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Mon. Aug 18, 2003

Thin Skinned Billy Goes Deaf

Thin Skinned Billy Goes Deaf – Despite a web-wide day in honor of the fact he’d stepped knee deep in the dog’s business (dragging Fox’s legal staff with him), Bill O’Reilly continues to beat his, umm, chest, from within his mirrorless vacuum: “The dominance of Fox in the cable news world has shattered the stranglehold the left had on TV news for decades, and that has caused fear and loathing in some political circles [...] This country is a better place because Fox News has succeeded.”

Is the part where I’m supposed to stand up and salute?

Meanwhile, the rest of the Free World giggles and guffaws. Like the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune, in “Fair and Balanced baloney”: “We’re considering trademarking the words ‘are you kidding?’ and ‘waste of the court’s time’ so when the judge rules in this case, we may have some issues of our own with his honor.”

Even the Wall Street Journal, a frequent Franken foil, had to try an editorial intervention: “It’s not easy siding with Al Franken [...] Still, the First Amendment does not distinguish between the boorish and the brilliant, and even if Mr. Franken is all the things that the Fox suit accuses him of being, he remains as entitled as any other American to its protections. Fox may well insist on its day in court. But in so doing it risks leaving the public with a caricature of itself far more ridiculous than anything Mr. Franken ever could have come up with on his own.”

Bingo. And beyond looking foolish, there is a long history of counterproductive lawsuits meant to stop a book/movie/recording that backfire, and cause a bestseller. Neil Steinberg amplifies in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Why does trying to squelch something stoke the fires of curiosity? First, we are so inundated with the mundane, the dull, the inoffensive, that the idea that something might contain something so objectionable it can’t be legally permitted grabs our interest. And second, pure contrariness. We just don’t like to be told what to do.”

“Frankly, considering how well lawsuits work, I’m surprised there aren’t a lot of hoax lawsuits designed to drum up sales [...] I’m still holding out hope that the whole Fox lawsuit could be a hoax [...] I’m hoping this is all preliminary to the big ‘O’Reilly vs. Franken’ face-off on Fox. It would renew my faith in the deviousness of mankind.”

And at this point, it’s about the only way Fox might save face.

But O’Reilly can ignore The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Chicago Tribune, et al. They don’t bring him ratings, they bring him more notoriety. However, he doesn’t appear to have nearly enough subtle sense to realize the perception he is building in the average Joe or Jane. Or Michele: “He comes off as an arrogant, pompous, overbearing ass most of the time.”

And you know how we all enjoy inviting people like that into our living rooms.