Rachel don't sink to the same depths as Hannity, Orally and the lunatic Beck. I watched a vid somewhere showing the way Hannity cuts Obama's comments to clearly distort his meaning.

BTW, as someone with a proud Irish heritage, I get a kick out of the way Hannity claims his parents were both from Ireland. If I go by the old adage of the acorn not falling far from the tree, does that mean Hannity's father was an informer for the British? I'm sure my old Irish Grandmother, who was born poor in Ireland in the late 1800s, would be disgusted by both Hannity and O'Reilly.

[notdrunk]

I don't think O'Reilly was trying to be racist. His "MFer, I want more ice tea" comment was going to back to a previous comment in which he said a number of white individuals think black culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg (thuggish..cussing...etc). He used his personal experience to say that black culture isn't dominated by those type of people. Juan William, the individual he was talking to when he made that comment, came out defending him saying O'Reilly was not being racist.

[trish]

I don't think O'Reilly was trying to be racist. Of course he wasn't trying. He doesn't have to try. He IS racist, and he doesn't even realize it.

[addicted]

All commercial media is terrble and they never report the facts. There is never any hard hitting facts and forget about progressive subjects.

[bte]

I don't think O'Reilly was trying to be racist. Of course he wasn't trying. He doesn't have to try. He IS racist, and he doesn't even realize it.

O'Reilly also doesn't like transgendered people. Well he thinks it's wrong. I was watching his show last week I believe where they were talking about an Oregon mayor (I think) who was transgendered. When the camera was on Bill, he just had that disgusted look on his face. I haven't watched his show since.

[El Nino]

BTE... That means he is just attracted to trannies. Everything the guy says, the opposite usually holds true.

[buckjohnson]

I don't know if the anchors are racists, but they are pushing a racist agenda.

What they are fighting is the fact that Obama, an unknown black man with a muslim name, beat them by over 9 million votes and 200 electoral votes. It was such an embarrsing slam dunk victory that they feel isolated and cornered. And their influence is limted. They attract about 3 million viewers a night. The population of US is over 303 million. You do the math....By the way that is about .007 percent of the population watch these clowns.