Always a font of information, Fox News’ personalities have been particularly interesting this week. For example, Bill O’Reilly has joined the cut-and-run caucus.
During the February 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O’Reilly suggested that the United States “hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible” because “[t]here are so many nuts in the country — so many crazies — that we can’t control them.” O’Reilly then claimed that the “big mistake” was actually “the crazy-people underestimation.”
As Media Matters for America has documented, during a November 30, 2005, appearance on NBC’s Today, O’Reilly called those advocating immediate withdrawal from Iraq “pinheads” and compared them to Hitler appeasers.
O’Reilly is likely to change his mind again — he’s not one for consistency — but it’s nevertheless striking to hear him give up on his cause.
Even more striking, however, is Fox News’ military analyst Thomas McInerney, a retired Air Force Lt. Gen., who offered FNC viewers a creative explanation for Iraq’s missing WMD.
“Well, I believe that — that [Saddam Hussein] had [WMD] and then the Russians convinced him, because they sent a team in, a Spetsnaz [Russian Special Forces] team in, and they moved those weapons into three locations in Syria and one into Bekaa Valley. And they did it very thoroughly. They were very professional. They were Spetsnaz with GRU. They knew exactly where all the material was, because they were preventing the inspectors from finding it. And then they had a brilliant what they call mass deroka – deception – campaign. When the Iraqi survey group didn’t find anything, then they spread throughout the capitals of Europe and the U.N: ‘See, there were no WMD.'”
When studies show Fox News viewers are less informed than the rest of the public, there’s a very good reason.