Tuesday, October 14, 2003

 
BOOK REVIEW: WHO'S LOOKING OUT FOR YOU (2003) * (1 star out of 4).
External link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-titleid=1482999&ve-field=none/qid=/002-1199562-4145621

O'Reilly's first two books were okay, but his "success" (his show reaches only a tiny fraction of the viewership of the network news and magazine shows) has convinced him that he speaks for all Americans. Anyone who refuses an invitation to appear on his right-wing show is "refusing to account to the American people." Does he really not understand that there are reasons not to come on a show hosted by an arrogant jerk who interrupts his guests and makes up facts, other than not wanting to account to the American people? Does he really believe his own lies? Over and over, for example, he falsely accuses Clinton of refusing ever to explain his reasons for the Mark Rich pardon, even though Clinton wrote an extensive op-ed piece in the New York Times about it, which, in turn, received tremendous national attention. But unless you do it on "The Factor" you're dodging the American people.

Aside from this annoying tendency, his "insights" are not so much "common sense" as "common knowledge"-- at least when he's not just making things up. One of the more dreadful bits of advice he dispenses is very early in the book: if you are a good person you don't have to worry about who you associate with, because bad people won't want to hang out with you. So, for example, he says that if you don't drink, drunkards won't want your tee-totaling company, and if you don't do crystal meth, people who do won't enjoy your presence at their parties. In the first place, in my experience, if you ever go to a bar and drink sodas all night, when you go home, everyone will ask you the same thing: "Are you sure you're okay to drive?" That's because drunks are not very observant about what other people are drinking. Try it-- it's really uncanny. Second, and more importantly, bad people need good people to be with so they can take advantage of them. For example, by conning them. Or stealing from them. Or raping them. Just tell your pretty 16 year-old daughter not to worry about the fact that she's hanging around with crack addicts, because they won't want her around if she doesn't smoke crack. Thanks for the swell advice, Bill!

Finally, he stubbornly clings to the many lies he's told over the years that have already been repeatedly exposed. He insists that he grew up in the blue-color city of Levittown, even thought he actually grew up in the affluent neighborhood of Westbury. He insists that he's a political independent, even though he has registered to vote as a Republican. This, even as he rips into Bill Clinton over and over, almost three years after Clinton left office, while continuing to heap praise on the Bush administration.

Bill O'Reilly is just too full of himself to be entertaining. Or, at least, he's too full of something.

This is The Official Record. 11:13 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/10/book-review-whos-looking-out-for-you.html


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