Politicked Off: Obama on O'Reilly, Thursday at 8 est
Just when I was excited for the kickoff of the NFL season, something came along that blew it out of water. Barrack Obama is going to visit the No Spin Zone and get interviewed by Bill O'Reilly tomorrow night at 8 pm Eastern standard time.
Honestly, I'm not sure this is good idea for Obama. O'Reilly doesn't really interview. He tries to bully and he usually resorts to a victory-via-volume tactic of shouting down those who disagree with him. He cuts people off and, even worse, doesn't matter if facts get in the way of his argument. (The much discussed Malmedy mistakes being the prime examples). Bill O'Reilly is a prima donna who is going to be firing on all cylanders tomorrow and the idea that this could even be a discussion is ridiculous since he'll never budge from his points-of-view. Even when his buddy Dennis Miller has corrected him on things, O'Reilly will begrudgingly admit that there could be something redeeming about the other side of the argument but still throws in little jabs and mocking statements to try to support his original position.
Of course, it's not like Bill O'Reilly is alone. Most news shows are just op-ed programs and blogs don't even seem to want to pretend to be unbiased. Pundits want to be celebrities. They don't want people to listen to the news as much as they want people just to listen to them speak. I guarantee every big name news personality is jealous of O'Reilly, not because of the great interview but because he's going to be as close as any of them can be to a rock star tomorrow night. There was nothing more disappointing to me than to watch Arianna Huffington's answer to the Drudge Report turn out to be nothing more than a lefty version of Drudge's site. Rather than trying to show people that she can be better, Huffington just showed she could be as bad as her opposition.
Politically, I get the move; this high profile matchup is going to make McCain's speech an afterthought (especially with many Americans skipping politics altogether to watch football) but this is a ploy that definitely could blow up in the Dems' faces. It probably won' be high minded politics but it'll almost certainly be good theater.
