An evening's treatment to The O'Reilly Factor, minus O'Reilly

As I was milling over ideas and stories to potentially write about as my first blog post this evening I realized that there's not much news related information that hasn't already been referenced or argued upon. To be honest, the reason why I'm getting off on such a late foot for this set of weekly assigned postings is because I couldn't care less about hardly any of the material I skimmed through. As a last ditch effort I fell on the decision that I would tune in to the O'Reilly Factor this evening, which, in case you've been living under a rock for the past decade, is a weekly cable news program under the provision of Fox News hosted by the one and only: Bill O'Reilly. Bill is known for his commanding assertions and the severe scrutiny he imposes on those who disagree with his statements. Whether you like him or not, Bill's public image and instantly recognizable demeanor make him of of the most popular political pundits in the nation. And good for him I say. If you take Bill out of the equation his show is like every other cable news program: boring, unmotivated, and focused only on attacking the opposition, in essence failing to offer any reasonable solutions. Now I'm not saying Bill O'Reilly's show isn't without any of the above mentioned faults, but at least with him there's a residual flair and intensity in the discussions which are included. Check out the videos below as an example.





To me, whether or not you you agree with Bill, his program can occasionally facilitate such heated discussions that are different than other news programs in that they're actually entertaining to watch. I'm not saying that's the function of a news network, but given that they're all so slanted and negative anyway at least give me one that's interesting.

So tonight, I was unpleasantly surprised when I discovered that Bill's regular replacement, miss Laura Ingraham, would be hosting the Factor.



Consider the dismay I immediately assumed when realizing this. Laura's presentation and attitude is so ordinarily bland and distasteful as every other news host that I could hardly muster the courage to continue watching. At least Bill has INTENSITY. He may be incredibly arrogant as times but at least he can be fun and interesting to watch.

But I digress. I carefully watched tonight's program and gathered what I could from the topics that were presented by Laura Ingraham. After an hour my endurance had been fully shocked. Let me break down what the episode consisted of:

I tuned in to the show about 7 minutes late, and the topic ripe with discussion was the current health care debates going on throughout town halls in the states. Now I understand Fox News to take a generally conservative approach in their presentation, but the negativity and partisan finger-pointing blame games here killed me. What this discussion basically consisted of was Laura and her guest representative Dick Morris citing statistic approval ratings to be in decline, that 53% of registered Independents now oppose President Obama. Strong distaste for Obama's government run health care takeover were mentioned, as well as the notion that if the President presses for reconciliation it will be politically suicidal. I couldn't get over how adamant Laura was on attacking the Left. It didn't even seem like see believed what she was saying, but merely felt inclined to say things that would openly criticize the Democrats, just for the controversy. Sorry Laura, but only Bill can do that and get away with it.

The next topic was about Obama's upcoming online speech to school children, with some apparently concerned (the far Right, probably) that the President is using this agenda to radically push his ideals to youngsters. Take a look:



What I unfortunately couldn't uncover was the rest of this topic which included Alan Combes and another woman. How ridiculous it was to listen to the scrutiny and absurd claims these paranoid ladies presented. Just because your in total partisan discordance with Obama doesn't mean his questions are going to brainwash your kids. I was actually impressed with Alan Combes and his reasonable defense. How harmful can the speech be? It's still promoting ethical lifestyles and good citizenship, even if it is coming from the other party. We're all still American.

I can't repeat enough how bad this show is without Bill O'Reilly. The issues are still absurd but at least he's convincing.

What followed next in the show was a purely Conservative propagandist, soft news issue covering Obama's Ramadan dinner. Who cares?

Next on the topic of discussion was Obama's Green Czar and his accused Communist approach, as well as questions like, "Is the Obama administration exploiting 9/11 to promote health care?" Absolutely horrible.

I'm going to wrap it up because the rest of the show was pretty downhill. Topics included such as Moveon.org blaming the media for Obama's declining approval rating, with show guest Bernie Goldberg arguing that in actuality it's because Moveon.org is so liberal and that they feel the media isn't liberal enough. Really boring, partisan, finger pointing stuff.

Actually there is one other part in the episode worth mentioning. The subject matter consisted of a California Congresswoman blaming their state's wildfires on global warming. That's a pretty harmless assumption, right? Wrong. Never mind the fact that scientists have potentially attributed wildfires to global warming for years, the minute a Left leaning Congresswoman makes the assumption Fox News attacks it as farce. An expert on the wildfire topic, Katerine Hayhoe is included here as a guest. When asked by Laura if she agrees to the attribution, she is immediately cut off and forced to listen to anti-liberal nonsense, stuff that didn't even relate to this scientific soft news discussion. Again Laura, only Bill can get away with this.

Bottom line? If you plan to attempt to watch The O'Reilly Factor at all, at least make sure Bill is hosting it, otherwise you're in for a very painful sitting.