{"id":4955,"date":"2005-08-12T10:50:51","date_gmt":"2005-08-12T14:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2005-08-12T10:50:51","modified_gmt":"2005-08-12T14:50:51","slug":"it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-respectful-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-respectful-is\/","title":{"rendered":"It depends on what the meaning of ‘respectful’ is"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Bill O’Reilly, expectations start low. Really low. So, when he joined the right in trying to smear Cindy Sheehan this week, it wasn’t terribly surprising. Hearing O’Reilly claim last night that he was “respectful” and “accurate” when dealing with Sheehan, however, managed to catch me off-guard.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, for example, O’Reilly, while speaking with right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin, said Sheehan’s protest “borders on treasonous.”<\/p>\n

“She has thrown in — there is no question that she has thrown in with the most radical elements in this country…. And, you know, there are some people who hate this government, hate their country right now, and blaming Bush for all the terrorism and all the horror in the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He went on to say that Sheehan’s complaints have “been inconsistent,” which should necessarily undercut her concerns about the war.<\/p>\n

First, O’Reilly and Malkin’s claims notwithstanding, Sheehan has been consistent<\/a>, as an excellent Media Matters report documented this week.<\/p>\n

Second, and more importantly, O’Reilly responded to some viewer complaints about his treatment of Sheehan as only he can<\/a>. From the transcript:<\/p>\n

O’Reilly: Heather O’Neill, New York City: “I see the right-wing smear tactics have begun against Cindy Sheehan.”<\/p>\n

Well, I don’t know where you’re seeing that. Not here, Ms. O’Neill. We’ve reported the story accurately and fairly. […]<\/p>\n

Al Nagengast, Payson, Arizona: “O’Reilly, the savaging of Mrs. Sheehan by you and Michelle Malkin is a new low for The Factor.”<\/p>\n

Both Michelle and I were respectful to Mrs. Sheehan, sir.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, let me get this straight. O’Reilly lashes out a mother who lost her son in a war, equating her behavior with “treason,” and suggesting that she hates her government and her country. This, in O’Reilly’s mind, constitutes “respectful” coverage of the story on Fox News.<\/p>\n

I’m curious — what do you suppose disrespectful coverage would look like?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Bill O’Reilly, expectations start low. Really low. So, when he joined the right in trying to smear Cindy Sheehan this week, it wasn’t terribly surprising. Hearing O’Reilly claim last night that he was “respectful” and “accurate” when dealing with Sheehan, however, managed to catch me off-guard. On Tuesday, for example, O’Reilly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}