O’Reilly’s incapacity to distinguish between voicing justifiable grievances and spouting indiscriminate vitriol is patently absurd. “These guys say it’s about the evil Bush administration,” he writes, “but believe me, their message is clear: America, itself, is one screwed-up place.”
Such might be the meaning O’Reilly ascertains from his cursory impression of this music and it’s certainly what he wants others to believe. However, by generalizing music that he clearly knows little about (and a government that he should understand better), Bill O’Reilly has only dumbed down the civic discourse to a level where an all-or-nothing, you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us contention endears him to anyone incapable of forming an independent, well-informed opinion.
“Throughout history, music has been used to protest injustice,” he asserts. “That is a good thing.” Apparently it’s not a good thing, though, when the music – like that of Springsteen, Martin, and Young – protests the injustices that O’Reilly seems to support.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
Good article. Interesting that two of the three performers O'Reilly critiqes (Martin and Young) aren't American and have no allegiance to mindlessly sucking up to the red, white, and blue.
2 - Dr Dreadful
Where the hell on Viva la Vida is O'Riledly getting all this hate-America stuff? Has he got a limited-edition CD that the rest of us don't have?
Also, I was at Coldplay's San Jose concert last month and neither Martin nor any other members of the band said or did anything anti-Bush, anti-American or, as far as I recall, anything political at all. They simply put on a cracking good show.
3 - El Bicho
Nice piece, but what do you expect from, as Keith Olbermann decrices him, "the Frank Burns of news"?
4 - Tom Johnson
If he's the Frank Burns, who is his Hot Lips?
"'their message is clear: America, itself, is one screwed-up place.'"
I might say that O'Reilly's career is the biggest indication of this.