August 01, 2007
Chris Dodd to Appear on O'Reilly Tonight
So I get my usual e-mail from the Dodd campaign (or is that non-campaign?):
Dear Pam,
This Saturday, Senator Dodd will join other Democratic primary candidates at the Yearly Kos Presidential Forum -- an event being broadcast on CNN and DTV. [DTV stands for Dodd TV -- ed.]
A Presidential forum put together wholly by grassroots activists; you would think that is an encouraging sign for our Party, and our democracy.
It is, of course, unless you work at Fox News and your name is Bill O'Reilly.
O'Reilly has gone on a tirade against the netroots for the past two weeks, essentially declaring war on Yearly Kos, its sponsors, and participants ... and that includes Senator Dodd.
He tried to get our campaign to distance itself from the event -- we pushed back. I don't think he expected that.
He invited us on the show -- we accepted. I don't think he expected that either.
Will you stand with Senator Dodd as he faces Bill O'Reilly tonight on "The O'Reilly Factor" at 8 P.M. Eastern?
Bill O'Reilly's weapon of choice in this battle is to pick a handful of the millions of comments posted on DailyKos and attempt to pass them off as representative of the community.
This is not a new trick for him, and we called him out on it.
Will you stand with Senator Dodd tonight as he goes face to face with Bill O'Reilly?
Bill O'Reilly is not used to people standing up to him and his unfair attacks.
Will you stand with Senator Dodd as he faces Bill O'Reilly tonight on "The O'Reilly Factor" at 8 P.M. Eastern?
You won't want to miss this,
Tim Tagaris
Internet Director, Chris Dodd for President
First of all, I don't think Bill O'Reilly is too worried about getting smacked down by Chris Dodd. And as for the assertion that he's "not used to people standing up to him and his unfair attacks," that in and of itself is a joke. If you've ever watched his show, you know he thrives on controversy and opposition. I'm sure he's going to enjoy having Dodd on his program to argue with.
Now, I've seen some of Bill O'Reilly's taking down of Daily Kos, and while I agree with him that the site spews quite a bit of hateful rhetoric, I think he's going about it the wrong way, as Michelle Malkin has said on some of her guest appearances.
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While it would be nice if the site administrators would take down some of the more horrendous comments from the comment threads, the real problem is the content written by Kos himself and his handpicked "diarists." Consider what Kos said about the deaths of contractors in Iraq back in 2004:
Every death should be on the front page:
Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.
That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.
Then there is the more recent example of Saturday Night Live (does anyone actually watch it anymore?) alum A. Whitney Brown, who "vlogged" for Kos, saying this about our military:
Hello, I’m A. Whitney Brown, and I support our brave troops overseas. We all do and we all should. But what about those troops who are not so brave? Perhaps they just signed up hoping for some extra money for college, for the medical insurance, or even some hot gay military sex.(...)
But do I still support the individual men and women who have given so much to serve their country?
(...)
I think they’re a bunch of idiots. I also think they’re morally retarded. Because they sign a contract that says they will kill whoever you tell me to kill. And that is morally retarded.
(...)
To to sum up, I don’t like our troops, I don’t like what they’re doing, I don’t like their fat, whining families...
Of course, this was designated as "satire." I don't know about you, but I'm not laughing. Then again, this guy did cut his comedic teeth over at SNL, so...
With friends like this, who needs enemies? The commenters who make nasty, vile comments at Kos do so because they know they are at home. Think about it: when you go to someone's home and they take off their shoes before entering, don't you do the same? You follow the example of your host, which is exactly what commenters at Kos and similar sites are doing.
I've seen other hateful sites, some of them on the right. Hate knows no political party; anyone and everyone is capable of it. Yet here, I think, is the problem Bill O'Reilly has with Democrat presidential candidates attending the YearlyKos convention: By accepting the support of a group that promotes such repulsive rhetoric, they seem to be endorsing such rhetoric themselves. These are the same candidates who ignored the annual Democratic Leadership Council convention this week, which caters to the more moderate, centrist portion of the Democrat party.
This tactic might work during the primaries, but as Ned Lamont learned in 2006, the general election is a whole other ballgame. And voters who are paying attention to what's happening now will remember this swerve to the edge by those candidates who will suddenly do their best to appear moderate and centrist in order to appeal to "the rest of us."
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Show Comments »
Unfortunately, when I went to watch it this morning from my DVR, it was all bridge news.
I feel horrible about this. I am glad that the loss of life is low, but this is going to hit the Twin Cities economy pretty heavily.
What happened to Dems avoiding FNC?
posted by
aaron at August 2, 2007 04:40 AM
I was shocked too...I was all set to watch O'Reilly over at my mother's house, when she told me that regular programming was pre-empted for the bridge coverage. What a terrible thing...
To answer your question, though, Dodd is polling so low (0%-1%) and gets so little time to speak during the debates, that I would say he's desperate for any airtime he can get. We'll see if he's on Thursday night's show.
posted by
Pam at August 2, 2007 07:37 AM
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Unfortunately, when I went to watch it this morning from my DVR, it was all bridge news.
I feel horrible about this. I am glad that the loss of life is low, but this is going to hit the Twin Cities economy pretty heavily.
What happened to Dems avoiding FNC?
I was shocked too...I was all set to watch O'Reilly over at my mother's house, when she told me that regular programming was pre-empted for the bridge coverage. What a terrible thing...
To answer your question, though, Dodd is polling so low (0%-1%) and gets so little time to speak during the debates, that I would say he's desperate for any airtime he can get. We'll see if he's on Thursday night's show.
