Bill O’Reilly Beats Up on Terry Gross
Thanks to Yian for tipping me off to the really hilarious Fresh Air interview with Bill O’Reilly. If you like Bill O’Reilly, you’ll really enjoy this interview. If you loathe Bill O’Reilly, you’ll also really enjoy this interview, though in a completely different way. Go thou and listen likewise!
October 14th, 2003 at 12:21 pm
Thanks for the Link!
Classic, classic O’Reilly (and that’s not a compliment)
November 29th, 2003 at 2:47 pm
Hey does anyone know where I can find a written transcript of that interview? My computer’s ghetto so I can’t use Real PLayer
Thanx a bunch
June 20th, 2004 at 4:59 pm
This website is apparently one of the bias liberal media outlets O’Reilly complains about. If you can objectionally listen to the interview without concluding that Terry Gross was totally baiting him and sluffing her liberal agenda on America, then you are lying to yourself. Terry who is usually a top notch interviewer was totally out of line. I WOULD BE WILLING TO BET MY LIFE ON THE FACT THAT GROSS IS A LIBERAL AND THIS TIME SHE LET HER AGENDA SHINE,and it was at the expense of the most wealthy 2% of americans…..cause after all their the ones who pay for government funded NPR.
July 1st, 2004 at 9:41 am
Don’t be an idiot. NPR is not government funded, it is a non profit organization that does not rely on tax money in anyway.
July 4th, 2004 at 8:10 pm
afraid that’s not quite correct buddy, NPR does receive some government funding.
as for the Fresh Air interview, I think it’s fair to say that Terry roasted him pretty good. Calling the interview an attack would not be an exageration. While I frown upon this type of practice – as a member of the left I believe it hurts our chances of being taken seriously, I certainly didn’t lose any sleep after the interview. While the purist in me cringed to hear Terry fire our agenda at O’Reilly, I happen to agree with her bias and part of me took pleasure in hearing Bill squirm under the pressure I see him put his guests under every day. He absolutley cannot take what he dishes out, he handled it like a baby.
I think Terry’s interview with David Frum and Richard Perle is a prime example of right-wingers handling Terry’s attacks gracefully.
August 28th, 2004 at 2:41 am
Terrys interview with OReilly did not prove what Oreilly terms her liberal bias. It merely showed her completely justifiable bias against OReillys style of so-called journalism. She didnt spend the interview attacking OReillys political positions, but instead pointed out his condascending intolerance for difference of opininon, his tendency to suppresss dissent, and his attempts to indidimate and silence his critics. Whether a liberal or conservative, this is no way for someone who claims to be a jouranlist (which Al Franken does not claim to be) should behave. It was OReilly who walked out of the interview, proving her point in the end. I agree with the previous commentator – OReilly cant handle what he dishes out. If he can’t shut someone up, he can always walk out of the room himself.
September 19th, 2004 at 7:59 am
Just caught the interview on NPR archives. At first, I agreed with spaceship, that O’Rielly cannot take his own medicine. But then I thought about it. Smart guy. Alot of what he has to say is solid and sage. But as he says, his is an “action” show; he does not deny the exremest, hostile, pro-wrestling style that is the foundation of his TV, Radio and print work. His style and character, honest or not, is throbbing with intimidation. At first I felt Gross was going a little rough on him, but I’m a gentle guy myself and when I tried to imagine I was facing what she was facing, I think I’d gird my loins, too. But also as a professional showman myself, I know you have to keep your image extreme to play to the masses. It would do him no good to have a civil cup of coffee with her and then be on his way. His fans don’t want to see that. He sat through plenty of tense questions without any anger. But when the hour was nearly up (he even noted the time which he must have been intentionally watching), he quickly whipped himself into a little frenzy over a fairly insignificant bit and stormed out like the no-nonsense F&B character he portrays. Good publicity. He gets to bring home another dragon’s head to his village and his rep gets stronger than ever. He’s a showman to the end, and I noticed he REALLY played incensed when Gross mentioned showmanship, which is a standard element of ALL broadcast journalism and absurd to deny, unless of course your character predicates on the idea that I am the only serious man in a journalistic world of clowns. Showman to the end. Sorry Terry had to be the unwitting foil to that, but hey, it’s her job. Still, I’m sorry it had to be her.
September 20th, 2004 at 8:52 am
Today on Diane Rehm (Monday, September 20, 2004) the issue was brought up again and Terry blundered through the questioning. Someone help our cause by getting this woman off the air. She is not helping us liberals break down the conservative bias at the core.
Terry Gross is being disingenuous. I am saddened by her interviewing skills and blatant bias against an alternative view. She discredits and provides a disservice to those of us who wish to openly debate and prove why the right-wing stance is incorrect.
Her eagerness to attack an influential journalist backfired. I listened to the interview intensively, hoping to find O’reily unreasonable in his rant and be able to defend why NPR is not liberal. However, Bill O’reily was reasonable. Terry simply repeated the defaming comments written about Bill O’reily and asked for him to rebuttal.
I thought the intent of the interview was to discuss his book, reasoning for writing the books, insight as to why he considered certain aspects of his book, etc.. Unfortunately, that was simply not the case. Terry needs to seriously consider who she really is. She is harming us all.
