Bill O’Reilly Fell On His Own Sword!
By Jim E. Reames (08/18/03)
Did you catch the verbal response of Bill O’Reilly last Thursday night regarding the massive electrical power outage that hit the North Eastern United States? It was immature and outrageous. It was disgusting and arrogant. It was condescending and hypocritical.
Now, I’m a serious fan of O’Reilly’s daily talk show and of his “No spin zone” hour on television. In fact, his television program is usually so entertaining I can get a good workout on my treadmill at high speed and hardly feel the strain because my mind and thoughts are on what O’Reilly considers important for debate instead of upon my own physical strain.
Atypical of my usual high opinion of Bill O’Reilly I was sickened at the immature response he exhibited this week, pointing fingers of blame at the President, and then demanding that the error(s) be corrected…as if his concerns...and his voice...is more important than those of us in the general community. O'Reilly reminded me of a spoiled little brat who, because he controls the baseball (in this case the news media microphone), he feels at liberty to be allowed to call the shots and to make the rules.
In one breath O’Reilly is a drum beater for individual responsibility and accountability. Now, after just a few hours of electrical blackout in our nation’s most populated communities he is demanding for the President to do something about the vulnerabilities of our power-grids so that they will never fail again. So which is it to be, Bill? Free enterprise? Or bigger, more regulated, government intervention of business? Take a serious look into the mirror Bill. See what you are becoming.
The reality is this: The people who live in our nation’s most densely populated areas are co-dependent upon electrical power in ways that many other Americans are not, with mass transit systems, the total need for entire sectors of inner cities to have traffic lights that work, etc. That being the case, it would seem somewhat prudent and responsible for those communities (and the individuals in them) to recognize their dependence and to have alternative options in the event of catastrophic system failure. Did you New Yorkers learn nothing at all from Y2K, Bill? The problem you easterners have is you become co-dependent upon other people doing their jobs…you take others for granted… and give birth to your own vulnerability because of it. You are just as blind as voters who become co-dependant upon tax revenues and government programs for their livelihood. You then ask, “What went wrong?” (like in California) after the government’s lifeblood gets sucked dry, when your co-dependence leaves you stranded. What went wrong is you were not individually prepared to deal with the problem. So now you are mad at someone else because of your personal failure to plan ahead.
Suck it up and get used to it Bill. It is your personal choice to live in that metropolis. So learn to live with its many strengths as well as its weaknesses and its vulnerabilities. And stop being such a crybaby. Be thankful there was not a massive loss of human life. Be grateful it was a learning experience and not really a tragedy. Buy a flashlight for your desk drawer. Get an additional battery pack UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) for a occasional floor lamp. Buy yourself a pair of roller skates, or a motor driven power-scooter. Be prepared, instead of depending upon the government or for someone else.
Have you not once performed an inventory of just how many hundreds of newspaper articles there have been since the days of Y2K and, then, since 911, on the growing vulnerability of this nation’s power grids? Why haven’t you made this an important issue until now, Bill? Don’t even attempt to suggest that this catastrophic power failure blind-sided you.
Conversely, the Sean Hannity response was superb! Instead of going off (publicly) and making a horse’s ass of himself, Hannity was quick to point out all the things that went right because of advanced training on the part of the police, the fire fighters, and the paramedics. He was quick to give patronage to the thousands of people who were rescued from stranded subways, between-floor electors, and of how compassionate his brother and sister New Yorkers were concerning the immediate needs of those around themselves. He gave credit were credit was due. But if those in America's northeast feel compromised and inconvenienced, it is nothing to the inconvenience being felt and experienced by our brave soldiers who are scattered around the globe, many of them on rationed drinking water, and sleeping on army cots, fighting and dying to serve this great nation's strategic interests. Your suffering and inconvenience is but a shadow of theirs.
Another thing about Bill O’Reilly that rubs me raw is his degree of self-appointed arrogance. Take, for example, his use of the word “opine.” On television he treats that word almost as if he, himself, discovered it in the dictionary. He tosses it down at the feet of his viewers as a daily reminder that unless the respondents of his comments follow his rules then their opinions will not be considered worthy of his media attention.
The truth of the matter is this world was well established before the arrival of Bill O’Reilly. And it will continue on long after you are no longer king of the cable television news media hill. So stop sprouting around as though you possess the ability to walk on water. I liked you far better when you were a little more humble.
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