Bill O'Reilly Doesn't Listen -- My Encounter with Fox News
Bill O'Reilly was nice to me. When I appeared on his show this week with my son Gotham, he admitted that the Iraq war was misguided, that the U.S. originally backed the Mujahedin and Taliban in the Afghan conflict with Russia, and that I was a patriot. What was going on? O'Reilly kept his voice down, and he didn't interrupt.
I could smell roses as I left the studio. (Later, as I walked past cubicles on Fox News' 27th floor, I spied more than a few Obama stickers and some staff members even approached me to teach them meditation.) It's a peculiar feeling being swept up, however briefly, in the right-wing message machine. But if I thought I could walk away unscathed, I was fooling myself. On O'Reilly's website there's still a headline this morning off to the side: "CNN Analyst Blames America." It links directly to the original Wall street Journal op-ed piece that smears me for saying that U.S. foreign policy inflames radical jihadists. No indication that I have responded to the smear, much less that almost every sensible intelligence analyst around the world absolutely agrees that Bush's "war on terror" has created as many extremists as it has killed. As a parting brickbat, O'Reilly had the forgotten comedian Dennis Miller on last night to call me an idiot. Fox analysis at its best, I suppose.
Striking back at O'Reilly and his jesters is mostly ineffective. They are used to backchat and take any response as fuel for their well-tended fires. Fox News is about giving their right wing audience new faces to hate. That's what the right-wing message machine sells. Rabinowitz, Hannity, Hasselbeck, O'Reilly, Miller, they all feed their audiences if they can label someone as un-American. They may not believe it personally and they may be good people otherwise, but they get paid if they can stoke the fires of outrage and fear. It's hard to understand, but they really don't care if what they are doing is dishonest and hurtful; they have compartmentalized this work as "media business."
The bottom line about appearing on The O'Reilly Factor is that he doesn't really listen. His guests are cardboard props in an echo chamber filled with his voice alone. He said he even wants me back! I sent him a message that if he genuinely wants to discuss creative solutions for terrorism, then I would of course accept his invitation. On the other hand, if he only wants to continue this game of pretense dialogue, I'm not interested. I am waiting to hear back.
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I believe you would have your voice heard and respected on Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow's show. I'd love to see you there as a guest.
I won't watch FOX.......
Here here! Finally Intelligence Celebrated.
Wow . what a brilliant article . thank you Dr Chopra for being so Honest and SPOT ON .
Dr. Chopra, I admire you and applaud you for attempting to make sense of the senseless, and in the process exposing the truth about O'Reilly and the right-wing media to a wider audience. Well done, and "Amen!" to everything you said!
Maybe Jon Stewart can ask Denis Leary "WTF?" next time he's on The Daily Show...
The Fox News sub-culture is very disturbing. The correct way to handle them is don't watch, don't go on the shows, don't buy O'Reilly's books. Absolutely refuse to support them in any way. If you wanted to go all the way, you check out who pays for ads on the network and don't buy the products. With these folks it's the money they hear. Mess with the money flow and watch how things change!
They can do without you an your money so long as they have their millions of lemmings. Passive measures are useless against FoxProp. It's going to take active opposition to have any effect on them.
Why would anyone appear on FOX News is beyond me...
http://FCC
Did you really expect fair treatment from Fox News. Boycott 'em, they are a propaganda machine.
When we stop letting FAUX and the rest of the wingnuts stop getting under ours skin and just start calling them on their BS with a smile and the truth, it will truly destory them because that smile along with the truth will make them feel as if we are laughing at them and calling them just plain dumb.
Bill O'Reilly stands for the opposite of listening. That wasn't a secret.
I wonder how people at FOX and the other right wing nuts look in the mirror every day. Most are intellegent people who are fairly accomplished in their lives. Yet, they spew what they must know are hateful lies and irresponsible twists on facts.
How can any intellegent person look at what is happening today and defend this administration, its allies or its policies? What it comes down to: their paycheck. They will continue this irresponsible behavior because they know that is what their network or sponsors want and they are paid a handsome price. The US still contains a 25% red-meat "hater" base in this country and that is still a big number. In that way, OReilly, Rush, Hannity are just whores paid to smear people and carry the water for a stupid and destructive GOP agenda.
Stay away from FOX (News?)!
FOX is nothing but a stinking cesspool of hate & lies!
Brilliant !!!!!
You're a bright man, but apparently somewhat naive. Hopefully you will come away from this experience with the knowledge that anyone who espouses left-wing views will ultimately be nothing than a punching bag for the likes of Billo and Co.
If you're waiting for enlightenment from the purveyors of ignorance on Fox, you will be waiting for Godot.
I'm sorry you had to put up with the flying monkeys. It makes you kind of sad I imagine. Best to you.
The last election was a verdict on the O'Reilly factor and all of the right wing noise machine. If their ploys actually worked, McCain and Palin would have walked away with the election. Fortunately, the American people now have the Internet, blogs, wikis and Comedy Central which help illuminate the nuttiness and destructiveness of O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage, and, oh yes...the washed up, unfunny and pathetic Dennis Miller.
Deepak, stick to the venues where you will be read, considered, and responded to in an intelligent manner. Leave the clowns to their circuses.
well, yeah, bill o'reilly doesn't listen. you didn't go there to actually have an honest engagement with him, did you? i don't think he's capable, or willing.
you should only go on his show if you think your message can reach some of the people who're addicted to those hate merchants despite o'reilly's interference, or if you can beat him at his own game. i don't think you can do the latter; you're too nice (robert gibbs managed it with hannity; jon stewart can do it with o'reilly -- that's how it's done).
maybe you did the former. you'll likely get email or letters from fox viewers if you did. it might not all have been wasted.
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