Can a Bill O’Reilly Book Titled Pinheads and Patriots Actually Be Nuanced?
The cover of Bill O’Reilly’s new book Pinheads and Patriots pits the Fox News host against President Barack Obama.
Red meat for the news channel’s audience, no doubt.
But inside the book O’Reilly is far more measured regarding the commander in chief. And while restraint makes The O’Reilly Factor a far better product than most television critics give it credit for, in text form the results are less appealing.
Perhaps it’s the continuing fallout of adding Glenn Beck to the Fox News lineup. Beck is the fire-breathing conservative many thought O’Reilly was for years. In comparison, O’Reilly is far more measured, and his new tome takes that approach to an uncomfortable degree.
The book uses the host’s “Pinheads and Patriots” TV segment, a pithy way to label folks in the news, to analyze the Obama administration. What works on the small screen feels like a stretch here. By O’Reilly’s measure, politicians have their pinhead moments and their patriot moments as well — sometimes within the same arenas of thought and action.
Is Obama a pinhead? Well, he is where it concerns southern border security, but so is former President George W. Bush.
Huh?
Nuance works well within a talk show format where audiences want to hear both sides of the story. But in the book version of “P&P,” the results can be frustrating. Every time O’Reilly tees off against the president, he backpedals to reward him for something positive he’s done. And, as is often the case here, the author strains for balance so hard you can feel the muscles tightening in his neck.
Consider how O’Reilly calls Obama a patriot because he “works extremely hard,” or read this passage about the president’s economic policies:
“I don’t despise President Obama because he’s a big government liberal. I just think his philosophy will weaken the country in both the long and short term. I could be wrong, and the president could be right. We’ll see.”
That pretty much settles it then.
Here’s a new drinking game — down a shot every time O’Reilly writes “I may be wrong” or a variation thereof.
O’Reilly promises in the first chapter that readers will “know precisely what’s going on in the United States” after combing through the book. Sounds impressive until one reaches the later chapters where O’Reilly reveals the pinhead/patriot status of Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, and Davy Crockett in a self-described stream of consciousness rant.
“P&P” does feature O’Reilly at his plainspoken best. Consider the author’s beautifully phrased tribute to the late Tony Snow, the ultimate patriot in O’Reilly’s eyes. His assessment of the McCain/Obama presidential race is sharply boiled down to a tech metaphor that makes sense in retrospect. The O’Reilly voice, blue collar and proud of it, comes through so clearly it’s as if he’s reading the book to you through a megaphone. A passage where he recreates the sounds at his dinner table growing up feels like a peek into the cauldron that forged the King of “No Spin.”
And it’s interesting to hear O’Reilly explain how he came up with his news analyst format from personal experience — including a controversial op-ed he penned during his college days — and years in the journalistic trenches. It’s no accident O’Reilly touched on a formula that made him one of the most successful news anchors ever.
The book still spends too much time on O’Reilly himself, from belaboring a point regarding a signed photograph of himself and the president to marveling at how kind Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama treated him during a White House Christmas party.
He risks coming off as an old fogy with passages bemoaning our high -tech culture. Yes, some social graces are suffering due to our reliance on texts and Tweets, but the average American can tap into a far greater wealth of information than ever before, and that’s bound to make the electorate sharper — if properly applied.
His point about technology connects to a certain presidential election — “Americans are losing the ability to think critically, and that will make it much easier for manipulative, charismatic politicians to gain power.”
Pinheads and Patriots touches on the bigger issues of the last two years, from the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to the murders at Fort Hood. O’Reilly gives each his “No Spin” assessments, blasting both conventional wisdom and the left-leaning press in the process.
The book wheezes to a close by reprinting the text of O’Reilly’s 2008 interview with then-Sen. Obama. He stops occasionally to share his new reflections on the chat content.
O’Reilly clearly has a far different view of America and how it should be run than Obama. And yet Pinheads and Patriots can’t come out and say so without an asterisk attached.
It’s a terribly boring book, as you write, and mostly about Bill saying, “look at how ‘fair and balanced’ I am!” Disappointing.
Bill is getting on my nerves. We don’t care to watch past his introduction anymore. If not for Beck, his tour would be a flop. “it’s all about me’ = Bill
“I don’t despise President Obama because he’s a big government liberal.”
Well, Bill, I do. He has proven himself to be a bigger danger to this country than Nixon ever was, and that’s saying a lot. Not only have his economic policies bankrupted this nation, but he uses the White House to launch personal attacks against people as well as news organizations, such as FOX News. Under Nixon this was called an “Enemies List.” Under Obama, he’s simply using the Bully Pulpit to spread his views. This is incredibly dangerous in this media age when the White House launches a campaign against either personal individuals (like Glenn Beck) or a news organization (like Fox). We are living in a different, far-left, kind of news world these days and if you don’t watch it, you too could find yourself on this modern-day version of an enemies list. Juan Williams just lost his job over it, so if a liberal can lose his job for merely associating with people on this list, what do you think could happen to you? Obama and his minions are a menace to this country and the sooner they’re thrown out of power, the better for all of us.
