Oh, Really? O’Reilly?

Screen capture of a "The O'Reilly Factor" broadcast during Bush presidency.

Last week the Obama administration finally called out the Fox News network and publicly labeled it what it actually is, not Fair and Balanced, but “opinion journalism masquerading as news.” In an interview with Time magazine, White House communications director Anita Dunn went on to say, “They are boosting their audience. But that doesn’t mean we are going to sit back.”

The White House attack on the credibility of Fox News programming content was triggered by the network’s outright cheerleading against America’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games and the recent exposure of fact falsification on its shows. For instance, the White House corrected Glenn Beck’s recent assertions that the White House press secretary has never called upon Fox‘s Major Garrett (it has) and that Van Jones was the Green Jobs Czar (he was not) and that Jones was a convicted felon (he was not).

Of course Fox News hosts did not take kindly to this presidential smackdown. Leading the chorus of responding whiners was Bill O’Reilly. On his program Tuesday O’Reilly said,

Finally, Ms. Dunn is seeing the world through the prism of the other media, like NBC News and CNN. By all accounts, those networks favored Barack Obama over John McCain, and NBC actually promoted the president’s candidacy and continues to give him excellent coverage.

So by that measure, Fox News is indeed troublesome to the White House. But our hard news coverage is fair and balanced. Again, if somebody doesn’t believe that, let’s see the evidence because bloviating walks.

Later in the same show, O’Reilly had the following conversation with Brit Hume about how fair he believed Fox‘s coverage was regarding former president Bush. Watch how defensive O’Reilly gets when Hume dares to suggest that some on the network defended Bush:

O’Reilly: And I have to say that when President Bush was in trouble in Iraq, this network and this program, and your program as well, routinely, routinely hammered President Bush. On Iraq.

Hume: Well, we certainly — we, we were very faithful about covering all the bad news that came out of Iraq for a very long period of time. The criticisms that were made of him were reported and discussed at length on Fox News. Um, now, he had his defenders, the war had its defenders, there was commentary on Fox —

O’Reilly: But there was no cheerleading — There was no cheerleading of President Bush on this network when his administration ran into trouble. There was no cheerleading, you know — it was skeptical coverage, Iraq’s going south, when the economy started to wobble last September, we were right on that.

Umm, OK, Bill. Just keep shouting louder and louder and someday even you may believe yourself.

Please click on the song link below to familiarize yourselves with the tune and to have more fun singing along with the song parody.

The Who’s Baba O’Reilly (Teenage Wasteland) song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ik_K3s7B2A

BILL-BILL O’REILLY (BILL-O’s WASTELAND)

(sung to The Who song “Baba O’Reilly [Teenage Wasteand])

Out here on the air
Unbalanced, not fair
I earn my pay with all my fibbing
My show really bites
Just watch tonight
I’ll be on your television

Don’t cry
Don’t hide your eyes
It’s only Bill-O’s Wasteland

Coulter, take my hand
We’re in Fox News Land
We all are liars
“Pinheads” on our shoulders
The Exorcist is here
He’ll drive out all the queers
Dressed all in leather
They could not get much bolder

Bill-O’s Wasteland
It’s only Bill-O’s Wasteland
Bill-O’s Wasteland
It’s only Bill-O’s Wasteland
They’re all wasted

(classic Who musical harmonica fade-out)