They say the best defense is a great offense, and no one is more offensive than Bill O’Reilly today. He protests so much and with such great umbrage that it puts me in mind of a bratty child who has done wrong, but points and loudly accuses the other innocent bystander for his actions.
"Far left publication" the New York Times and Paul Krugman of TIME set O’Reilly off today. When it was suggested that he and fellow Fox host Glenn Beck’s irresponsible and untruthful rhetoric contributed to what happened in Arizona, he promptly reddened, screamed, and pointed to the left.
While O’Reilly’s over-the-top attempts to "redudiate" Krugman are just so much noise, don’t dismiss them lightly. This is all that many people who watch only Fox ‘News’ hear and believe. I’ve seen hopeful people today comment that this tragedy will turn the corner for national discourse, that we’ll pull together, and that political pundits will become responsible with the knowledge that words have meaning – but it doesn’t seem likely.