Like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly is, first and foremost, an entertainer, whose primary objectives and responsibilities are to boost his own ratings and the ratings of his employer.
But unlike Glenn Beck who is boldly carving out just a niche of the market for himself, Bill O’Reilly wants to capture and to monopolize the entire market for Democrat viewers, Republican viewers, Independent viewers, male viewers, and female viewers, alike; hence, his frequent appearance of straddling the fence on issues. I suppose that it could be said that, in many ways, showman, Bill O’Reilly, is the consummate politician – not just on the air with his viewers, but with his co-workers at Fox, also.
Whether you like him or dislike him, the fact remains that O’Reilly is a great showman, right up there at the top with TV personalities like Ed Sullivan, Uncle Milty, Soupy Sales, Johnny Carson and Chuck Barris of The Gong Show.
What are you smoking???????
O’Reilly has repeatedly declared that he is NOT a conservative and NOT a Republican. He is a showman who has found a good well paying schtick; he pretends he is conservative and cons millions of people into believing him. He is in fact a Reillite, a person who is out for himself. He wrote a book about himself apparently picturing himself as the perfect human being. He claims he is still a Roman Catholic but you would never know that from his public utterances; at least Glenn Beck admits he believes in his religion and does know the bible; O’Reilly tried one night to quote the bible and wound up sputtering and blowing smoke. O’Reilly has become a very rich man by pretending to be someone he is not very much like the Hollywood stars with whom he parties.
O’Reilly’s not a “fire-breathing conservative,” he’s a “fire-breathing egotist.”
It’s obvious as he doesn’t like people talking over him and does whatever he can to quash his opponents by cutting them down on his segments. He even has a history of cutting down the people who essentially agree with him.
All that being said, you can’t fault the guy for doing it- because it works for him and has made him a big star in his time slot. Plus, he does a of more Good for the conservative causes, even if he does have the occasional “View” type moment where he gets quasi racist and insulting to wide-groups of people.
Whatever… one thing, though. I wouldn’t push him too hard on ideology. He’s the kind of guy prone to do the “Charles Johnson Flip.” I’d much rather continue to see him on Fox at 8, than on MSNBC…
A patriot would not bow to a Saudi king.
O’Reilly is a self-promoting pinhead.
o reilly does hedge his verbage more than he did earlier in his career. I feel he has allowed his convictions to suffer at the expense of getting that next interview. He certainly doesn’t, and shouldn’t spare his hard line approach for scoundrels like barney frank, and jeffery immelt, but he throws softballs at a blackguard like obama. It’s all about ratings with o reilly!
The O’Reilly Redactor: Nuance; nonsense; nunce.
Once a person goes from being rich to being filthy rich, they start to lean liberal. I was afraid that this would happen to Bill O’Reilly.
I watch O’Reilly regularly, but I am well aware of his frequent soft-pedalling of leftist nonsense. O’Reilly tries to portray himself as a) centrist and b) coherent. But this is in my view, impossible. Being ‘centrist’ means embracing half conservative ideas and half liberal ideas. But most liberal ideas are incoherent (raising taxes helps the economy, appeasing violent Muslims will make them like us, socialism isn’t so bad, etc. etc. etc.). Especially infuriating is O’Reilly’s soft touch with regard to Obama. But Obama IS a narcissistic clueless hard core Marxist (or progressive or whatever they’re calling it nowadays), whose policies are already enormously destructive to our country. O’Reilly keeps polishing this turd to his own discredit. As flawed as BillO is, he is still orders of magnitude better than the MSM which is so far left that incoherence is all you get.
One goofy thing about his book: if you squint, the white patches on the cover kind of look like a tidywhity bra. Sorry Bill
I tried a variation on your drinking game, only I had a shot any time O’Reilly used “I” or “me” more than four times in a paragraph, or more than 12 times on a page.
As a result, I am typing this from an Internet cafe near a freeway overpass, and I do not know where my wallet is. Or my shoes. Or my shirt buttons. Or my right kidney. Please send help.
LMFAO!!!! Best post of the day!
