“If we’ve lost O’Reilly, we’ve lost the country”
A remarkable thing happened last night on America's state-controlled TV network:
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly promised his audience "the truth about Iraq" on Thursday, saying that most Americans now feel the war has not been worth the costs, while "the president's argument for sustaining the war is largely theoretical."
O'Reilly turned on his special guest during the segment, White House press secretary Tony Snow, saying, "You can't win … unless the Iraqi people turn on all the terrorists. And they're not."…
As Snow continued to insist that the Iraqis will support the American troops if they seem them standing up to protect them, O'Reilly countered him with the analogy of Vietnam. "We don't have the hearts and minds there," said O'Reilly. "It's like South Vietnam. … We had a lot of South Vietnamese helping us … but there wasn't enough of them."
After the Tet offensive in Vietnam in early 1968, Walter Cronkite told viewers of the CBS Evening News that Vietnam was a lost cause. President Johnson was said to have remarked, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost the country," and within a matter of weeks he announced he would not run for reelection.
The fracturing of the modern media landscape is such that no one commands the attention Cronkite did in those days. But still I wonder if Tony Snow was telling George W. Bush something along the same lines this morning.
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Pingback on July 17, 2007 @ 9:19 am
O’Reilly is no Cronkite. He’s more like Cronkite’s left toenail with fungus.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 9:33 am
O’Reilly is just another rat jumping off the sinking ship
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 10:10 am
God hates Americans, and God hates America.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 10:17 am
O’Reilly has finally turned the page on turning the corner on making progress on going against the war?
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 10:18 am
When the White House’s unofficial PR company loses faith in the home team’s disconnect from reality, expect another Bush/Cheney sponsored terror attack on the US.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 10:22 am
I’m no Fox news fan, but it’s hardly “state controlled.” Murdoch created Fox News to pander to a conservative au7dience he viewed as not being served. It’s in his financial interests to put on Bush-favorable programming, but that’s a far cry from being state controlled.
Your own post refutes this. If it indeed were state controlled, O’Reilley would not have made those comments.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 10:45 am
[...] Bill O’Reilly has finally turned the page on turning the corner on making progress on going ag… Isn’t this about the thousandth time he’s said he’s fed up with the [...]
Pingback on July 17, 2007 @ 10:55 am
All the more reason to fear and strive to prevent another Gulf of Tonkin “incident”, which is to say another 9/11.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 11:16 am
if you know what GOD thinks, why don’t you listen to him and get the fuck out of America then you sick BASTARD.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 11:51 am
Settle down Beavis. Huh hu huh uh huh
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 11:55 am
O’Reilly is now a traitor. He should apologize, or convert to Islam already because he wants the terrorists to win.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
So who’s left on Bush’s side? Ann Coulter?
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
yes, ann coulter is too stupid to even jump ship when the truth makes itself apparent. there is another, though and her name is michelle malkin. it’s tough to decide who is more pathetic. michelle is definitely hotter but both are equally retarded.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
So O’Reilly is covering his ass a bit here, trying to seem as though he’s still ahead of the game, and to conservatives, his viewership, these may be relevant points. To most of the country, they’re echoes of sentiments years in the offering. Still, it’s one of those better late than never things, and if the current administration feels that the clientle of Fox News is an accurate barometer of their constituency, this may actually matter. The author’s comparison to Cronkite makes sense, to me.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Don’t forget Bill Krystal. He’s got both feet in the twilight zone.
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
And then Bush said Cronkite who?
Comment on July 17, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
[...] O’Reilly Jumps Ship on Iraq Jump to Comments Looks like the pro-war movement is in it’s last throes: http://www.dailyreckoning.us/blog/?p=435 [...]
Pingback on July 17, 2007 @ 7:20 pm