Please instruct your readers to hear the entire interview on the website at
http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=10/08/2003
For the date of Wednesday, October 08, 2003.
September 21st, 2004 at 9:24 pm
I listened to Terry’s interview with Al Franken – she sounded like a teenage girl who just met her favorite rock star. Then I listened to her interview with O’Reilly – she quoted Al’s book like it was a history text and challenged O’Reilly to refute it. NPR has some good features but Terry’s show isn’t one of them.
September 22nd, 2004 at 11:03 am
I agree with Gunfighter’s comments. I listened to both interviews during thir original broadcast and was quite surprised with Terry’s line of questioning while the interview was going on. Sure, Franken is funny and easy to like and, Terry never challenged him on any of his asertions. I don’t like Bill O’Reilly’s interviewing style or politics but I think he fended of Terry’s attacks politely enough until she clearly overdid it. And of late it seems to me that Terrry’s interviewing skills (with all guests) leaves much to be desired. It feels more gossipy rather than substantial.
September 23rd, 2004 at 8:12 pm
Friends,
It’s a sad but inspirational story. Big bad Bill, the bully from the ghetto who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and worked his way through Harvard eating bread crusts tossed aside by the other students–isn’t that how he tells the story?
Live and die by the sword. Little Terry found a few cracks in his armor and got under his skin. He panicked when he realized that he was not the one controlling the questions, microphone volume and camera shots (it was a radio program–hers). What was he going to do to protect his reputation–ask her to step outside? What a helpless, impotent feeling for the fair and balanced big mouth…he freaked and walked. Her appearance on his program this week (if she didn’t show he was just going to publicly bash her for being chicken anyways) showed him at his showboat best–interupting, talking down, grimacing–all the talk show rodeo games. By the way who is the Fox ombudsman?-like NPR they surely must have one.
-Phillipe
September 24th, 2004 at 9:40 am
C’mon. Terry’s unbelievably understated questioning style brought a response from O’Reilly along the lines of “We both know where this is going, don’t we?? DON’T WE??”, leaving Terry sputtering from the inexplicable rudeness as much as anything else. Someone quicker on her feet might have said, Um, not until you answer I don’t. Worse, O’Reilly’s little tantrum was a follow-up question to an earlier question. Hardly an ambush.
I agree that it was showmanship on O’Reilly’s part. And Terry probably has her liberal bias; that’s her business. But she comes from an interview style of not saying a whole lot , rarely opining, just asking questions by quoting other people. Bill O’Reilly ran away with the format. Gene Simmons from Kiss also ran away with Terry’s show a couple years ago, leaving her sort of lost and bewildered, observing “I wish you weren’t trying to be such a jerk”, or something similar.
If her questions were hardball, they were about the most politely asked, softly spoken hardball questions I’ve heard in a decade. And ultimately, it was Bill who stormed off the set.
February 6th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
I (Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D.) heard a interve that Terry Gross did on her NPR program Fresh Air with Bill O’Reilly. Bill O’Rielly cannot take his own medicine. He got mad and left. Gross didn’t really ask critical questions about his politics, they were more about his style and hypocrisy.
Shalom,
—Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D. ®
Distinguished Professor
http://www.prof.faithweb.com
Osama Bin Laden is still alive. Sadam Hussein is still alive. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is still alive. Baghdad, Mosul and Fallujah are burning. But my government has the courage to kill children or their parents. And I’m supposed to be impressed.
February 14th, 2005 at 11:06 am
Terry is a GREAT interviewer. Her celeb interviews are unparalleled. And if she wants to fawn over her liberal political heroes like Al Franken, that is great too.
I always bristle when Terry, Diane Rehm, or other NPR commentators have the audacity to say, “What? Me liberal? No, I’m a moderate, I don’t know WHY you would even say that!” For the love of…
If there is any doubt, listen to the Franken interview back-to-back with the O’Rielly interview. Listen to the Swiftboat Veterans interview back-to-back with the Moveon dot org interview. Listen to the Lynn Chenny interview. The proof is in the pudding.
Terry is a GREAT interviewer. I cannot deny that. I just wish she’d “be who she is” and pass on interviewing conservative politicians. It brings out a venom and vitriol in her that is not becoming.
July 4th, 2005 at 12:46 am
I don’t listen to Terry but I was told to check out her O’Reilly interview. I’m no fan of O’Reilly, but he was absolutely right. If I were him and wanted to go on NPR to discuss my new book and spent the whole time explaining attacks on myself from a variety of sources, most of which came from one single unimpressive book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, I would have been pissed off too. I’m suprised he let it go on so long, but he probably did because he is an egomaniac who gets lost in all the moments when he gets to discuss all things O’Reilly.
I read Lies… it was not a good book. I love Franken and have been a fan for years, but the book was no better than the worst pages of “Slander.” I listened to the Franken/Gross interview and she lets Franken go on and on unfettered about whatever he wants to. There was no grilling. Now, as Gross said, it was a different kind of interview since Franken is a satirist. If so, why would she spend so much time having O’Reilly defend satirical attacks?
I’m sure Gross conducts many great interviews, but this cannot be one of them.