Bill O’Reilly: Misunderstood Genius

From March 29, 2004:

At first, I didn’t know whether to laugh or shake my head in disgust when I saw that Bill O’Reilly had an op-ed in today’s New York Daily News warning readers to watch out for partisan journalists masquerading as nonpartisans. I assumed even someone as dense as O’Reilly HAD to realize the irony of his column, and hesitate to publish something that would so easily be mocked. I mean, just read the first line: “A few weeks ago, I opined that partisan journalism was getting out of control in America and that ideological fanaticism was badly damaging journalistic standards because in some cases facts were being altered to fit the agendas of certain reporters and commentators.” Ideological fanaticism? Altered facts? Surely, he was joking. Then… as I was continuing the internal debate between laughter and disgusted headshake, it hit me… maybe we have been misinterpreting O’Reilly all along. Maybe he is actually a master of ironic commentary and has only been playing the role of an ignorant, Right-wing egomaniac to prove a deeper point about journalistic integrity. Maybe his shows (radio and TV) are so high concept that I’m just now catching on to the whole joke. This epiphany helped clear up many misconceptions.

I had always assumed O’Reilly was simply trying to deceive working class Americans by calling himself a “populist” and then supporting every corporate tax give-away proposed. I had assumed he was hypocritical when he would rail against (liberal) Hollywood celebrities who dared offer a political opinion, while fawning over conservative celebrities such as Bo Derek and Raquel Welch on his show. I had mistakenly assumed he was lying to his audience when he would use misleading or blatantly false facts to support his conservative cause of the day. I believed he condescended to his viewers by professing political centrism while transparently cheerleading for a far-right agenda. I had him pegged as a narcissist with an exaggerated sense of both self-importance and self-worth for the Geraldo-size ego he puts on display nightly.

And yet… all this time I’ve been wrong. It was truly the grand experiment of a genius… an everyman holding up a mirror to conservative America to show them the many faults of their argument. An honest man who, through nightly theater, managed to convey the message of media decay more effectively than any straightforward critic.

The truth is, we all owe Bill an enormous debt of gratitude for his creativity and witty social commentary. As the man who personified the bumbling blowhard, he offered himself up for ridicule by the “elite media,” and allowed himself to become the embarrassment of the journalistic profession. And he did all that just to teach us a valuable lesson about ourselves. I think I speak for all progressive thinkers when I offer my sincere apology for having “misunderestimated” him for all these years.