Fox “News” anchor Bill O’Reilly aired a promotional ad recently predicting that Donald Trump and Sarah Palin were going to turn the 2016 GOP presidential race into “a reality show.” It was curiously prescient for someone so used to sticking like Smithers to the party line.
Palin entered the ring with the first counter-attack:
“He’s talking about his show tonight, or the commentary on his show, and that would be, ‘Oh, all these GOP contenders thinking about running for president like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin’ and he names them off. He says, ‘Oh, what a reality show that would be, yuck, yuck.’ Well the left doesn’t do that. They take this serious, because this is war…
“Hopefully the media, even the quasi-right side of the media, won’t be looking at this as some kind of reality show.”?
Um, obviously they are looking at this like that. It’s hard to admit this, but O’Reilly was, well … speaking something like the truth this time. It must have been liberating to finally have done that.
Trump tweeted in Palin’s defense on Thursday:
Surprise, @oreillyfactor used my name big league in pre-ads to promote the show?then talked about everyone else but me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2015
.@SarahPalinUSA was 100% correct when she stated that @oreillyfactor used us in day long tease to get people to watch, but we were not on!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015
.@oreillyfactor – bad and very deceptive journalism. Show must be heading in wrong direction, too bad! @SarahPalinUSA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015
O’Reilly is merely trying to weed out candidates who he feels aren’t qualified to do battle. Defending himself against the digs, O’Reilly told Palin that “flamboyant descriptions” are common for television shows like his. And besides, he said, Trump and Palin do indeed live their lives in reality show bubbles. So basically: the Drama King and Queen should suck it up and get over it. O’Reilly’s exact words:
“So here’s the deal: In TV land, where I live, you tease upcoming segments with flamboyant descriptions, so people will sit through the 18 minutes of commercials and watch it… (O’Reilly’s staffers giggling off camera) … Mrs. Palin and Donald Trump are very high profile folks, and both have starred in reality TV shows…
“If no offense is intended, don’t take offense. Your life will be happier.”
Is O’Reilly right for trying to shove these highly visible media hogs to the side to make room for candidates he believes have a more serious chance of securing victory against a solid field of candidates on the left?
It goes without saying that O’Reilly is suffering some ego erosion lately. DirectTV just ditched the network from its sizable lineup, and even high school students who analyzed its content think Fox is nothing but a big pretender.
