"A Few Good Men" after a case of Red Bull -- and the surreality of Geraldo as the voice of reason

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: O'Riled Up: Geraldo and O'Reilly Have a Brawl
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 7, 2007; Page C01


Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly argued over an illegal immigrant issue. (Mary Altaffer - AP)

....It was the battle of cable goliaths, Geraldo Rivera vs. Bill O'Reilly, a trash-talking, vein-popping, finger-thrusting shoutfest complete with cries of "cool your jets!" and "that's bull!"

The rising decibel level Thursday night on "The O'Reilly Factor" -- an arena not exactly renowned for delicate discussion -- was an instant YouTube classic as the two Fox fighters went at it on the subject of illegal immigration.

Rivera did what few guests dare in the "No-Spin Zone": accuse the host of making "a cheap political point." O'Reilly, undeterred, said Rivera wanted "open-border anarchy." And although Rivera didn't get his nose broken, as happened during a 1988 scuffle with a neo-Nazi guest on his old syndicated talk show, both men were clearly fuming.

"This is the courtroom scene from 'A Few Good Men' after a case of Red Bull with the volume knob cranked to 11," says Matthew Felling, an analyst with the Center for Media and Public Affairs. "Add to that the surreality of Geraldo being the voice of reason, and it's the oddest video you'll watch a dozen times."...

***

The dustup involved a drunk driver, with three previous alcohol-related convictions, who killed two teenagers in the Virginia Beach area last month and has been charged with manslaughter. In his opening commentary, O'Reilly said the driver was an illegal alien from Mexico, and he assailed the city's mayor for what he said was a policy of not reporting those in this country illegally to federal authorities. He included a clip of the mayor, Meyera Oberndorf, saying that Virginia Beach has adopted no policy making it a "sanctuary city," as O'Reilly called it.

Rivera, a regular guest on the show, immediately challenged the premise, saying there were 347 drunk-driving fatalities in Virginia in 2005 and "the only reason it's news on 'The Factor' is because the driver was an illegal alien." He said O'Reilly should apologize to the mayor....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040602262.html?hpid=entnews

LINK TO VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-yiWB58K4

[Buzz Clik]

1. There are reasons to believe that the "dustup" was an act.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=593315

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Could be -- but if so, these guys are pretty good actors. Geraldo is beet-red. nt

[Buzz Clik]

8. Geraldo has been known to cry on cue for a story.

O'Reilly has been doing his schtick for decades. Remember the early flick-off given to O'Reilly by skeptics on both sides early in his angry rightwing pundit career? "I'm not really a conservative commentator, I just play one on television."

Yes, it's possible that both of these idiots simply managed to piss each other off, but it seems so unlikely.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You could be right, Buzz! My close family member who works in TV...

would bet that you are.

[asthmaticeog]

5. What reasons, a speculative OP?

That poster offers no evidence, therefore there are no reasons to believe that it was staged. There's no call whatsoever to move from the general opinion that these are boneheads at loggerheads to the specific accusation of fakery. And what would they have stood to gain? O'Reilly getting verbally pimpsmacked on his own show is NOT something a hubristic bully like him would stage.

[Buzz Clik]

10. O'Reilly doesn't think he lost that debate, and neither does the anti-immigration crowd.

Did you happen to see the entire show when it was broadcast? I never watch, but I made an exception. The threads were dominating DU, and -- absolutely remarkably -- YouTube had a nicely edited clip of the episode posted within 2 minutes of when it was first broadcast.

So, I watched the second showing at 11 pm EDT. Oh, yeah -- Geraldo and O'Reilly were screaming and yelling and pointing at each other and lunging and blah blah blah. And then O'Reilly gets the signal from his director (the YouTube clip I saw didn't show this): "We have one minute. I'll give you the last word." So Geraldo wraps up, and it was like the threw a switch. Bill and Geraldo were all calm and collected and complimenting each other on their opinions and praising Fox for allowing these opinions to be aired.

I've seen O'Reilly go Billistic before, and he does not recover quickly.

[Kutjara]

2. The immovable asshole meets the irrisistable farce.

"Fair and balanced" seems to mean battle of the blowhards these days.

[Rock_Garden]

11. Too funny! n/t

[ComerPerro]

3. It did somewhat remind me of that famous scene.

and as a somewhat-related side note: So many people inaccurately characterize that scene. "You can't handle the truth!" is not the climax many think it is, but is instead just part of the buildup to the heated shouting match where Jessup is tricked into admitting his crimes. Best part about that scene, though, is the look on Ross' (Kevin Bacon) face when Jessup admits it.


Did you order the code red?

You're God damned right I did!!!!!!!!!!

[Pharaoh]

6. An Idiot and a Moron

Jerks...........

[shain from kane]

7. Shain from kane to O'Reilly: "I'm gonna rip the eyes out of your head and piss in your dead skull!

You fucked with the wrong Shain!"

Please Lord, in my lifetime.