Bill O’Reilly has interviewed Barack Obama. The interview airs tonight, Thursday, Sept 4, 2008, the night of John McCain’s speech. Will O’Reilly ask Obama any substantive questions? The snippet I heard a short while ago was a cookie cutter fluff question.
The Washington Post came out with an article on Sept 2, 2008. The article states that the interview was the result of a meeting Obama had with Fox executives 3 months ago. Here are some exerpts:
“By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008; Page A22
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 — At a secret meeting with Barack Obama three months ago, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says, he tried to clear the air with the Democratic senator by saying that his organization was determined to be fair but would not be “in the tank” for Obama’s campaign.”
“During the sit-down in a Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite in Manhattan that included Rupert Murdoch, the network’s owner, Obama expressed concern about the way Fox was covering him. “I just wanted to know if I’m going to get a fair shake from Fox News Channel,” Ailes recalled him saying.
“Senator, you’re the one who boycotted us,” Ailes says he replied. “We’re not the ones who boycotted you. Nor did we retaliate for your boycott.””
“Underneath all the politeness, each side clearly wanted something. Ailes was interested in smoothing relations and having Obama appear on his network, and the senator from Illinois hoped to neutralize a potential adversary and improve his treatment on the nation’s top-rated cable news channel.”
“Hannity has led the media pack in repeatedly playing videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and questioning his association with William Ayers, a member of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960s. In a recent interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said Fox News and others went after his wife, Michelle, “in a pretty systematic way. . . . If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in and day out, that’ll drive up your negatives.”
“If you’re asking me if we’re going to be in the tank for you, like MSNBC and CNN, the answer is no,” Ailes recalls saying. Executives at the rival cable networks say it is Fox’s political coverage that has been unfair.”
“Asked to assess the sit-down, Ailes said: “I wanted him to understand that we’re a real journalism organization and we’re going to cover what’s there. We’re not out to get him. . . . Neither of us was overly aggressive but neither of us blinked.””
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/09/02/ST2008090203320.html
Verdict:
O’Reilly and Fox sold out.
O’Reilly begins with Obama being right about Iraq and then asks for Obama to admit he was wrong about the surge.
O’Reilly and Fox are a joke.
Hannity is the only one at Fox doing his job. Asking the important questions about Obama.
O’Reilly is too self absorbed pontificating in his sinecure job, spouting multisyllabic words.
Bottom line. O’Reilly did a lousy job. He gave Obama the questions he has rehearsed time and time again. What right does O’Reilly have to state that OBama was right about his earlier position on Iraq. Obama is a pathological liar and therefore has no discernable position.
I could do a better job than O’Reilly any day.
Visit the Petition to Impeach, expel Senator Obama:
http://obamaimpeachment.org
Citizen WElls 