It's Called "Hyperbole"

I rarely pay attention to FOX News' Bill O'Reilly. Mostly because I think he's irrelevant and not a real journalist ... and I think he knows he's not a real journalist on a fake news network and it kills him inside, hence the thin skin and nuttiness.

If anyone saw Bill-O's interview with Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" last year it became pathetically obvious that Bill started out in journalism with the wide-eyed hope of being the next Mike Wallace or Walter Cronkite or any of the greats. He wanted to be a SERIOUS journalist, kind of like Halle Berry's life-long ambition to be a SERIOUS actor.

While he's found a way to be filthy stinking rich and popular, he's not happy. Nothing about the man is happy. Because he looks at the rest of the "uppity" news establishment -- the "60 Minutes," the evening news broadcasts, the Brian Williamses and Katie Courics and seethes. These are the people who rejected him. Who said he wasn't good enough and as much as he claims to hate them (particularly NBC, but that's more about his hip hop style beef with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann), he wishes to be one of them. If CBS called Bill-O tomorrow and said we want to make you nightly anchor and a "60 Minutes" correspondent after we get rid of Katie when the election is over he would dump FOX in a minute.

You see folks? Bill-O is just a little bitter snot nosed brat who just wants to be loved. He fawned all over Mike Wallace, his hero. He claimed his "ambushes" of those who oppose him were inspired by the "Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes!" ambushes of legend where Mike busted crooked businessmen. One is about fighting for the little guy, the other is about pure spite and pettiness, but in spirit -- same. (But not really.)

Because of this I'm not surprised by anything Bill-O says and since the "free market" has decided he's a "star," I accept his right to exist. But there is one thing I am TIRING of -- the hyperbole.

Even if he actually mutters something halfway agreeable he botches it with the hyperbole. A lot of these pundit/hosts do this from time to time. Like Keith Olbermann can go overboard with the "sensitive" man routine. Like when he apologizes to Bill-O victims on behalf of Bill-O. Cringeworthy. But O'Reilly (and possibly Lou Dobbs) have it the worst.

Case in point, Bill's tendency to label any group that dares to disagree with him as a "hate group." In particular, he labels MoveOn.org, DailyKos and Media Matters "hate groups." Now if he's referring to the fact that these groups hate him, yeah, maybe he has a point. But this O'Reilly, so he has to reach down and whip out the hyperbole.

Open foot. Insert mouth. Bill O'Reilly has just said "MoveOn is the new Klan."

As a black person I can't tell you enough how offensive this is. For one, the real Ku Klu Klan murdered and terrorized black people across America for decades. They were entrenched in Southern state government, law enforcement and justice. They hanged black men, women and children. They burned crosses on the front lawns of everyone from black people to European immigrants they considered "non-white." The intimidated people and held my people under a virtual police state in some parts of the country. They were/are the most unAmerican group in America. They were murdering, raping terrorists.

Last time I checked, the worst thing MoveOn did was rhyme "Petraeus" with "Betray us." Did anyone die in that? Was anyone mutilated and hung, then afterwards, the whole upstanding folk of MoveOn stood around beaming for a photograph around the hanging, defiled and burned corpse? Did they do that? Because that's what the Klan does.

This is an asinine argument. Much like when Bill, Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck equate lefties and the media establishment that rejected him to Goebbels and the Fuhrer.

Nazi massacre in Kerch, 1942. The death toll in the Soviet Union during World War II was immense. (Wikipedia)

Seriously. Stop insulting Hitler by comparing him to CodePink. Hitler instituted the "final solution" which brutalized, mutilated, scarred and murdered millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and disabled people. Basically, anyone not fit to be part of the "Master Race." He wiped out entire families of Jews, killing 6 million overall. Never mind the fact that he started a megalomanical war with the world that resulted in 23,100,000 dead in the then Soviet Union, 13 percent of the country's total population. Three million dead in Poland, 16 percent of that country's population. Overall an estimated 72,763,500 people, military and civilian, died due to World War II.

If you want to compare Hitler to people, compare other megalomanical dictators. Compare him to his heir apparent Joseph Stalin, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Chile's Augusto Pinochet or drug lord, tyrant and once seventh richest man in the world Columbia's Pablo Escobar.

People who actually destroyed millions of lives, terrorized people, imprisoned them without just cause or due process, murdered enemies -- real and perceived, destroyed their countries' economies, robbed and raped their people and murdered folks on a regular, horrific basis. With the exception of Stalin and Pol Pot, most of these dictators are rank amateurs by comparison, but they deserve to be compared to the Nazi Party leader, not some lefty group who's modus operandi are anti-war, anti-Bush/Cheney internet and TV ads and petitions.

Ooooo! Internet ads and petitions! I'm terrified. These people aren't exactly snatching up blonde conservative fembots and trying to "politically" cleanse them. They haven't issued a fatwa against the Republican Party. They have not burned and pillaged the offices of KBR and Halliburton. They aren't holding Rush Limbaugh hostage, videotaping themselves beheading him.

Hyperbole!

I get that you hate MoveOn, Bill, because they pester you so with their emails and phone calls and press releases and internet ads, but fucking man up. You asked for this level of hype and criticism when you opened your mouth and started screaming your "no spin" manifesto while twirling away like a majorette. Other journalists get criticism (see "Couric, Katie"), but don't use their air time to air grudges.

I realize that Bill O'Reilly despises "gangsta" rappers, but he sure behaves like one. Like the 50 Cent of the airwaves he spits his battle rhymes against Liberals and peaceniks, grabbing his dick like it was the only one ever made, braying that he is the biggest and the baddest mofo ever and that anyone who steps to him is a hater. Throw in a few N-words (or, since he's Irish American, a few white ethnic slurs), and he's Lil' Bill-O speaking his "truth" about how it's hard out there for a multi-millionaire talk show host.

I hate to break it to you, O'Reilly. But petty beefs are really below your pay grade and you could stand to dial back the "outrage."

It's called hyperbole. Consider losing it and not your temper.

PS. I will never tire of this video. Never. Greatest. Thing. Ever. Especially the dance remix.