How O’Reilly got to be number one on the cable news shows remains a mystery to me. He’s a guy who thinks what he has to say is far more important than any of his guests which he demonstrates by constantly interrupting and talking over their responses to his questions. It’s like “let me tell you how you’re doing today.” He is loaded with self confidence and has the chutzpah to go toe to toe with most anybody but he often gives a pass to controversial guests and glosses over controversial subjects apparently due to the same ignorance on his part as the so called main stream media exhibits all the time although to a somewhat greater degree, which lends him the credibility he seeks; that of the moderate and therefore “more intellectually endowed” than some of his competitors. He is far from knowledgeable regarding many of the subjects on which he pretends to be well versed and quite frankly pales in comparison to Meghan Kelly, the best of the best on Fox News. She’s fiesty, knowledgeable and manages to be “fair and balanced” while giving as good as she gets; usually better and generally without drawing blood. She’s also a helluva lot nicer to look at.
I agree, when are we gonna get the Kelly Factor instead.
Ms. kelly is the PINHEAD
My feelings exactly. It is why his show is no longer a factor in my favorite news though FOX is still at the top of my list.
O’Reilly’s on the right side of a lot of issues, but it’s pretty obvious his number 1 agenda is billoreilly. If there is anybody in the world with a bigger ego than Obama, it’s Bill.
I still can’t decide whether he helps or hurts the Egomaniac in Chief. Bill slammed him pretty hard on Obamycare and the border, but then, somehow, can’t decide if the maniac is a socialist or not, and just loooves to point out what a solid citizen and family man Mr. Cocaine/switchhitter is.
We watch O’Reilly every night and really not because we like him. He drives us crazy with his middle of the road schtick. I swear, if he brags anymore about his wealth I will gag. It is all about him. We watch mainly because of the guests.
Technology has nothing to do with an apparent decline in critical thinking, it informs us of the ongoing widespread lack of critical thinking almost instantly. There has long been a dearth of thinking in general, and critical thinking may have always been in short supply. 2008 is a case in point.
Reality Check on the Left Coast
The inability to distinguish reality from fantasy is usually harmless–in a three or four year old.
For the rest of us, that failure can be a sign of a serious mental disorder or just a refusal to accept what exists, or it could simply involve believing what you want to be true when the alternative is just too unpleasant to contemplate.
Our president was giving a pep talk to some supporters out on the left coast on Thursday in his continuing quest to preserve Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. It was a small group gathered at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, the overflow from the main event in UW’s basketball arena which was a sign of Obama’s times. Two years ago he would have filled the stadium, not just an arena.
His address was interrupted by an Obama enthusiast which led to the president giving an impromptu evaluation of the first two years of his presidency.
Obama was saying, “And for all the problems we’re going through right now, we still have the best workers on Earth, we’ve got the finest universities on Earth, we’ve got the best entrepreneurs on Earth. We’ve got the freest, most vibrant economy on Earth . . . “ It was at that point that one of his fans shouted out, “Best president on Earth!”
Now, admittedly, Obama was in an awkward spot there–and without his best buddy, his trusty teleprompter. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2329)
“I may be wrong.” is a sentence never spoken on MSNBC, or so I’m told. I don’t stare at nor listen to sheer crap.
Bill O’Reilly is a showman, and his pride in his ratings will attest to this drive he has to succeed on television, and to destroy his competition. This has been the hallmark strategy of every television show (not counting state-supported PBS). The “I may be wrong” is an obvious affectation, because, just like Tony Shaloub’s “Adrian Monk” character, whenever he says, “I could be wrong”, he follows with the smile and the implied, “but I’m not”. I would still prefer this faux-modesty over the shrill certainty and usually-obnoxious pettiness of the MSNBC competitor to O’Reilly. Keith actually tweets about how much money he makes. When you consider how many viewers Bill brings to FNC for his show, and the money-pit that Olbermann is for MSNBC, one has a right to brag, the other is stealing money.
Bill is an -Elitist Conservative Journalist- ,, Just like all the RINOs since Reagan ,, Government/Journalist Must CHANGE . Who are they for ,, Anyway ??
“A signed copy of Pinheads and Patriots is on its way to you!!” blah blah.
O”Reilly is full of himself, endlessly self-promoting, and arbitrarily all over the map with various views and blurtings, but overall he manages to create some semblance of balance. Now, how balanced you can truly be with Karl Rove and Dick Morris, (with Newt standing in the wings) as your main go-to guys, is a question to be asked. Sometimes he holds their feet a little closer to the fire, as when he caught Morris saying “We” the other day when referring to Republicans, when he is ostensibly doing commentary as an expert. O’Reilly also had the blow-up with mad dog Laura Ingraham a few months ago.
Overall, though, he is the most balanced of Foxes big guns. I watch him almost every night. God help me. But the day I become a Premium Subscriber, just shoot me, please.
That was I.
O’Reilly has a great show. Very fair and balanced. Has both conservative and liberals discuss the issues.
Only problem with the show is O’Reilly. His ego, contant interruptions of his guests and his constant referral to himself as “a simple man” are damming the show….and that’s bad because this is one place one can hear a fair and balanced report.
O’Reilly, your success has gone to your head!